Building Investment-Ready Organizations and Community Portfolios
JLB Advisors is a philanthropic and community-investment advisory firm that helps mission-driven organizations and institutions translate community assets into strategies capable of attracting, deploying, and sustaining capital.
We partner with nonprofits, foundations, financial institutions, corporations, and public-sector organizations to strengthen leadership, development infrastructure, portfolio strategy, cross-sector partnerships, and impact measurement.
Our work connects organizational vision with the governance, evidence, relationships, and revenue systems required to produce durable community outcomes.
Our Firm
Founded in 2020 by Jamalia L. Brashears, MPA, JLB Advisors works at the intersection of philanthropy, community development, economic mobility, workforce development, and health equity.
We understand that strong organizations are not simply “in need” of funding. They possess leadership, community trust, lived expertise, partnerships, and proven ideas. Our role is to help translate those assets into an investment-ready strategy that funders and institutional partners can understand, support, and scale.
JLB Advisors works on both sides of the capital relationship:
• Preparing nonprofits and community-based organizations to attract and sustain diversified investment
• Advising foundations and corporate funders on portfolio strategy, grantee engagement, and measurable impact
• Helping financial institutions and community-investment partners align capital, employee talent, nonprofit readiness, and place-based priorities
OUR APPROACH
Understand. Build. Align. Measure.
Understand - We assess organizational assets, leadership priorities, operating conditions, community context, and investment readiness.
Build - We strengthen the strategies, systems, partnerships, and evidence required to advance the work.
Align - We connect organizational and community priorities with funder expectations, institutional capital, and cross-sector opportunity.
Measure - We establish meaningful indicators that support decision-making, demonstrate value, and communicate impact.
Jamalia L. Brashears is a social-impact strategist, philanthropic advisor, and founder of JLB Advisors.
With more than 15 years of experience across philanthropy, fund development, and community investment, Jamalia has designed and advanced multi-million-dollar initiatives supporting economic mobility, workforce development, health equity, leadership development, and place-based community change.
Her experience includes building development and fundraising operations, securing multi-year institutional and corporate funding, advising philanthropic portfolios, strengthening nonprofit infrastructure, and connecting narrative, data, and strategy to institutional investment decisions.
Jamalia’s work has included engagement with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Google, Tides, the New York State Health Foundation, Levi Strauss & Co., health systems, national nonprofits, public agencies, and community-based organizations.
As a National Urban Fellow in residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jamalia helped develop and implement the New Connections initiative, an effort created to expand the visibility, influence, and leadership of historically underrepresented researchers and evaluators.
She is also a speaker and facilitator on philanthropic strategy, nonprofit investment readiness, equity-centered capital deployment, asset-framed storytelling, and measurable social impact. Her presentations have included audiences at Harvard University, Spelman College, Baruch College, and Philanthropy New York and Charitable Advisors Indiana.
Jamalia holds a Master of Public Administration through the National Urban Fellows program and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Spelman College. Download bio.
