Meet Becki Taylor | Development Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Becki Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Becki, what is the most important factor behind your success?
As a nonprofit organization, we exist only to fill a need in our community. If the need was not present, then we wouldn’t be here. In 2013 our founders, Dr. Linda Chassman Craddock and Ellen Winston recognized that access to mental health services was a challenge for many Coloradans who were low-income, under insured, or uninsured. It became our mission to ensure that mental health services, specifically Animal Assisted Psychotherapy, would be available to everyone regardless of insurance or income. This challenge and the need for widely available mental health services continues to exist today. That’s why we are successful – the relevancy of our mission and how effective we are at pursuing it is the greatest factor to our, or any nonprofit’s, success.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It took many years of bouncing around various fields and career paths before I actually pursued my current path with intention. I changed my major four or five times in college and eventually graduated with a degree in music. I explored life as a gigging musician, as an educator and sprinkled in between these adventures was my work in the nonprofit world. So, after too many years, I finally decided to pursue nonprofit work as a career, and here I am! Looking back, one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is to ‘trust the process’. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all those other paths led me to where I am today and although it felt confusing in the moment, it was all meant to lead me here. Trust the process. Explore your interests. It’s worth it! Not everyone was born knowing what they wanted to be when they grew up and that’s okay!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My favorite spots are OUT of the city!

We would go for a hike – probably someplace around Lair O’ The Bear and then head to Switchback Smokehouse. YUM!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Wow! There are so many people and organizations that I could shoutout. I certainly did not get where I am today alone. However, I want to shoutout Kathy Brantigan, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Denver Brass. Kathy was the first to really take me under her wing and guide me through the nonprofit world and development. Thank you, Kathy!

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