Upstream USA
Upstream USA is a national nonprofit that partners with healthcare systems to ensure every patient can access the full range of contraceptive options. They work directly with hospitals, clinics, and health centers across the country.
The email tool was live but nothing behind it was built to scale.
A real operating layer — templates, workflows, reporting, and 50+ SOPs.
HubSpot was connected to Salesforce, but it was not being used like a real marketing platform. Salesforce handled recruitment and donor work. HubSpot was mostly functioning as a loose email tool without solid segmentation, repeatable campaign structure, or dependable reporting.
The team was managing recurring newsletters, webinar invites, announcements, and outreach across a large database. Too much of the work was manual. Lists were rebuilt from scratch, assets were recreated, and fields had to be double-checked before each send. Reporting was limited to whatever the subscription tier happened to show.
Every email was being built from scratch. Templates didn't exist, so each send meant rebuilding the same layout, re-checking the same fields, and re-creating the same lists. The first fix was reusable HTML/CSS templates per audience with consistent branding underneath.
The bigger problem was process. Targeting, suppression, testing, QA, post-send review — none of it was standardized. It all lived in one person's head. Documenting the full operation across 50+ SOPs turned institutional knowledge into something the team could share and repeat.
Data hygiene workflows ran underneath everything — cleaning records, standardizing fields, and rebuilding segmentation rules the team could trust. A custom performance model replaced the CRM's limited reporting, cutting prep time and giving the team historical comparisons they didn't have before.
"I enjoyed working with Ethan in the same department at Upstream USA. Ethan really knows his technology, like HubSpot, but he's a wiz at quickly learning any platform. He's sharp in analysis, workflow design, and problem solving. Ethan's creative and possesses a fun wit. He's able to converse on all levels to discern business needs, ensure understanding, and share solutions. Any team will be fortunate to benefit from Ethan's many talents."
