Mandy Cloninger, CEO & Owner
Mandelyn Cloninger, CFRE, is a nonprofit leader, charismatic spokesperson, and a results-driven executive. With 20 years of experience raising hundreds of millions of dollars, cultivating transformational relationships with diverse constituencies, she has built capacity, scale, and scope in higher education, health care, and community-based nonprofits. She is passionate about social justice and humanitarian work internationally and at home.
Biography
Mandy has served as a nonprofit leader for the last decade with community-based organizations improving health and capability for neighbors experiencing hunger, food insecurity and homelessness. She most recently served as the Chief Impact Officer of Feeding Tampa Bay. She was part of a dynamic leadership and fund-raising team who achieved historic levels of giving, engaged more than 20,000 new donors, and served more than 90 million meals.
Mandy innovated and led the preparation of more than a million frozen meals through Trinity Cafe and restaurant partners as a part of the critical pandemic response for seniors and home-bound individuals. She pitched and won seed funding at Fast Pitch 2020 for Meals on the Go, a social enterprise, which enabled the organization to scale from 5,000 weekly to 40,000 at the peak, and proved the financial sustainability of the program by securing funding and generating a six-figure profit.
As the executive director of Trinity Cafe, she built the awareness, scale, and scope of the organization to join just a third of all nonprofit organizations to surpass more than one million dollars in revenue. Trinity Cafe won the Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award, which fully funded its expansion to a second location. As a part of Feeding Tampa Bay’s programs, the third location opened in Pinellas County in 2021 with more than $1 million in start-up funding secured. She doubled the organization’s past fund-raising success, replicated the model twice, embraced partnerships, and co-led and facilitated the merger with Feeding Tampa Bay, part of the Feeding America network, and a nationwide brand.
Mandy has led high-performing development teams from a small shop to more than 20 team members. She has secured transformational gifts, managed boards of directors and external committees contributing to the success of three capital campaigns totaling more than $75 million raised. At Metropolitan Ministries, she led the MiraclePlace Capital Campaign to encourage transformational giving and raise $25 million to double the housing for homeless families with children. At Tampa General Hospital, she trained staff across all levels of the organization during its employee campaign as ambassadors, and raised more than half a million dollars to achieve 37.5 percent participation, setting a record.
Mandy is a passionate advocate both personally and professionally for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She graduated from the Oregon Food Bank’s Equity Institute in 2020 and recently completed her DEI certificate through the University of South Florida. She has also participated in and and led the racial equity habit-building challenge for staff. She is an advocate for Bread for the World and Hillsborough Opportunity for Progress & Equality (HOPE).
Mandy is an active member of Hyde Park United Methodist Church. She is an international mission team volunteer and leader for United Methodists Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM). She has served in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Israel & South Africa on international mission teams and also facilitates and leads classes and discussions about best practices in local and international mission work. She has served as lay leader of missions and on the finance committee.
Mandy has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations from Texas Tech University and a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of Florida. She has served as a Big since 2013 to her Little Alyssa, through Big Brothers Big Sisters, and became a certified foster parent in 2017. She is also involved with Leadership Tampa Alumni, a graduate of the class of 2011 and previously served as Vice Chair of the Sponsorship Committee.