WHO
WE ARE
We are Pittsburgh-centered Arts & Culture Nonprofit Experts.
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Workhorse understands nonprofit organizations because we’ve been up all night working with them for years. We’ve worked with over 100 arts and culture organizations, specializing in Pittsburgh and serving nationally. We’ve sold out entire production runs, reinvented brands, and broken fundraising records. We’ve overhauled business models, trained up leaders, and demystified finances and marketing for scores of nonprofit professionals. We’ll meet you where you are, adapt to your style, and roll up our sleeves alongside you on your toughest tasks.
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Let us put our experience to work for you.
Jackie Baker (she/her)
Organizational Strategist, Co-Founder
Past Lives: Managing Director at Bricolage Production Company, C-Suite Executive Assistant, Development Manager at Kelly Strayhorn Theater​​
Jackie is passionate about organizational sustainability, good governance, and hyper-effective, happy teams. She uses systems design to break down complex challenges and uses her experience in development and communications to craft holistic organizational strategies. Jackie has launched new initiatives from scratch, overhauled legacy business models, and helped organizations and individuals raise over $5M to date. A trained financial strategist, she also frequently works with Rebecca Thomas and Associates, supporting both national and Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organizations with historical financial analyses, financial strategic planning, and building customized, drivers-based financial projection models. As former managing director of Bricolage, a Pittsburgh-based immersive theater, Jackie tripled the full-time staff and operating budget and steered two strategic plans, including the Greater Pittsburgh Small Arts Capitalization Pilot program. Her designs of Immersive Companions and Theater for All catapulted the company onto the national access scene and have been replicated by others. She has presented at The Kennedy Center’s LEAD Conference and the Inclusive Innovation Conference, and has served on grant panels for The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Erie Arts and Culture. She is dedicated to training up the next generation of arts professionals and has guest lectured at Carnegie Mellon University, The Kiski School, and Point Park University, her alma mater.
Emily Steed Willson (she/her)
Marketing & Creative Strategist, Co-Founder
Past Lives: Director of Marketing at Carnegie Museum of Art, Head of Marketing at Bricolage Production Company, Graphic Design Instructor at University of Louisiana
Emily is a results-driven marketer and creative strategist dedicated to helping nonprofits and creatives tell their story and grow their revenue and reach. She pairs her strength as a creative director and digital advertiser with a data-informed approach to develop high-impact, audience-centric marketing strategies that get results. Emily doesn’t just craft communication plans; she knows what it takes to execute them and can work beside you and your staff to get things done. While supporting Handmade Arcade, the region's largest independent craft fair, Emily helped attract more than 22,000 shoppers in one year and ushered in the highest holiday market attendance in the event's 18-year history. She helped launch the Resident Company Model at the New Hazlett Theater, training marketing staff for five distinct performing arts organizations. She has launched, overhauled, or refreshed dozens of brands, including PearlArts Sound & Movement, Allies for Health + Wellbeing, and the Public Media Content Collective. Emily loves to teach and has led workshops and intensives for the Creative Business Accelerator, PACE, the American Craft Council, and others. Emily holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and a Master's degree in Communication from the University of Louisiana, where she also taught Graphic Communications.