James oversees the company’s day-to-day administrative, operational, and financial functions to ensure internal efficiencies and deliver high-quality products and services to clients through the cost-effective management of resources. James leads the company using the collaborative goal-setting methodology known as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to achieve the company’s mission. He prioritizes JCA’s culture and staff, making instrumental changes towards creating a positive work environment. James is dedicated to staff engagement and believes that each team member can utilize their strengths to become their best-self.

James oversees the company’s day-to-day administrative and operational functions to ensure internal efficiencies and deliver high-quality products and services to clients through the cost-effective management of resources. He works with the CEO to implement the company’s strategic plan to advance the company's mission and objectives, and to increase revenue, drive profitability and foster company growth.

James serves as a part of the Services team where he leads efforts to create and manage “capacity building” projects. He is engaged with his clients, acts as project sponsor for selected strategic engagements and works alongside his Services colleagues to execute project plans. James is a member of JCA’s Leadership Team, where he works collaboratively to define, develop and implement common practices across JCA.

James has helped clients across the nation with multi-department needs analysis, process improvements, software gap analysis, enterprise software implementation, and more. As a certified project manager, James has managed both waterfall and agile projects at JCA. James has helped a diverse selection of organizations, including Art Institute of Chicago, University of Oregon, Texas Children’s Hospital, World Wildlife Fund, and many others with projects across a broad spectrum of technologies.

Responsible for overseeing the alumni/development database for the College including data integrity, reports, gift and demographic data entry, prospect management, and overall system upgrades and use. Coordinated and implemented a 40 item, two year action plan. Contributed to the development of a prospect management and tracking system. Created and directed monthly user group meetings, which addressed changes to the database, introduction of new procedures and help sheets. Developed an alumni/development database training program. Created a database user manual specific to the practices of the College. Developed an online request tracking system. Created a departmental website. Identified project team members and negotiated with managers for team member assignment. Developed detailed budgets and schedules based on task breakdown, materials and information and resource allocation plans.

Responsible for all aspects of Development database including data integrity, gift entry, reports, and prospect management. Evaluated and mended Raiser’s Edge database to provide accurate data reports to board of directors and executive staff. Developed a cycle of queries to ensure precision and identify user errors. Exceeded fund raising expectations from individuals, corporations and civic groups by 76%. Identified and researched major gift prospects, used appeal to solicit donors resulting in a 15% response rate and an average gift of $4,500.00. Performed various duties to assist development team with special events, exceeded organization’s projected goal by 247% in net proceeds at winter gala. Designed holiday and program appeals, negotiated with vendors to ensure prompt production and delivery.

Utilized Raiser’s Edge to accurately provide data to board of directors and executive staff. Trained and supervised four development staff employees, whose tasks included data entry, reporting, acknowledgements and filing. Established a systems user manual that specifically addressed the organizations unique database procedures.

Contacted donors and subscribers of organization to inform them of philanthropy opportunities as well as ticketing options. Cultivated new donors using referrals, research and cold calls. Kept records of contact times, dates, conversations and confidential information.