Texas Winds Musical Outreach

FileMaker Pro · Google Maps API · javascript · PHP · WordPress · Synology OS

Texas Winds takes live music out of the concert hall and brings it directly to people who otherwise have no opportunity to experience it. Their musicians perform over 1,400 free concerts annually, reaching 80,000 people, from nursing home residents and hospital patients to disadvantaged children.

I worked with the Executive Director at Texas Winds for several years. When we met, concerts and donations were managed with separate FileMaker databases created by a previous developer. The design didn’t scale and no longer supported the direction Texas Winds was heading.

The two existing database files were merged, with new tables created for Foundations, Gifts, Locations, Ensembles, and Musicians. Scheduling and reporting tools were also dramatically improved. Overall, this solution proved much more efficient, allowing Texas Winds to book hundreds of additional concerts each year — reaching thousands more in need — without hiring additional staff. With more time to focus on grant writing and fundraising, Texas Winds donations increased 25%.

After immediate database needs were met, I shifted focus to modernizing the Texas Winds website. Their previous site wasn’t responsive on mobile and was difficult to update. A new site was built with WordPress, providing a better mobile experience and dramatically simplifying the creation of new content.