by Janine Vanderburg, President/CEO

JVA is not a social media company. Our work for our clients—most of whom are individuals and organizations involved in community and social change—is focused on strategic and business planning, fundraising, organizational development, program development and evaluation, communications with donors and members, and cutting edge research to inform all of it.

Especially in our training and consulting around fundraising, we have been advising all of our clients about the importance of using social media in engaging and cultivating donors and volunteers. And what we usually hear is:

But how can I do this? It takes so much time. We don’t have staff to do this!

With 20 staff, we get it. Collin Lessing, our Managing Associate for Communications and Marketing, is a rock star, but over 80% of his time is spent raising money, developing communications strategies and writing grants for some of our amazing clients like Clinica Tepeyac, Escuela Tlatelolco, Center for African American Health, Aurora Housing Corporation and the Comitis Crisis Center.

JVA is considered a small business by all definitions—until we got to the Social Madness contest, where we learned we had been characterized as a medium business, competing against companies like:

  • University of Colorado Anschutz Campus
  • Citywide Banks
  • Sage Hospitality
  • Forest City/Stapleton

Yes, really!

A David vs. Goliath story? We hope so. Because we want to demonstrate that small organizations can use social media effectively to advance their missions, and without dedicated media/marketing staff—that it’s not just a game for the large organizations like American Red Cross. That you can do it in a reasonable time per day, integrated with work you already do and get good results.

We’re documenting what we’re doing and how we’re doing it to share with all of you.

Meanwhile, if you like David and Goliath stories, you can help us by:

  • Clicking here to vote every day until June 17 (yes you can vote once/day–you go to the Medium tab on the link and click on the round button with the checkmark in it)
  • Going to our Facebook page every day and liking, commenting on, and/or sharing our posts.
  • Going to our Twitter page and retweeting our tweets

Thanks so much! We’ll keep you posted.