Susan M. Igmire

Susan M. Ingmire is President of Ignite Philanthropy Advisors, a firm she founded in 2009 in Cincinnati, OH. Susan and her team at Ignite provide strategic counsel and administrative services for foundations, individuals and corporate donors. One unique focus is on guiding client grant making to achieve unique giving goals. A second focus is to provide boots on the ground legwork for initiatives promoting philanthropy, such as Transform Cincinnati. In 2015, Ignite facilitated $9 million in grants to local, state and national nonprofit organizations on behalf of its portfolio of generous clients.

Susan started her philanthropy career with the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation in Columbus, Indiana. She moved to Cincinnati in 1991 as Vice President of Fifth Third Bank. There, she managed client relationships with endowments and foundations. Ten years later, she became the first the first planned giving officer for ArtsWave (then known as the Fine Arts Fund). She developed the organization’s first diversity and inclusion initiative. In 2006, Susan was part of the executive team that started InterAct for Change, a subsidiary of Interact for Health.

Known for her strengths as a strategist, a builder and a connector, Ingmire also is a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Cincinnati (SVP). SVP operates worldwide and organizes citizens locally to engage, support and build the capacity of innovative nonprofit organizations.

Susan studied speech pathology at Indiana University and the University of London, Guy’s Hospital Medical School. She has Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from Indiana University-Bloomington in Speech-Language Pathology, which taught her compassion for others, the value of clear communication and the benefit of always having a plan for moving forward.