About

We believe ‘been there, done that’ wisdom beats overengineered consulting every day of the week.

We built Helia because we don’t think social sector work needs to feel so hard — or so lonely!

We are career doers who have worn every possible hat. Along the way, we noticed something: the most useful help we ever got was not a 100-page strategic plan or a 50-slide landscape analysis “custom built” by a team of MBAs. It was a coffee chat with someone who’d been there, who then sent us the spreadsheet they actually used or the email they actually sent.

Helia started with a question: What if we could harness the beauty of those coffee shop conversations to help organizations figure out the “how” of their biggest challenges?

What if we built something for doers — the folks making the work happen in their orgs — so none of us have to start from a blank page?

So, we did! The Helia Collective is your Partner in How — the resource we wished existed when we were stuck. Sometimes that means a conversation with someone who’s been exactly where you are. Other times it means someone who will jump in alongside you and actually do the work (not just hand you a PDF and call it a day). We do both.

Here’s the world we’re trying to build:

  • Doers share their wisdom generously so that we don’t have to start from blank pages.
  • Human connection is the way through — human stories and conversations are the foundation of how we learn and share and grow. (AI can help, but humans are core.)
  • When doers need hands-on help, the help is actually hands-on.
  • All of this makes doers — good humans doing good work — feel less alone.

Want to learn more? Check out Helia’s Strategic Plan (inspired by Libby Fischer Connell’s Strategic Planning approach in our Library!)

“Jess played a key role in Revolution Foods’ growth from $14M to $170M. She combined operational excellence with unwavering commitment to our mission, helping us expand healthy food access while building sustainable systems. Her strategic thinking and hands-on leadership style were crucial to our national expansion.“

— Kristin Richmond, Founder, Revolution Foods

“Jess was instrumental in turning HIP’s vision into reality. She built the operational foundation that allowed us to scale while developing frameworks that helped shape the impact investing industry. Jess’s ability to balance mission with practical execution was exaclty what we needed in our early days, which still are impactful today.“

— Paul Herman

Meet Our Team

Jess Skylar

Twenty years in and Jess still loves helping turn big ideas into reality. Throughout her career, she’s partnered with mission-driven organizations across education, tech, food, financial services, and social impact to be part of building a world we all want to live in. Whether helping scale Revolution Foods from $14M to $170M, co-building Think of Us to be a national systems change leader (including raising nearly $50M through the Audacious Project), or launching one of the first social impact investing firms with HIP Investor, she loves thinking big and then getting into the weeds to make things happen. Now, she’s co-creating Helia Collective to be what she always wanted in the world – a practical partner providing hands-on support that all organizations can turn to when they’re stuck.
When she’s not working with great organizations, you’ll find her in sunny Los Angeles hanging with her teenage kids, writing her newsletter Loving Jess, hiking with her two 100ish pound pups, or reading in her yard, always rooting for the Dodgers and often with a breakfast burrito or mug of tea in her hand.

Libby Fischer Connell

Libby has never taken the easy path, and organizations are better for it. She stepped into Whetstone Education with no business experience, turned a failing company around, and guided it through an acquisition at a multiple that far exceeded expectations. The lesson she carries forward: be amazing first, and the rest will follow. It’s a philosophy born from years watching growth get prioritized over everything else — and choosing a different way.

At heart, Libby is an operator and integrator. She traded her Whetstone CEO hat for the COO role and hasn’t looked back — first at SchoolMint, then OpenLiteracy, and now Helia Collective.

Outside of work, you’ll find her running pickleball tournaments, potlucks, and World Cup watch parties as president of her neighborhood community center.