About us
How Nonprofit Liaison started
A friendship that began in a small Washington town, and the problem it circled back to thirty years later.
Nonprofit Liaison exists because of a friendship that started in Aberdeen, Washington, more than thirty years ago. Kurtis and Stephen grew up in the same small town and both went on to Grays Harbor College, years apart. From there their careers ran in different states and different worlds — one in nonprofit leadership, one in technology.
Two decades later, those paths pointed at the same problem. One side had spent most of a career serving as his own executive assistant, running the board calendar and building the packets by hand. The other side knew how to build software that holds up. Nonprofit Liaison is what happens when those two things finally end up in the same room.
The founders
Two Careers, One Problem.
Kurtis Dawson
Co-Founder
President & CEO, YMCA of Southern Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Kurtis is President and CEO of the YMCA of Southern Arizona, a $10M organization serving Tucson. His Y career began in 1996 with a part-time job at the front desk of the Hoquiam YMCA in Washington. He wasn't looking for a career. He left in 1999 to make more money before he got married, and came back two years later as Youth & Teen Director at the YMCA of Grays Harbor.
He became CEO there in 2008 and came to Tucson in 2017. Since then he and his team have led a $6M capital renovation of the downtown Lohse Family Y, built a culture of philanthropy with the board and volunteers, and put performance and service-centered metrics at the center of how the organization runs.
Kurtis holds a business degree from The Evergreen State College, serves on the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, and is past president of the Rotary Club of Tucson, the largest Rotary club in Arizona. He and his wife Sasha live in Tucson and have four grown daughters.
Nonprofit Liaison started as the tool he built for his own board. Most nonprofit CEOs don't have staff to run governance for them. Kurtis never did either.
Stephen Backholm
Co-Founder
Technology executive & multi-time founder
Austin, Texas
Stephen Backholm is a technology executive, entrepreneur, and business strategist with extensive experience designing and delivering end-to-end technology solutions. He holds a BS in Computer Science and the CISSP designation, with a technical background spanning software development, cybersecurity, cloud platforms, enterprise architecture, AI, and large-scale technology modernization. Throughout his career, Stephen has led complex technology initiatives across both public and private sector organizations, with a focus on translating business needs into practical, scalable solutions.
Stephen is passionate about helping nonprofits access the technology, data, and tools they need to operate effectively and advance their missions. He believes technology should simplify the work behind the scenes so nonprofit leaders can spend more time and resources creating meaningful impact in the communities they serve.
As a multi-time founder and operator, Stephen has launched and grown businesses across technology consulting, software, digital marketing, and investment management. He brings a combination of hands-on technical expertise, business leadership, and entrepreneurial experience to building technology that solves real-world problems and creates measurable value. Stephen resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife and their five children.
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