About us
Our philosophy
The Agglomerative perspective.
Our identity
About Agglomerative
About Agglomerative
With the maturation of cloud computing and the rise of LLMs, higher education and nonprofits are modernizing legacy systems and importing state-of-the-art paradigms like API-led connectivity to future-proof their institutions amid debate about Silicon Valley's alignment with their missions.
After 20 years at the intersection of advancement services and computer science, I founded Agglomerative to navigate the functional, institutional, and operational tensions of high-stakes CRM implementations. Our slogan is Advancement-Led Data Modernization.
In machine learning, agglomerative refers to a bottom-up clustering method, commonly visualized using a tree diagram. It literally means "to wind up in a ball of yarn."
The name represents my roots in advancement services and my pride in the technical foundation professionals in the field have built. I take a critical-pragmatic stance on merging that foundation with new technology—navigating tangled institutional politics to establish a balanced partnership between advancement and IT.
The logo symbolizes this journey: legacy roots merging into a modern system to form the indispensable steps of data modernization, reflecting my initials, and culminating in the letter A.
With the maturation of cloud computing and the rise of LLMs, higher education and nonprofits are modernizing legacy systems and importing state-of-the-art paradigms like API-led connectivity to future-proof their institutions amid debate about Silicon Valley's alignment with their missions.
After 20 years at the intersection of advancement services and computer science, I founded Agglomerative to navigate the functional, institutional, and operational tensions of high-stakes CRM implementations. Our slogan is Advancement-Led Data Modernization.
In machine learning, agglomerative refers to a bottom-up clustering method, commonly visualized using a tree diagram. It literally means "to wind up in a ball of yarn."
The name represents my roots in advancement services and my pride in the technical foundation professionals in the field have built. I take a critical-pragmatic stance on merging that foundation with new technology—navigating tangled institutional politics to establish a balanced partnership between advancement and IT.
The logo symbolizes this journey: legacy roots merging into a modern system to form the indispensable steps of data modernization, reflecting my initials, and culminating in the letter A.
Expertise
Meet the founder
Tim Anderson
Founder & Principal Consultant
I founded Agglomerative in 2026 to bring over 20 years of experience at the intersection of advancement services and computer science to institutions navigating complex data modernization projects. The firm was born out of my return to consulting the previous year, providing technical continuity and leading data integrations for a large private university’s Kindsight Ascend implementation, principally using MuleSoft.
My earlier consulting work began in 2018, when I co-founded The Solas Group, providing Tableau dashboards, data engineering, and predictive modeling to dozens of higher education and nonprofit clients across nearly as many different CRM platforms and back-end databases. I specialized in comprehensive data engineering solutions for analytics and bespoke likelihood scoring tailored to client datasets. Following the acquisition of The Solas Group by EverTrue in 2022, I rebuilt the firm's data pipelines for a new product using Snowflake and Amazon Web Services.
My career began at DePaul University, where I worked for over 12 years, half as Director of Advancement Data Systems. I was an innovator with advancement data, earning recognition from the profession alongside my colleagues. My accomplishments involved data architecture for analytics, systems integration, CRM customization, predictive modeling, and workflow automations for wealth screening and lockbox processing. I also pioneered applications for trip planning, reporting requests, and scenario planning.
I hold Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science from DePaul University, having focused my graduate studies on data science.
Expertise
Meet the founder
Tim Anderson
Founder & Principal Consultant
I founded Agglomerative in 2026 to bring over 20 years of experience at the intersection of advancement services and computer science to institutions navigating complex data modernization projects. The firm was born out of my return to consulting the previous year, providing technical continuity and leading data integrations for a large private university’s Kindsight Ascend implementation, principally using MuleSoft.
My earlier consulting work began in 2018, when I co-founded The Solas Group, providing Tableau dashboards, data engineering, and predictive modeling to dozens of higher education and nonprofit clients across nearly as many different CRM platforms and back-end databases. I specialized in comprehensive data engineering solutions for analytics and bespoke likelihood scoring tailored to client datasets. Following the acquisition of The Solas Group by EverTrue in 2022, I rebuilt the firm's data pipelines for a new product using Snowflake and Amazon Web Services.
My career began at DePaul University, where I worked for over 12 years, half as Director of Advancement Data Systems. I was an innovator with advancement data, earning recognition from the profession alongside my colleagues. My accomplishments involved data architecture for analytics, systems integration, CRM customization, predictive modeling, and workflow automations for wealth screening and lockbox processing. I also pioneered applications for trip planning, reporting requests, and scenario planning.
I hold Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science from DePaul University, having focused my graduate studies on data science.
Expertise
Meet the founder
Tim Anderson
Founder & Principal Consultant
I founded Agglomerative in 2026 to bring over 20 years of experience at the intersection of advancement services and computer science to institutions navigating complex data modernization projects. The firm was born out of my return to consulting the previous year, providing technical continuity and leading data integrations for a large private university’s Kindsight Ascend implementation, principally using MuleSoft.
My earlier consulting work began in 2018, when I co-founded The Solas Group, providing Tableau dashboards, data engineering, and predictive modeling to dozens of higher education and nonprofit clients across nearly as many different CRM platforms and back-end databases. I specialized in comprehensive data engineering solutions for analytics and bespoke likelihood scoring tailored to client datasets. Following the acquisition of The Solas Group by EverTrue in 2022, I rebuilt the firm's data pipelines for a new product using Snowflake and Amazon Web Services.
My career began at DePaul University, where I worked for over 12 years, half as Director of Advancement Data Systems. I was an innovator with advancement data, earning recognition from the profession alongside my colleagues. My accomplishments involved data architecture for analytics, systems integration, CRM customization, predictive modeling, and workflow automations for wealth screening and lockbox processing. I also pioneered applications for trip planning, reporting requests, and scenario planning.
I hold Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science from DePaul University, having focused my graduate studies on data science.
Ready to secure your implementation?
Schedule a consultation to speak with an advancement data expert about your project. Let’s consolidate your critical functionality while modernizing your data architecture.
Ready to secure your implementation?
Schedule a consultation to speak with an advancement data expert about your project. Let’s consolidate your critical functionality while modernizing your data architecture.
Ready to secure your implementation?
Schedule a consultation to speak with an advancement data expert about your project. Let’s consolidate your critical functionality while modernizing your data architecture.