Employee Stories: Meet Harriet Carvalho

Name:  Harriet Carvalho

Position:  Director, Service and Operations

Location:  Westlake, Texas

Education:  AA, Navarro College; BA, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Hobbies:  Watching Hallmark movies and spending time with her daughter, volunteering in the community, and trying new restaurants

Personal philanthropic mission statement:  “To uplift others and help leave the world in a better place.”

Service is at the heart of Harriet Carvalho’s family and career—stretching across the globe from Texas to The Gambia. Inspired by the dedication of her family to make a difference in their community, Harriet continues the tradition of giving back with her own daughter, Ellen. 

This legacy has permeated her career path as well, leading her to a donor services role at DAFgiving360^TM. “I needed my work to have an in-depth meaning to both my clients and myself,” she says. 

Believing in humanity

Harriet applies that purposeful pursuit in her position as DAFgiving360’s Director of Service and Operations. She has a multi-faceted role in ensuring prospective and current clients receive timely assistance with any operation-related issues they have, no matter the complexity of their needs. 

She finds inspiration in her work because it counters the frequently negative narrative she sees on the news, especially after a disaster. “Imagine turning on the news and there’s an earthquake in a certain country, and they show pictures over and over again that just break your heart.”

After a disaster, Harriet gets to help “other heroes that aren’t there on ground who send millions of dollars’ worth of grants, which are activated right away.” 

She remains motivated in her role by the generosity of others. “One of the things that always feels nice about working here is knowing that I get to see and believe in humanity every day,” Harriet says.

So how did she end up in that perfect, yet often elusive, place where passion and profession meet?

Establishing a pattern of giving

Harriet’s life-long focus on meaning originated during her childhood in The Gambia (interchangeably known as “Gambia”), a small country in northwestern Africa of fewer than three million people. 

She grew up in a close-knit family with three brothers, and her parents recently celebrated 45 years of marriage. “I’m the only girl but I am also a middle child, so I don’t get to enjoy many perks of being the only daughter.” 

Harriet was first exposed to “major opportunity disconnects” during childhood. She says unlike the U.S., where a zip code may define your destiny, “In Gambia, you can live on the same street with people who have had a chance to go to school, and those who haven’t.” 

It made her wonder, “How do we give everyone an opportunity to be able to do something with their lives?"

Both her parents were influential in ensuring not only Harriet, but also other family and friends, pursued an education while giving back to others. 

This pattern of giving was originally established by her grandmother, who was widowed and a single mother. Although she struggled to make ends meet by making and selling cakes, she still opened up her home to others in need.  

Ultimately, Harriet’s childhood in Gambia showed her, “We can all do better if we all decide to give everyone a fighting chance.”

The winding road to DAFgiving360

Family connections also influenced Harriet’s college and career choices. She decided to enroll in a community college in Texas where one of her cousins studied. After later completing a bachelor’s degree in international business, Harriet trekked to the Midwest to join her siblings in Nebraska. 

She immediately found her niche in the financial services sector at TD Ameritrade where she acquired her Series 7, 63, and 24 licenses as a stockbroker. 

However, the warmth of Texas soon beckoned her return, so she packed up and moved back south to Dallas-Fort Worth, where she was able to transfer within the company. Harriet then spent the next decade working on a range of client and advisor services teams.

Although successful, she felt a pull to start thinking about what might be next for her career. Harriet asked herself, “What is it that I would want to do that I would be proud of?” She decided, “I want it to be meaningful work and don't want to just run to the next thing.” 

Concurrently in 2020, Charles Schwab announced it would acquire TD Ameritrade. In mid-2022, two days before she was to depart for a trip to Gambia, Harriet saw an opening for a position at DAFgiving360, an organization focused on increasing giving in the U.S., that closely aligned with her skills as a director of service. Harriet determined, “I'm going to apply and keep moving.” 

She then left for vacation and saw an email requesting an interview once she arrived in Gambia. Despite the time difference of five hours, Harriet made the cross-national interview work.

She told the leaders interviewing her why she was in Gambia. “I go every year to try to donate school supplies,” Harriet reflects. “It was a really good conversation to have and share with people who appreciate the nonprofit world and some of the work I do.”

She returned to the U.S., and about a month later, was offered the role. “I'm still in disbelief. My daughter tells people, ‘My mom is working her dream job right now. She always wanted to do this.’”

Sustaining a charitable legacy

Just like Harriet’s family invested in her generation, she wants to do the same, especially with her middle school-aged daughter, Ellen.

In addition to taking Ellen with her to visit Gambia, she also brainstorms ways for the two of them to get involved in serving their local community in Fort Worth. One of the organizations they have gravitated toward is the Boys and Girls Club of Tarrant County. Harriet just joined the nonprofit’s board this year.