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Executive Director Academy provides key skills

Contributed by: Sarah Bourassa on 8/5/2008

Pauline Alighieri, a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, started a cancer foundation after a friend died of cancer. Finding herself in a position she had never been in before, the president of a rapidly growing foundation, she craved to learn the skills necessary to keep the organization flourishing.

Brenda Ohlschwager, who began volunteering since about age 13 and worked with nonprofit groups for most of her life, stepped into conceptual design work for almost seven years but missed nonprofits too much. She wanted to return to the nonprofit world, but worrying her skills were outdated, she searched for a way to brush up her knowledge of the most recent trends and issues facing nonprofit executive directors.

Both women turned to JVA Consulting's Executive Director Academy (EDA), an information-packed, time-efficient crash course on the essentials of being a nonprofit executive director.

"We understand they're short on hours and short on resources, so we try to make it as compact and user-friendly as possible," said Rebecca Baggett, JVA's training manager.

The curriculum, which is reviewed and approved by an experienced executive director, includes sessions on management, governance, fundraising, finances, marketing, grantwriting, evaluation and more. The classes are for prospective, new and learning executive directors and are taught by JVA's consultants, many of who have been leaders of nonprofits. JVA offered six-week sessions in fall 2007 and spring 2008 and will continue with a seven-week session starting Sept. 18, 2008.

Alighieri, feeling overwhelmed and deprived of essential skills, sought out JVA's EDA to help improve her cancer foundation. Before her friend Mel Simmons died of cancer, Simmons had always told her she should be working with cancer patients. Little did Alighieri know she would be the president of the quickly expanding Friends of Mel Foundation.

"I'm a flight attendant by profession. I didn't know anything about running a nonprofit, a business, any of it," she said. "...I wanted to be true to the foundation, to my friend's legacy, to the people who have donated to us, and I felt an incredible obligation to do it right and professionally."

Though she lives in Massachusetts and the classes were in Colorado, Alighieri decided to enroll. While working as a flight attendant on the weekends and at her nonprofit organization a couple times a week, she flew out to Denver for her class Tuesdays and Thursdays and returned home on the red-eye flight Thursday night.

"It was a huge juggling act," she said. "JVA made it incredibly convenient to take these classes and to make it happen in your world."

JVA provides its students with a workbook that contains more than 300 pages of resources, tools, objectives and templates. Alighieri's classmates, who she felt shared similar passions as her, were also helpful resources. JVA gave her the opportunity to network and introduced her to a supportive nonprofit community.

"I never felt stupid. I always felt like I was learning. You're just treated like a peer or a colleague who's trying to live a better life and make a difference," she said.

Ohlschwager's path to EDA was somewhat different. She had been working with nonprofits for most of her life and started Survivors, Inc., a nonprofit organization for women and children in domestic violence situations. After switching to conceptual design work for almost seven years, she decided to transition back to the nonprofit arena.

"JVA was the missing link in my nonprofit journey," she said. "...I think if you want to challenge your level of professionalism, it's really worth investing your time, energy and money for."

JVA brought her up-to-date on the latest trends and issues, such as nonprofit statistics, legislation and language.

After completing EDA, Ohlschwager felt confident to return to the nonprofit world. She interviewed at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden for the executive director position. Even though she had no museum experience, she was chosen for the position because she had the skills the museum wanted: business, administrative, strategic planning, operational - all the skills she learned through EDA.

Both Alighieri and Ohlschwager continue to use the skills and knowledge they learned at JVA to lead and expand their organizations.

"It's just a huge get-everything-you-need spot," Alighieri said. "...If you can't find it here, you're not going to find it anywhere."

The third Executive Director Academy will be from Sept. 18 to Oct. 30, 2008, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.jvaconsulting.com or e-mail Rebecca Baggett at Rebecca@jvaconsulting.com.




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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Sarah Bourassa

Denver , CO

Sarah Bourassa has posted 26 stories and 0 comments since joining on 8/5/2008. Sarah Bourassa 's average story rating is 0.
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