JVA Executive Director Academy

JVA Consulting, a leading provider of training for nonprofits in the Intermountain West, has announced that its one-week intensive Executive Director Academy (EDA) will be offered in Denver October 7-11.

EDA provides people newly promoted to positions of leadership at nonprofits the opportunity to quickly get their bearings and become more effective leaders. The training is also popular with people in middle management who want to hone their skills in anticipation of advancement.

People who have been in leadership positions for a while commonly use EDA as a refresher course and a way to learn how best practices in nonprofit management have changed.

This is the 13^th time JVA has offered the program, which has graduated more than 100 people.

“It is a fantastic program and worth every dime and every minute of time,” said graduate Jenna Weatherred, executive director of the Children’s Health Foundation.

According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, for-profit jobs declined by an average of 0.6 percent per year between 2000 and 2010, while the nonprofit job sector experienced an average annual growth rate of 2.1 percent—creating new opportunities for job seekers in social change sectors.

For those transitioning from the for-profit to the nonprofit sector, experience, when coupled with formal training, provides nonprofits with well-rounded executive directors and provides the directors with the confidence to become leaders. A Bridgespan survey found that only 46 percent of nonprofit leaders strongly agree that they have received sufficient formal training.

JVA Consulting, based in Colorado, works with social innovators to strengthen their communities. Since 2007, JVA has been offering EDA as an intensive course for prospective, new and learning executive directors with sessions on shared leadership, management, governance, fundraising, finances, marketing, grantwriting, program development and evaluation, and more, all tailored to the new executive director. Now beginning its 13th EDA session, JVA has trained executive directors from across Colorado and from both the East and West Coasts and the Midwest using the EDA curriculum.

Jennifer Ballentine, past EDA participant and executive director of the Life Quality Institute, had this to say of her time in EDA: “I think more than anything the totality of describing what the [executive director] job entails was the most valuable [part of the training]. These are the kinds of things as an ED that you are responsible for and how the job is defined.”

The next EDA takes place October 7-11. To read more about EDA, go to: http://jvaconsulting.com/executive-director-training/#.UPRRybbQYoY

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If you are a member of the media and would like to set up an interview about EDA, please contact Collin Lessing at collin@jvaconsulting.com or 303.477.4896.

You still believe one person can change the world. So does JVA—and we can help you do it. For more than 25 years, JVA has worked with social innovators to improve their communities through community needs assessments, strategic/business planning, board development, fundraising and grantwriting, training and management consulting, and research and program evaluation.