TESTIMONIALS
My work with Sara Juli and Surala Consulting began in 2020 and has completely transformed my artistic business. Sara has empowered me to see myself as more than the struggling artist I believed myself to be when we first began working together: thanks to her guidance, I am now an avid fundraiser, a solopreneur, and a leader capable of rallying my network around me to suppor my artistic career and projects. Thanks to her consulting, I have fundraised almost $70,000 in the last four years. I am so proud of my ability to sustain my work as a performing artist - all thanks to Sara's incredible guidance!
For the past 4 years, Surala Consulting has provided a one-stop shop of services to our artist grantees for Live Arts Boston. Sara has served as a project advisor and a confidant to artists who desire self-defined success. Sara’s wealth of knowledge and willingness to guide, shape and uplift our grantees has allowed them to feel capable of achieving anything. From grant writing and project development to tax referrals and strategic planning, Surala Consulting has been an asset and a go-to business for our organization and the creative community-at-large.
Emily and the entire team at Surala are knowledgeable, professional, and efficient. They have been providing fundraising support for Dance On Camera for many years and we have been very impressed. Beyond that, it is a pleasure to work with them. We feel comfortable our organization is being represented with integrity and grace.
Emily Theys is not only an incredible grant writer but also an invaluable asset to any team. Regardless of the deadline, she consistently delivers, and we would not have reached this level with our funders without her dedication and expertise. We highly recommend the entire team at Surala—they are a fantastic group to work with and have been essential to our success.
Amanda is a great addition to the Surala team. Amanda's wordsmithing coupled with her time management are strategic assets in navigating the grant application process that is so vital to all non-profits.
Our Steps would not be where we are today without Emily by our side. Her professionalism, experience, personal approach and genuine support of our work has been invaluable to our growth and sustainability. I cannot recommend Emily and Surala highly enough.
Sara’s input has been invaluable in moving my musical storytelling performance project forward. We have a wonderful rapport, and she has a great sense of humor, but also is serious about the work of making headway in the world of performing arts. She knows her stuff and has been able to give me guidance even when I have wondered what direction I might possibly take. She’s got a wealth of resources in her bag and has always been able to offer me insight, whether sharing techniques for ‘budgeting’ time and tasks, or knowing the names of organizations to connect with, for grants or networking. From the first time we met, I have been acting on the wisdom Sara has shared with me, with success!
Working with Sara at Surala Consulting has proven to be a positive and beneficial process for our non-profit organization. She is professional, efficient, and flexible, making easy work of collaborative grant writing. Sara has gone above and beyond to learn about our organization and our community, allowing her to develop on-brand, mission-related proposals that highlight our strengths. Sara has been a big part of recent growth and has helped us prepare grants for programming, general operations, and capacity building. We highly recommend Sara and look forward to continuing our work together.
The thing that consistently blows me away about Sara Juli is the sincere enthusiasm she manages to bring to an aspect of art making that can feel completely uninspired at times. I have found her energy and devotion towards the field to be incredibly motivating and deeply connected to her vast knowledge of its infrastructure. As an independent artist it is invaluable for me to have someone like Sara as a support system. Her work as an administrator is deeply informed by her experience of being an artist here in New York City, and it allows our dialogue to be multidimensional in a way that fosters not only my fundraising practices, but my creative practice as well.
Emily Theys is an awesome grant writer. I’ve now worked with her at two organizations because I was impressed with her collaborative nature, project management skills, and strong writing. She always felt like a real member of our team even though she was working as a consultant. I have been deeply appreciative on many occasions for her work ethic and willingness to go the extra mile. I’ve worked with her on massive proposals for government support and proposals that require tight responses and she can do them all.
It is both productive and fun to work with Sara. She works like a close and invested partner committed to your success, and is efficient, detailed and down-to-earth. With a wealth of experience to draw upon, she is able to provide comprehensive strategy, project management and strong, on-time delivery of a wide range of institutional and individual development initiatives. Basically…she rocks!
It has been great to have Ellen’s help and insight working on numerous grant and residency applications. She has a depth of experience and knowledge in the field, is a very clear communicator and a lovely person!
Working with Sara Juli has made a tremendous difference in my development as an artist. Our work has allowed me to pay my collaborators and envision a realistic strategy for fundraising that debunks various sticky “poor hopeless artist’ thinking that is so dangerous and prevalent in the dance community. There are certain realities to the current funding farm and our economy as a whole but Sara unleashes an excitement and rigor in her work and makes it all seem possible. It’s the best money I have spent!
Working with Sara has been truly transformational. In the process of helping me to successfully raise money for my projects, she has also positively and dramatically changed how I think about money and, consequently, how I value my art. She strikes a perfect balance between thinking globally and determining the specific details required to put the global plan into action. Likewise, her substantial experience in the field is paired with an almost playful ability to adapt herself to my individual situation–she has made it fun to tackle this scary enterprise of fundraising (and I can’t imagine doing it without her).
Sara Juli’s work on behalf of Gibney Dance Center has been extraordinary. What is unique about Sara is her ability to leverage her skills, experience and common sense on behalf of a myriad of organizations, achieving immediate results and opening up long-term possibilities. Her guidance draws from a deep awareness of the opportunities and potential pitfalls facing arts organizations, and practical wisdom in how to steer away from “stuck syndrome” and toward success. She advised Gibney Dance Center from the ground up in the conception and operation of an in-house development team. Keenly aware of the pitfalls of rapid growth and expansion, she had laid the groundwork for solid development efforts that will catapult our organization to a new level of operation. In a word, Sara’s work is insightful and potent: she can make a big difference in a few words and in a short amount of time.
Working with Emily feels like having another team member in our development efforts. She has been such an absolute joy to work with for the past 2 years.
