We were lucky to catch up with Tara Storch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career? If so, please share the backstory so we can fully understand and appreciate the moment and take in any lessons or wisdom that might be learned from your experience and story.

My defining moment was unexpected and heartbreaking. It was March of 2010 when we were on a family ski vacation in Colorado for Spring Break. Our oldest daughter Taylor, just 13 years old, had a tragic accident on the slopes and was immediately care-flighted to the nearest hospital. We were faced with a group of doctors who gave us the hard news that our sweet girl would not recover, and the shock immediately set in.

While we were in the hospital, we were gently approached by a nurse who said “Your daughter is a beautiful candidate for organ donation. Would you consider it?” We said a word that set our family on a journey…we said “yes”.

With that ‘yes’, our daughter saved and improved the lives of five people with her gifts of her heart, kidneys, pancreas, liver and one cornea.

When we arrived back in Texas, my husband, Todd started learning all he could about organ donation and in 2010, he discovered that the rate of registered organ donors in Texas was only 2%. This startling fact sparked a family conversation about the possibility of making an impact to increase that number and helping organ donor families like ours.

We leaned on our family mantra: “It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you react to it that does.” Don’t get me wrong, of course it mattered we lost Taylor…it completely shattered us. But, we knew that our reaction to our loss was going to be important, especially for our other two children.

Very quickly, we knew we had a choice: to focus on the grief, or to find the good.

Organ donation was the good that came out of our family’s tragedy.

At that moment, Taylor’s Gift Foundation began and set us on a path that we wouldn’t have ever chosen for ourselves, but undoubtedly knew we needed to do.

Over the years, Taylor’s Gift has become an award-winning nonprofit, has had incredible partners like OPI and Nike, and has made a positive and lasting impact in the world of organ donation.

Honoring our precious daughter has become my “Why.” My “Why” is so large that it keeps me focused on what really matters. I think everyone should have a Why, an unshakable North Star, that keeps them rooted and moving forward no matter what.

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc. Please provide as much detail as you feel relevant as this is one of the core questions where the reader will get to know about you and your brand/organization/etc.

Non-profit organizations are sometimes sparked by tragedy. Sometimes they are sparked by a passion. Either way, it all surrounds one word – purpose. I truly believe that non-profits should be renamed to “For-Purpose” organizations. Because, every non-profit has a strong purpose for the work they do.

Our non-profit, Taylor’s Gift Foundation, has a strong purpose; to help organ donor families receive the emotional support they need. A ‘donor family’ is a family whose loved one gave the gift of life through organ and tissue donation.

Organ donation usually comes out of an accident and/or sudden tragedy. Families are left with horrific grief from the sudden loss, mixed with the silver lining of gratefulness that their loved one saved lives. Organ donation is where grief and gratitude share the same space. It’s a unique grief and unfortunately, there is a lack of emotional support resources dedicated specifically to donor families.

When we lost our daughter Taylor, we were emotionally shattered. We didn’t know where to turn for emotional support. My brother gave us the name of someone he had heard of who was a counselor. At first, I resisted, but when I heard that she had a shared experience, I decided to go. She was a true lifesaver for me and my husband to help us take steps forward as the ground was shifting under our feet.

Since my family has walked this journey, my husband and I felt compelled that Taylor’s Gift Foundation could help in this area of emotional support. This created a new focus and mission for the foundation to provide free grief support to donor families.

Taylor’s Gift started the Kindred Hearts Program (https://www.taylorsgift.org/kindredhearts) to provide dedicated emotional support to donor families. Through support groups and individual family support, we are there so that no donor family grieves alone.

An important note to share is that our emotional support services are at no cost to donor families for an entire year. We are able to do this through generous donations and partnerships.

The Kindred Hearts Program is so needed across the country, that it caught the attention of prestigious Johns Hopkins and NYU. They have partnered with Taylor’s Gift to do research and a pilot program for the impact of the program.

We are always looking for volunteers to facilitate support groups or give individual support. Training will be provided. If you are interested in learning more about how to volunteer, please visit: https://www.taylorsgift.org/getinvolved

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

If you google the word resilience, you will find the definition as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”

If I was given the opportunity, I’d change the definition up a bit.

For “The capacity to recover quickly”; I’d change it to: “To adapt to a difficult experience and use it to move forward” because recovering from something hard doesn’t have a timeline.

For “Toughness” – I’d change it to: “Courageous” because being able to move forward, even just a little bit, takes courage.

Resilience has been a consistent part of my journey. Personally, just the ability to get up in the morning in those early days of grief showed resilience. Professionally, to start a non-profit and to tirelessly work towards the mission, even when I feel like giving up, shows resilience.

I think that to be resilient, you have to have flexibility. Over the years, our focus of Taylor’s Gift to help donor families hasn’t changed, but the way we fill those specific needs has grown and transformed.

Most importantly, I know that my resilience comes from my deep faith in God. Knowing that I can fully rely on Him and that He’s there to always guide me gives me the courage to keep going when uncertainty sets in.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I believe the best way to manage a team and maintain high morale is being intentional in showing appreciation for the work they do. With a non-profit, many times our teams are volunteers. Making sure that they know their time is valued can make a huge difference in them enjoying the work. And, if they enjoy it, they feel led to bring others to the mission. We always want to make sure that we honor the time they give.

Our ability to provide free grief support is only made possible by the generosity of others. Keeping our supporters engaged in our mission and letting them know the personal impact they are making on organ donor families honors the gifts they generously give.

Appreciation is key and goes a long way in making others know and feel that they are important to the work we do. As Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Contact Info:

• Foundation website: https://www.taylorsgift.org/
• Personal website: http://www.tarastorch.com/
• Instagram: @taylorsgiftfoundation
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taylorsgift

Image Credits
Individual photo of me in the green jacket: Lillie Brummitt For the photo of me in the blue jacket: Stacy Apple Photography + Editorials