Meet the Big Shoulders Impact Solutions team
Discover the dedicated professionals who drive our mission. Learn about our expertise, shared values, and how we collaborate to deliver impactful solutions for your organization.
Eli Ugolino: Founder and principal consultant
Eli Ugolino is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Big Shoulders Impact Solutions. He helps nonprofits and growing businesses strengthen financial health, optimize operations, and build sustainable organizations. With over a decade of executive leadership experience, Eli specializes in finance, strategic planning, operational improvement, technology implementation, and organizational development.
Throughout his career, Eli has led multimillion-dollar budgets, managed complex government and foundation grants, implemented financial and operational systems, and developed innovative technology solutions that improve efficiency and reduce administrative burden. He is known for combining analytical expertise with a practical, hands-on approach, helping organizations transform complex challenges into lasting results. As a trusted advisor to executive leaders and boards, Eli partners with organizations to improve financial stewardship, streamline operations, and strengthen their overall impact.
Our values: Trust, integrity, and genuine commitment
At Big Shoulders Impact Solutions, we believe the best partnerships are built on trust, integrity, and a genuine commitment to our clients' success. We approach every engagement with curiosity, collaboration, and accountability, taking the time to understand each organization's unique mission, culture, and goals before recommending solutions.
Clients describe working with us as practical, responsive, and collaborative. We communicate openly, solve problems proactively, and aren't afraid to roll up our sleeves to help implement solutions—not just recommend them. We value transparency, continuous improvement, and measurable results, and we hold ourselves to the same high standards we encourage in the organizations we serve. Above all, we believe our success is measured by the success of our clients. Every decision we make is guided by one question: Will this help our client build a stronger, more sustainable organization? That commitment to partnership and long-term impact is what makes us different.
Collaboration in action: Northwest Compass
One project that illustrates our approach was our work with Northwest Compass, a nonprofit managing multiple government grants with complex payroll allocation requirements. The organization relied on a manual process to prepare grant-compliant employee timecards, which required significant staff time and increased the risk of errors.
We worked closely with the executive leadership and finance staff to understand their workflows, compliance requirements, and operational challenges. Rather than simply recommending process improvements, we designed and built a custom web application that automatically generated compliant employee timecards from payroll data. The project required collaboration, continuous feedback, and a deep understanding of both financial regulations and day-to-day operations. By working alongside the client throughout the design and implementation process, we delivered a solution that reduced administrative work, improved accuracy, strengthened grant compliance, and ultimately freed up valuable staff time for mission-critical activities.
"Big Shoulders Impact Solutions genuinely understands our unique challenges and consistently delivers practical, effective solutions that make a real difference for our organization."
A satisfied client