Taylor Thomson: From Nonprofit Boardrooms to Corporate Innovation

What can seven years of volunteer service on a nonprofit leadership council teach someone about transforming a marketing technology company? For Taylor Thomson, the answer is: more than most would expect.

Before he was Head of Finance at WITHIN — a Denver-based performance branding agency known for its data-driven operations — Thomson spent years serving on the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Young Professionals Leadership Council. The role may have been unpaid, but it offered a leadership laboratory where collaboration mattered more than hierarchy and influence depended on persuasion rather than formal authority.

Those lessons would later become central to his ability to realign cross-functional teams, implement new accountability frameworks, and ultimately drive a 620 percent increase in average contract values at WITHIN.

The Nonprofit Classroom

Nonprofit boards function differently from corporate management teams. They are comprised of volunteers who contribute time and expertise because of a shared belief in the mission. Leading in that context requires alignment, storytelling, and patience. Success cannot be commanded; it has to be cultivated.

Thomson’s experience coordinating diverse stakeholders for the U.S. Soccer Foundation honed precisely those skills. “We implemented a series of department-wide Service Level Agreements (SLAs), fostering collaboration and communication among teams to drive efficiency and alignment,” Thomson later explained, describing his corporate work in terms that echo his nonprofit leadership training.

The ability to align intrinsically motivated contributors at the foundation translated seamlessly into managing knowledge workers across marketing, sales, and client success at WITHIN. In both environments, stakeholders had different priorities, but long-term impact depended on finding common ground.

Breaking Down Silos at WITHIN

Traditional agencies often stumble when internal teams measure success differently. Marketing teams may prize lead generation. Business development may focus on closing deals. Client success teams may prioritize retention. The result: silos that generate friction.

Thomson saw the problem clearly. “The marketing team is basically, for all intents and purposes, they care about getting a lead in the door and then they kind of wash their hands and they’re like, great,” he observed on a Growth Marketing Camp podcast. “If you’ve got a business development team that’s only purpose is to support that initiative or that effort, well you’re misaligned with the entire rest of the sales or revenue org.”

His solution was to build shared accountability structures — much like those required in nonprofits, where every player must align around the mission. At WITHIN, this meant creating SLAs across departments and developing frameworks that measured client lifetime value instead of siloed KPIs. These agreements gave teams both autonomy and collective responsibility, aligning them around common objectives.

Collaborative Leadership as a Catalyst for Innovation

The results of this leadership philosophy are evident in Thomson’s subsequent projects. Leading cross-functional teams of data scientists and IT specialists, he helped develop AI-powered internal databases built on generative AI models like GPT- 4 and Bard. These were not isolated technical projects; they were organizational innovations that required collaboration across business functions.

“We lead cross-functional projects with data science and IT teams to develop internal databases using state-of-the-art generative AI technologies like GPT-4 and Bard,” Thomson explained, underscoring how collaborative methods can accelerate technological innovation.

He also introduced company-wide client satisfaction surveys with response rates exceeding 50 percent — an unusually high level of engagement in the industry. The surveys were not just feedback tools; they were mechanisms for reinforcing transparency across the organization, giving every department visibility into how clients experienced the agency.

Financial Stewardship Meets Leadership Lessons

Now, as Head of Finance, Thomson applies nonprofit-inspired leadership principles to the core of corporate resource allocation. His responsibilities include managing finance technology budgets and ensuring tools are deployed in ways that maximize revenue impact. It is work that requires balancing competing demands — just as nonprofit boards must stretch limited resources to meet diverse community needs.

The frameworks he learned as a volunteer — prioritization, consensus-building, sustaining engagement — continue to inform how he allocates resources and evaluates investment in new technologies. By combining those soft skills with quantitative rigor, Thomson has positioned WITHIN to stay ahead of competitors in an era where artificial intelligence and data-driven decision-making are reshaping the marketing industry.

Commitment Beyond the Resume

What stands out in Thomson’s trajectory is the long-term consistency. His seven years on the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s council represent a sustained engagement that mirrors his philosophy inside corporate settings: real transformation requires time. Nonprofits know that outcomes are rarely immediate. Thomson has carried that patience into his business career, ensuring that initiatives — whether SLAs, AI systems, or client engagement models — are built for endurance.

That long-term mindset continues to shape WITHIN’s evolution. As the agency’s business model has shifted from transactional contracts to enterprise partnerships, Thomson’s leadership has ensured teams remain cohesive even as operations scale. His capacity to coordinate diverse stakeholders — on a soccer foundation board or inside a marketing technology company — illustrates the enduring value of volunteer leadership in professional environments.

By translating nonprofit principles into corporate practice, Taylor Thomson has demonstrated that the boundary between boardroom and volunteer council is thinner than many assume. Both require collaboration. Both demand clarity of purpose. And both, in Thomson’s case, have proven essential for driving innovation.

Long-term thinking, it turns out, is as useful on a soccer field as it is in the evolving world of marketing technology.