We prove that, under suitable conditions, a Jacobi Poincaré series of exponential type of integer weight and matrix index does not vanish identically. For the classical Jacobi forms, we construct a basis consisting of the ‘first’ few Poincaré series, and also give conditions, both dependent on and independent of the weight, that ensure the nonvanishing of a classical Jacobi Poincaré series. We also obtain a result on the nonvanishing of a Jacobi Poincaré series when an odd prime divides the index.