JVA’s Results

It has been great working with your team.  You have been a great partner and allowed us to gather robust feedback from partners in a short amount of time and helped us think strategically about our messaging and training plans going forward. I think the “fruits” of your labor will be long-lasting. I would highly recommend you to other partners if you want to use me as a reference in the future.

The JVA training membership package has been invaluable to Community Enterprise, giving our staff and volunteers needed skills and training that is current, clear, and based on best-practices. As a new ED, JVA’s Executive Director Academy was an incredible opportunity to learn and grow both my knowledge and confidence, and that coupled with staff development around grants, social media, evaluation, fundraising, marketing, social enterprise and others has made our organization  stronger. In the last 2 years, with JVA’s support, we have learned, grown, increased our budget and improved our systems to do better community work. The training package is an incredible bargain that I would recommend highly.

Janine and her team led our board members and some senior staff through a terrific two-hour retreat focused on successful board fundraising. Our board members have traditionally not had to engage in fundraising for the organization so no systems were really in place to enable them to play this important role. Janine had just the right level of energy, enthusiasm and expertise to guide us through a process that helped us all develop our own language to connect new people to our organization. It culminated with a session in which everyone made personal commitments to take concrete steps that play to individual strengths and that will get us on the road to greater funding diversity. A huge thank you to Janine and her team for one of the most useful trainings I’ve participated in!

Our retreat wrapped up today, and we were thrilled with our new trustees, and really the outcome and feedback of the last few days. It wouldn’t have been the same without your presentation and expertise – thank you! The trustees were engaged and very receptive, with many positive comments. I appreciate your ideas and collaborative spirit. You guys are awesome.

Thank you so much for an awesome application. I feel really good about this one and it was all you and your team!!

Thank you so much for the most amazing, exciting, invigorating board retreat I have ever been involved with! The JVA session has received rave reviews from both our board and staff and we are looking forward to implementing the new Strategic Plan!

I wanted to take a second to thank you for sharing your experience and expertise with us yesterday. I attend many conferences to build my network and the RBBB brand here in Phoenix, often hearing the same, tired generic material over and over. I found the whole session yesterday extremely thought-provoking and sensitively, engagingly and humbly presented. I hugely enjoyed the time spent and I think Read Better Be Better will reap tangible benefits as a result.

JVA takes the guesswork out of wondering if you are diving into best practices, or activities that may or may not be implementable. They use current research, monitor trends and build activities so what is learned can be used. Employees come backed with experience in the sector, or other sectors, and are powerful change agents committed to the success of the communities in Colorado.

What an incredible session last night! Thank you for your unique skills in getting our group to think about fundraising in a very different way. Your approach makes it understandable and easy to implement. AND… it’s obvious that you like what you do. I love being around people who like what they do!

It’s been wonderful- genuine relationship building, expert guidance, high-quality work and an in-depth understanding of our work. We love JVA!   

Working with JVA has been an extremely valuable experience for our small but growing nonprofit. We are in a period of extreme change and challenge… Thank you JVA for your continued partnership and all you do for the Colorado nonprofit community.

 I’ve worked with JVA for over 20 years and their expertise can’t be matched.

We had a great experience working with JVA. They listened to us and were extremely easy to partner with in accomplishing our Needs Assessment goals. And everything was completed within the timeframe required!

JVA has provided guidance through strategic planning and then increased our capacity through thoughtful grant research and solicitation.

We have loved our strong partnership with JVA for grant writing, staff training, and evaluation.

A smart and creative team that delivers a high-quality product!

We really value all of the help that JVA has provided to my organization. My staff loves going to your training and we have seen an increase in our grant awards due to JVA expertise and guidance.

Staff is organized, creative thinkers, promoting entrepreneurialism – aka Social Enterprise – and good people. The value added to our process is immeasurable!

This training was fabulous! JVA has done a great job of pulling together all aspects of the ED role, and made it easy to understand. The ROI is five star. JVA is a house of rock stars!

Thank you for all handouts! They hade tangible examples and activity ideas.

Thank you! JVA is by far the best training option in town.

Everything was highly valuable and the hands-on portion was very helpful.

Grantwriting can be intimidating. This broke down the process in a way that makes is much more manageable and less scary.

Everything I learned is relatable and applicable to what my job and objective are. I can take the things I learned and apply them right away.

Invaluable amount of information and contacts moving forward in this work

You are amazing! Definitely coming back.

The presenter gave specific recommendations to each of us and our jobs that was helpful and made an impact. He really cared and sought out solutions!

I’ve taken budget classes before, but this class gave me a much better understanding of the whole process.

I love JVA trainings. Knowledgeable staff and extremely relevant content. Thank you!

Thankful for JVA!

This week was transformative. Thoroughly enjoyed on both a professional and personal level. I’ll be back!

The feedback for myself and others during the pitch presentations was wildly helpful & applicable to all of our deliverables & how to craft the message of our cause. JVA rocks. So much so that I’d put a bumper sticker on my car.

Please accept my heartfelt THANKS for your work and thoughtful contributions, both personally and professionally, to the completion of this application. What a wonderful and professional piece of work! We were all stretched by this project, its very tight timelines and the need for collaboration. This teamwork will be a lasting memory for me. As our nation and the entire world struggles to find solutions to human kindness and respect for all peoples, may this project actually come to fruition and be blessed as an example of how people can truly help other people! Again, many thanks to you and the JVA team.

Working with JVA has been incredibly beneficial to our institution not only fiscally but also because we have powerful story-telling material that we can use again. The team was professional, fast, asked critically astute questions, and brought us across the finish line for a few very complicated and important grants.

JVA has been instrumental in helping not only focus our energy into areas that are a good match for our services but has helped us think expansively into areas that the community needs. We’re excited about the prospects of serving our community even better because of their help.

I’ve also read through the entire grant application narrative and it looks wonderful. You have done a stellar job in bringing this entire project to a strong closure. Thank you so much for your insight and ability to do so.

I consider JVA a key partner in the success of my organization.

I appreciate the diligence and time you spent with us learning more about our vision and mission. The strategic focus is starting to root with the staff, and I feel confident that our grant submissions will have great legitimacy and credibility as a result. You have clearly captured who we are, what we do, and why in a very concise and articulate way. Thank you!

What a  difference from the grantwriters we had before JVA! In fact, I don’t know that I have ever worked with a grantwriter this good—and I have worked with the best of them.

Working with JVA is one of the best consulting relationships I’ve had. The staff is extremely flexible to meet our needs, and executes work of the highest caliber.

As our strategic planning process comes to an end, I have no adequate words with which to thank you for your professionalism, intelligence, analysis, data, passion, dedication, creativity, patience, wisdom, vision and action!

Thank you once again for facilitating our foundation retreat. You are so amazing and it’s an honor to have you each time. I learn something new at every presentation!

We are on our third round of doing [planning] with JVA because we continue to blaze through our plans and complete them early! Because JVA structures our documents so well, we continue to overachieve on our three- and five-year goals.

It was such a pleasure to work with you and your team on the W.F.C.O. strategic plan and I am so impressed with what we were able to accomplish. The plan we have will set the stage for years of success. I don’t think another firm would have gotten us here.

That was one of the most productive group interactions I’ve ever had.

I want to compliment you on the terrific job that you did facilitating last weekend’s retreat!! I felt that the one and a half days really went smoothly with a lot being accomplished.

I just can’t thank you enough for you amazing leadership during our retreat.  We all felt so incredibly empowered by you and your fabulous ability to lead us and help us get to the crux of what we hope to accomplish.

Just wanted to send you a very BIG thank you for your facilitation and support last week!  This was not an easy group to wrangle, but your ability to adapt and manage was just perfect.

Your skill as a facilitator made the work possible, and it was such a pleasure to work with you!

That was one of the most productive group interactions I’ve ever had.

I want to compliment you on the terrific job that you did facilitating last weekend’s retreat!! I felt that the one and a half days really went smoothly with a lot being accomplished.

Thank you again for the fine job you all did this morning! Everyone I spoke with commented that they felt it was a very productive meeting and looking forward!

I just can’t thank you enough for your amazing leadership during our retreat. We all felt so incredibly empowered by you and your fabulous ability to lead us and help us get to the crux of what we hope to accomplish.

I wanted to thank you for an excellent session on Friday. I think we accomplished more than I anticipated going in and you did a masterful job guiding our staff and board through a process that I think made everyone feel fully comfortable with their individual roles in fundraising and that got them to a place where they felt comfortable in making specific commitments.

Janine Vanderburg and her team lead our board members and some senior staff through a terrific two-hour retreat focused on successful board fundraising. Our board members have traditionally not had to engage in fundraising for the organization so no systems were really in place to enable them to play this important role. Janine had just the right level of energy, enthusiasm and expertise to guide us through a process that helped us all develop our own language to connect new people to our organization. It culminated with a session in which everyone made personal commitments to take concrete steps that play to individual strengths and that will get us on the road to greater funding diversity. A huge thank you to Janine and her team for one of the most useful trainings I’ve participated in!

What an incredible session last night! Thank you for your unique skills in getting our group to think about fundraising in a very different way. Your approach makes it understandable and easy to implement. AND… it’s obvious that you like what you do. I love being around people who like what they do!

JVA has been instrumental in helping not only focus our energy into areas that are a good match for our services but has helped us think expansively into areas that the community needs. We’re excited about the prospects of serving our community even better because of their help.

Prior to getting JVA’s help with funder research, we had a good sense of what funders were out there that fit our focus area. What we did not know, and what JVA helped to zero in on, was the specifics – the nitty gritty. Funders may say Colorado, but what percentage really goes to Colorado? What does Denver metro really mean? What really is the average amount in a specific funding area? This is the information that helps figure out whether or not it makes sense to put resources forward to apply.