Sitting at coffee last week with a dear, old friend of mine, reminiscing about our silly high school days, catching up on our mom lives, and working through the more serious topic of starting a new company, T and I had a really thoughtful conversation about how to maintain your business’ principles years down the road. As a business owner, how do you ensure at your twentieth anniversary, that your customers see the same company they did in year one, even though the business has grown?

What Did We Figure Out?

That you build your company with strong values.

It’s funny for me. When I started my event planning company, I was working as a high school English teacher. It was just a few short years after earning my Masters degree in educational administration. For years, my goal was to become a high school principal. Secondary education female principals were – and are – hard to come by.

However, with each event, I learned that this event planner job fit my personality perfectly. It took years for me to truly understand this and come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be working in the schools anymore. I know I’m in the right place now.

Giving to Philanthropy

One of the core values at the heart of JPB Designs is to continually treat others with kindness…. but this year we are taking it to a whole other level.

As of 2019, we are now giving back! And, we found a great way to connect my previous career with my current event planning company, especially since our philanthropic focus is to give back specifically to students in need.

After much consideration, we decided to choose three different charities. We have a charity for each region our business resides: Chicago, Michigan, and the DC/Baltimore area. (See more about what services we provide in each location here.) Knowing that I wanted to support at-risk, teenage students, I spent hours looking for the right fit in each of these cities.

So, with pleasure, I can say that we will be supporting the following institutions this year. If you have a spare second, check out the sites to see how these people are revolutionizing the way in which teens think, create, learn, and simply be. They are amazing!

Each Location’s Philanthropy:

Chicago | Urban Prep Academies

Michigan | Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP)

Baltimore & DC | Living Classrooms Foundation

To learn more about our story, click on our home page and scroll down to the philanthropy box. It will direct you to more information.