My Goals as Your CEO - Karen Riordan

I’d like to start with a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone who has reached out to me, and welcomed me as I start this new journey with you. 

A little bit about me

I’m a happy transplant to South Carolina from the northeast, by way of many years in Virginia.  I live in Myrtle Beach right near the beach, so I can walk by the shore and hear waves crashing on the sand every day; it is my happy place.  I share my home with my husband Mike and our daughter Grace, although she’s away at Tulane in grad school, so most days it’s us and our rescued cats and dogs.  

I arrive at Together SC after learning a lot about the business world and the nonprofit sector through a diverse set of experiences.  I studied English literature and journalism at Boston College, and pursued a career in advertising and marketing for many years, serving clients in every sector, but with a concentration in tourism clients: I promoted planes, trains, hotels, Caribbean islands and destinations steeped in history like Williamsburg, VA. 

No matter where we lived or worked, one thing was a constant in our lives – giving back to our community by giving our time, talent and treasure to nonprofit organizations that made a real difference in people’s lives.  It has always been my dream that someday I would work for a nonprofit organization, so my personal passion and my professional work product could be perfectly aligned. 

I’m proud of the work I accomplished in Myrtle Beach – serving 2,400 small businesses at the chamber, but also persuading twenty million people to spend their hard-earned time and money visiting the Grand Strand to make great family vacation memories. Some of my proudest moments were creating the Nonprofit Council of the Myrtle Beach Chamber, with about 150 participating nonprofits, and then creating two 501(c) 3 organizations: Keep Myrtle Beach Beautiful, an affiliate of Palmetto Pride and Keep America Beautiful, and Partnership Grand Strand Foundation, a community foundation of the chamber to tackle long-term barriers to success in the area. 

I am very excited to take the baton from Madeline McGee and keep moving this wonderful organization forward to serve our members. 

I love our mission and commit to working every day to live it: “We strengthen, unite, and advance South Carolina’s nonprofit and philanthropic community.” 

My vision for Together SC is simple:  

Make Together SC the respected authority for nonprofits in South Carolina.   

Members rely on us for education, training, advocacy, networking, and best practices.   We strengthen nonprofits’ ability to do good work for all South Carolinians.