Tara helps social-change organizations tell their stories to get noticed and unlock resources — from tackling fundraising strategy and website content to landing features in The New York Times.
Tara specializes in fundraising and storytelling strategies — including messaging, content creation and campaign development. She has a track record of inspired pitches and websites, combining writing with images that inspire people to action. She has worked with topics such as immigration, economic justice, small business development, women’s issues, health care policy, and special health care needs.
Previously, Tara was the chief development and marketing officer at Mission Asset Fund for seven years, seeing the organization through a rebranding while increasing the annual budget from $700K to $7M. She also served in-house at San Francisco’s Family Voices, the Los Angeles Children’s Planning Council, and taught Gender Studies at Cal State Fullerton.
Tara was editor in chief and contributor to the Bay Area’s Golden Gate Mothers’ Group Magazine for four years, where she introduced a focus on diversity, producing the publication’s first gender issue. She lives in San Francisco, California with her college love and two sassy kiddos.
What good have you done that you’re proudest of?
“When the Trump administration announced it was ending DACA, thousands of Dreamers had only thirty days to come up with the $495 renewal fee or face deportation. I worked with ‘MacArthur Genius’ Jose Quinonez to raise $4M in 24 days and helped 7,600 young dreamers with rapid response grants.”
What’s your superpower?
“Finding honest connections. To understand someone’s experience — especially if it is different from yours — you must find a bit of yourself in them. It might be a shared dream, a favorite book, or your desire to keep your children safe. We can harm those we seek to help in the mistelling of their story. We can’t leave out the parts where they resist, are ingenious or resilient because we want to focus on our own brilliant solution.”
Who is your intellectual crush?
“I heart Dr. Lourdes Arguelles because she is a fierce Latina activist who models transparency, resistance and creative light. She taught me John McKnight’s Asset Based Community Development theories — recognizing the strength and value all community members have. It’s in having deep empathy that you can see yourself in others and them in you.”
