Nonprofit Spotlight: Community Value Alliance
Here in the St. Louis area, we’re fortunate to be the home to numerous nonprofit organizations that help better our community. But when it comes to ensuring these essential nonprofits receive the help and expertise that they need, where do they turn?
The answer is Community Value Alliance. Community Value Alliance (CVA) was established in 2016 by Dan Sills, James H. Canada, and Jared Peno to help nonprofit organizations in key areas. To help grow awareness of their efforts, we are spotlighting the work that CVA does.
In January 2021, Rachel Covington was named the Executive Director of Community Value Alliance, bringing with her more than 25 years’ experience in the social service and healthcare nonprofit sectors. Over the past eight months, she’s spearheaded efforts to provide services to eight deserving nonprofits.
“Nonprofits are founded by passionate people who can deliver on their mission, but where they run into difficulties is when they have to exercise business acumen. Are their financials in order? Do they have the capability of documenting HR issues? And so on. If nonprofits don’t tend to those operational issues, the nonprofit can’t sustain itself over time; the ability to serve the community becomes compromised,” said Covington.
Knowing that leadership, staff and board members can change over time, Community Value Alliance aims to be a constant partner and advisor. They help empower nonprofits by enabling leadership, staff, and boards to focus on achieving and exceeding their goals.
By partnering with for-profit organizations, CVA sources top-notch service providers at reasonable prices for their nonprofits. In turn, this allows the nonprofits to focus on their mission and be that much more successful in their actions.
Tammy Iskarous, the Executive Director of one of these nonprofits -- Riverbend Family Ministries -- said that what Community Value Alliance has done for them has been “transformational.”
Covington also shared with us: “From a CVA perspective, we appreciate that we can rely on the Concannon Insurance Agency to help us with our insurance and risk management needs. It frees up our time and resources to help us do what we do best: provide expertise to nonprofits in the area.”
The specific areas that CVA focuses on are those that are imperative to nonprofit success: human resources, information technology, finance, public relations, fundraising and marketing.
CVA manages a Corporate Partner Program, which allows for-profit businesses to donate to scholarship funds for nonprofits. These scholarships allow nonprofits to afford expertise they may need.
Interested in learning more about Community Value Alliance, hosting an event or donating to their Corporate Partner Program? Please visit their website: https://www.cvastl.org/donate.
