Proven Data Architectures & Strategic Technology Leadership
20+ Years
Nonprofit Tech Expertise
1M+ Records
Securely Migrated
45+ Programs
Onboarded
Enterprise Dual-System Migration
Tara is the rare team member who possesses the grace of making an incredible amount of work seem effortless. She does so while providing valuable strategic and operational insights grounded in both delivering on core operations and keeping abreast of new technologies and vendor pipelines to help her teams sift through the noise and adopt new technologies that will make the most impact.
Tara joined my team from the Marketing Department (a demonstration of her versatility) just as we embarked on selecting a new CRM for our organization and I was thereafter grateful that I had her on my team. In our selection process, Tara was a valuable contributor, saying what needs to be said, grounding new features under consideration in the real world experiences of making our systems hum and supporting our fundraisers and activists in the engagement of donors and constituents.
When we selected a new system, Tara was the project implementation lead with tasks ranging from migrating 30 years of constituent data, onboading each of our individual 45 programs training and supporting staff in engaging their local constituents and donors. While everyone else was worried about getting trained, Tara seemed to know the system inside and out overnight. This took tremendous effort on her part but none of us saw it. She took the initiative and willed herself to be the subject matter expert which we relied on for the rest of the time I was at the organization, innovating with constituent targeting and mobile payment processing and advocacy, while maintaining smooth operations through the daily challenges of data integration and integrity.
As her former manager, I am personally grateful for her lending her expertise, making the work fun, and always being on her hustle to deliver a great experience for our internal customers and external constituents.“Chief Information and Technology Officer”
The Project Profile: Convio & Salsa Labs to Salesforce Ecosystem
- The Challenge: A major advocacy organization was bottlenecked by legacy systems, with fragmented donor data and digital engagement assets split between Convio and Salsa Labs. They needed to move over 1 million critical records and 30 years of historical data without disrupting active fundraising operations.
- The Strategy:
- Dual-Platform Architecture: Routed and mapped all foundational donor data into Salesforce to serve as the central enterprise data warehouse.
- Front-End Integration: Seamlessly integrated EveryAction as the high-performance online engagement tool to establish a true 360-degree donor view.
- Data Hygiene: Managed advanced data cleansing, structural re-engineering, and complex field mapping to eliminate duplicate records.
- Change Management: Led and trained 30+ core staff members across 45 individual internal programs, authoring custom data governance policies and a library of video tutorial resources to guarantee long-term operational self-sufficiency.
- The Outcome: Launched live on schedule within 6 months with zero data loss and no system issues.
Strategic CRM Selection
Platform Evaluation & Vendor Rationalization
- The Challenge: A scaling nonprofit was trapped in an outdated database ecosystem that failed to support their growing donor relations. They needed to evaluate the marketplace, balance complex staff requirements, and identify a modern platform that would scale alongside their long-term fundraising goals.
- The Strategy: Guided the executive team through an efficient, data-centric vendor evaluation matrix. Audited internal departmental workflows to establish strict technical benchmarks and screened short-listed industry solutions to eliminate high-risk software options.
- The Outcome: Successfully identified and acquired the ideal CRM platform tailored precisely to the organization’s unique structure, preventing a costly multi-year software mismatch.
“I had the pleasure of working with Tara on a recent CRM selection project. Tara was easy to work with, efficient, and data-centric. With Tara’s help, we were able to find the right solution for our organization. If you’re looking for a project manager or database manager, Tara is a rare find who can ensure the work gets done.”
Chief Relationship Officer (Verified Client Testimonial)
