About Highland

Melody A. McBeth - Principal

Melody founded Highland Advancement Solutions with the objective of helping nonprofit organizations fulfill their missions and serve their donors. In her more than 20 years in the development field, she has served as a solicitor, volunteer manager, event coordinator, database system administrator, senior Crystal Reports architect, and director of advancement services. As principal, she provides consulting and guidance to nonprofit management teams concerning data standardization, operational challenges, change management, and advancement best practices.

Before her nonprofit career, Melody served in the Army, managed several businesses—including a martial arts studio—and held state and local offices with the Pennsylvania Jaycees. She has extensive volunteer experience, including membership in two committees and chair of the Curriculum Committee for the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP). She is also the Executive Director of the DLI Foundation and Alumni Association. Her cross-industry experience has proven vital to formulating highly successful solutions to sticky data challenges.

She is the recipient of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence Silver Award for Advancement Services Programs (Overall Operations), the Volunteer of the Year Award from AASP, and the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Jaycees. Melody is a talented trainer and a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences.

Melody lives in southcentral Pennsylvania where she enjoys reading and the view of the mountains.

Testimonials

"Melody has an extensive knowledge of fundraising techniques and donor software, so her work is geared toward making the software produce greater fundraising results. She looks beneath the surface to determine both digital and human solutions to inconsistencies. We have made great strides in cleaning up our data base and utilizing its capabilities under her guidance and our donor information services area is working better than ever."

Oregon Episcopal School
"Melody was great to work with at Children's National. She understood our fundraising database and the Special Events team needs to get the information (data about individuals) quickly, in the right format and correct. She knew it was important to educate leadership and the staff on processes for entering and looking at data that will make fundraising more successful for the Foundation. Melody was a team player and a pleasure to work with."

Children’s National Medical Center
"Melody is a consummate professional, who can and has stepped up her leadership skills when it was most needed. Pulled together a team and given them direction and pushed them to continue to go beyond their expected deliverables. She has my highest recommendation!"

Mercersburg Academy
"Melody is a valued colleague due to her depth of insight and tenacious pursuit of systems that work for the end-user. That, combined with her military background, provide for a go-to person who delivers the right results."

Penn State University

Associated Consultants

Tammy L. Armstrong

Tammy brings over a decade of experience in analytics, reporting, and visionary leadership. She specializes in KPI and report development, data visualization, machine learning, and exploratory analysis. She is passionate about transforming big, messy problems into clean, effective solutions.
Rachel Bock

Rachel has more than 15 years of development operations experience, helping organizations to address their data challenges and use their databases more effectively. She has led efforts on data integration, reporting, and data integrity, with a specialization in the Raiser’s Edge. She enjoys helping organizations of all sizes have a clean, effective database that can inform their decision-making.
DeWayna Hogue Pittman

DeWayna is a talented advancement professional with expertise in donor relations and operational management. She directs comprehensive efforts to ensure that donors experience high-quality interactions and that nonprofits strive to strengthen donor relationships to foster long-term engagement and investment. She is dedicated to instilling and enhancing a culture of gratitude in organizations.
Roxanne Thurston

Roxanne is an experienced advancement professional who specializes in constituent relationship management technology, strategy, and implementation for a wide range of complex organizations. As a senior consultant she evaluates, implements, and empowers users to get the most out of their database system, with a specialty in the Raiser’s Edge.

Affiliations

Donor Relations Guru - Strategic Partner

Lynne Wester, Founder, Donor Relations Guru and the DRG Group, consult with non-profit organizations to improve the donor experience.
With over 150 collective years of advancement and fundraising expertise, the DRG Group works to educate and lead non-profit organizations in the best practices of donor relations, event management, impact reporting, talent management, and acknowledgment documentation through webinars, conferences, and on-site consulting. They seek to perpetuate an "Attitude of Gratitude".
DonorSearch - Preferred Partner

DonorSearch was founded in 2007 with one goal: to provide more accurate, more comprehensive, more actionable data to help nonprofits of all types achieve better fundraising and outreach results.
Headed by industry veterans, DonorSearch is a leading provider of prospect research to nonprofits of all types, including charities, healthcare organizations, fraternities/sororities, religious organizations and educators.
Using information from 25 databases, DonorSearch uses proprietary algorithms to help clients find the best philanthropic prospects. DonorSearch’s data can be easily integrated with most common donor management and general sales software, putting critical donor information at a client’s fingertips.
Omatic - Preferred Partner

Omatic Software is dedicated to integrating disparate systems and democratizing data access for today's nonprofits. Founded in 2002, Omatic has worked with thousands of nonprofits globally to remove their data barriers by integrating systems and enabling nonprofit teams to leverage their donor data rather than be burdened by it. The Omatic team has one goal - unleashing the power of data to show a complete view of your donor, enabling data-driven decision making and opportunity creation for your organization.
Little Green Light - Registered Vendor

Little Green Light's all-in-one donor management software is built to help you transform your work with ease.
As a registered vendor, Highland Advancement Solutions can offer clients a free 30-day trial to help decide whether Little Green Light is the right tool for them.
Betterverse Consulting

Nadine Francis is the founder and lead consultant for Betterverse Consulting, which helps healthcare organizations, nonprofits, and higher education develop cutting-edge Advancement Operations programs that support their fundraising teams and initiatives. Their focus is on business intelligence, thoughtful use of technology and systems, and efficiency, so that you have all the information and tools you need to move the needle for your organization.
49 Data

Owned and operated by David Woodley, 49 Data provides a wide variety of consulting and contracting services, helping organizations make the most of common (and affordable) data applications, deploy and train employees on a variety of business intelligence tools, and evaluate business processes for redesign toward efficiency and value.