Giving Back To Local Veterans

A Classic Car show and summer bash was held in South Park to raise monies to purchase a service dog for a local veteran in Bethel Park. Partnering with the Allegheny Rockets, McKibbin Consulting was the main sponsor for the event that raised $28,000 for the Rescue 22 Foundation.

Rescue 22 Foundation was co-founded by Angela Connor, the daughter of a Vietnam Veteran. The 22 stands for the 22 veterans we lose to suicide a day. The dogs are an important tool to combat depression, anxiety and other challenges associated with PTSD.

For every dollar raised $ .97 of that goes to the foundation and not overhead. Those involved in the organization are all volunteers who have either served in the military or are somehow drawn to the cause. Training costs for each service dog runs $25,000. Unlike other organizations, Rescue 22 matches the appropriate dog to the veteran’s needs and train them in the support before presenting the service dog to the veteran.

The Veteran Service Dog Trust [VSDT] fulfills out foundation’s primary mission in order to provide the highest quality task trained dogs on behalf of our nation’s veterans. Our foundation provides psychiatric, mobility and medical service dogs to our veterans at no charge and without geographic restrictions. Service dogs that meet the needs of veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress remain our most requested type of dog. The VA does not provide funding for service dogs for PTS, TBI or other non-mobility diagnoses at this time.

Generous donations from our supporting individuals, companies and sponsors provides for the following services that make our life-saving dogs possible:

• Training (the average service dog trains for over a year)
• Animal care including food, veterinarian services and grooming
• Service dog and handler equipment
• Handler education
• Service dog and handler integration

McKibbin Consulting is proud to support our local veterans in this cause as there are currently 10 veterans in the Pittsburgh region on a waiting list for a service dog. To learn more about how you can support Rescue 22 Foundation, contact Angela Connor at 302-272-8029 or email [email protected].

Jill ranks in the top 50 Women in the Top 100 Magazine

Dubbed “the queen of Pittsburgh networking,” Jill McKibbin is an expert business development consultant with over 35 years of sales experience. In 2010, she became the owner and president of McKibbin Consulting, a Pennsylvania-based firm where she implements her own signature approach to connect businesses across diverse backgrounds. With the help of a highly dedicated team of skilled professionals, Jill provides numerous companies with the tools necessary for growing their businesses, building sales teams, reaching different markets, and using new networking strategies. She credits her success to the long-term relationships she has maintained with a plethora of customers: architects, general contractors, surveyors, and construction mangers as well as audio visual, civil, environmental, geotechnical, structural, and MEP engineers. As testimony to her accomplishments, Jill was the recipient of the 2014 Women in Business Award and is a multi-nominee of the Athena Award.

Jill’s multifaceted background makes it easy for her to connect with clients. Nothing has ever been freely handed to her, and she is a survivor having overcome countless obstacles and hardships. “Early in my career, I did all kinds of jobs,” Jill says. “I even toured as a professional singer for a number of years.” As the mother of an ailing child who required extensive medical attention, she was also forced to hold her fair share of difficult roles. However, each job introduced her to a vast network of people, taught her the importance of teamwork, and enabled her to personally relate to the challenges of her clients.

Jill’s career took a positive turn in 2005 when she accepted a position at a mechanical contracting company. She was involved with several organizations in her city and knew that meeting more people would be key to building sales and procuring larger industrial accounts, so that same year, she founded a networking organization called Commercial Industrial Service Trade (CIST). Over the years, as Jill transitioned into other companies and moved into different roles, her network continued to grow.

In 2010, an architect recommended that she take all her skills and experience—and her special brand of relation building—and branch out on her own, and McKibbin Consulting was born. Now, for more than a decade, Jill and her team have been serving as a one-stop shop—connecting clients with property owners and managers, directors of operation, purchasing agents, architects, and facilities directors. The private consulting firm has also been a conduit for those interested in working with local universities, women, veterans, and minority-owned companies. No matter what kind of company Jill looks at—from the billion-dollar, publicly traded to the small, privately owned—she identifies ways to connect them to the right people, whether local, national, or international.

Jill also during COVID 19 never turned away her clients when some of them had an inability to pay. “That’s what makes both my firm and the CIST network unique—we are all from different backgrounds and industries; we are transparent; and we go above and beyond for each other and for our clients,” she explains. “At McKibbin Consulting, people come first, and the money is secondary.”

Part of Jill’s determination to serve others stems from her own past f struggles. She learned firsthand how daunting it is to battle seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Therefore, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jill not only recommended strategies to help other companies survive, but she also drew upon her experience to expand McKibbin Consulting.

Jill would like to include a special thank you to Autumn Edmiston, the CEO and owner of The Edmiston Group based in Allison Park, PA. Autumn has been instrumental in helping Jill to reach her current level of success and to become the versatile businesswoman she is today. Jill also wishes to thank God.

Contact:
Jill McKibbin
President
McKibbin Consulting
Website: www.mckibbinconsulting.com
The Edmiston Group: https://edmistongroup.com
LinkedIn: Jill McKibbin

To read the original article, click here.

Company With a Heart to Help Others Matchmaking for Business

By The Western PA Healthcare News Team – February 20, 2021

Matchmaking and February go hand in hand. Jill McKibbin, President of McKibbin Consulting, is known as the matchmaker and connector in helping small businesses grow through matching companies with introductions through her vast network of connections. COVID has created challenges to develop connections for all business types. As businesses have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic, they have reached to McKibbin for advice and connections to new markets. National and international companies wanting to expand their footprint into the region are contacting McKibbin regarding introductions and guidance.

With a strong construction vertical, McKibbin has had people from all over the country reach out for assistance in developing connections within the Pittsburgh region and beyond. What does that mean for those that are involved with McKibbin Consulting? Jobs, new contracts, and opportunities for business growth.

Spending her career in business development before opening her own business, McKibbin Consulting was launched in 2010. Through her monthly networking group meetings, Commercial Industrial Trades Services (CIST), she has helped connect engineers, architects, property managers, land developers, real estate attorneys, bankers, and contractors to one another to build strong teams of business owners. McKibbin Consulting is a central point of contact that brings together teams of companies to create and deliver commercial industrial trade services.

Minority contractors have benefited from guidance to become certified as a minority contractor – women-owned, veteran, disadvantaged business owner. Why is this important? These certifications enable smaller businesses to become part of larger contracts particularly when federal monies are involved. Additionally, there is an opportunity with corporations that require diversity in their vendor relationships. Without these certifications, smaller companies may not have these chances to grow.

Jill’s desire to help others enables her to excel in developing businesses. As a consultant, she sees the strengths in a company and develops an understanding of how to build upon them. Having the heart to help people she finds something that connects everyone together. She then becomes the connector or the matchmaker to introduce that business to potential leads within her network.

Because of her success in the construction industry, other types of businesses are now reaching out for evaluation of their business and new ideas on how to pivot particularly as it relates to a different way of doing business because of COVID. The landscape in the business and construction community is changing. Companies are shifting employees to work from home, commercial space is being reconfigured and new businesses are entering the market.

To learn how McKibbin Consulting can make the right connections to grow your business, visit www.mckibbinconsulting.com or email [email protected].

https://www.wphealthcarenews.com/company-with-a-heart-to-help-others-matchmaking-for-business/