By Collin Lessing and Katy Snyder Google, Wikipedia and hundreds of other websites have shut down today in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) legislation in the U.S. Senate, bills that aim to curb Internet piracy and copyright infringement by [...]
by Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting JVA Consulting was recently selected by the City and County of Denver through an open bidding process to provide customized training, technical assistance and grantwriting services for public agencies of the City and County of Denver. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, JVA has more than 24 years of experience writing grants [...]
By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting This week, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Grand Junction, where JVA’s Senior Consulting/Planning Associate based on the Western Slope, Lorne Naegele, and I hosted a full-day social media workshop for nonprofits. We covered several topics and had an amazing group in attendance. There were a few [...]
By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting Earlier in the week, my dad told me he would be flying in from Texas this coming weekend to spend Father’s Day with me, and that has me pretty excited. As a son or daughter, you’re usually trying to think of ways to do something nice for your dad on [...]
By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting Earlier in May, JVA was pleased to welcome staff members from Colorado foundations including Miguel Lovato from the Daniels Fund, Erin Binford from the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation, Julie Voyles from the Gill Foundation and Michelle Sturm from the Anschutz Family Foundation for a panel discussion on what makes proposals [...]
by Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting JVA is excited to announce that Vice President of Design and Innovation Ashley Kasprzak has been selected as a member of the advisory board for the University Art Museum at Colorado State University (CSU). Ashley has a long history of community involvement around the arts in northern Colorado beginning when [...]
By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting At a recent community meeting for Colorado Youth At Risk’s mentoring program at Aurora Central High School, we were privileged to have Jamie Laurie (a.k.a. Jonny 5) of the Flobots as a guest facilitator. In case you’re not familiar with the Flobots, they are a Denver-based band that fuses musical [...]
In the coming months we will be bringing you a firsthand look at work being done by changemakers, both locally and from across the country. For our first installment, Collin Lessing interviewed Robert Jaklich, Superintendent of the Harlandale School District in Texas—a district that faced a future full of daunting challenges. What this changemaker has [...]
By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting “Join us. It’s time to change the world again.” That’s what the Power Point slide projecting against a wall read at the Boomers Leading Change in Health (BLCiH) offices, and it’s that sentiment that filled the room with potential volunteers at BLCiH’s first orientation session. […]
The following is Donn Hansum’s book review of When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. by Donn Hansum, Director at Volunteers in Action This book has recently been very helpful to me in understanding how many times efforts to help the materially poor actually have hurt [...]