From Shoestring to Success: SVP and Peninsula Children’s Learning Center

When seven boisterous children gathered in the basement at North Portland’s St. John’s Church in 1970, they unknowingly founded a community resource that would go on to enhance the lives of legions of children and parents.

What started as St. Johns Day Care evolved into the highly regarded year-round Peninsula Children’s Learning Center serving children in N. and N.E. Portland.

Ralph Lawrence, the church’s pastor in 1970, is proud of how the early childhood center has unfolded. “It expanded from our small ‘shoestring operation’ to one of the finest programs of its kind in Oregon, or maybe anywhere,” he said. Social Venture Partners Portland (SVP) is equally proud to have played a part in that transformation.

By 2011, Peninsula had been providing quality, affordable child-care for nearly 41 years. The school had bought and remodeled an old Catholic school that occupies an entire city block in N. Portland.  It had gotten support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United Way, Meyer Memorial Trust and a capital fund drive.   Peninsula had long-demonstrated its excellence, but it was facing a very challenging time.

Peninsula’s budget requires 95 percent enrollment to generate enough revenue to keep the program going if it is to continue to serve low income families. A significant drop in enrollment starting in the summer of 2011 put its finances in jeopardy.

Peninsula attributed the decline primarily to the downturn to the general economy, the loss of some Portland Children’s Levy money and elimination of funding for a federal employment and training program serving people on public assistance. Without the federal subsidy, many low-income families that the school served simply couldn’t afford the program.

Peninsula decided to seek an investment of money and expertise from SVP. “SVP had a very good reputation within the non-profit community in the Portland area,” said Ken Dale, Peninsula’s Executive Director. “I knew being an SVP investee would give us even more credibility with other funders.”

In August 2011, SVP and Peninsula agreed to partner in an effort to develop a strategic plan that would position Peninsula as a diverse, community-based early childhood education program. Both Peninsula and SVP’s goal was to ensure Peninsula’s financial stability, grow it attendance and improve its long-term sustainability. SVP also agreed to make a $25,000 grant to Peninsula over a 2 year period and to provide an unlimited amount of SVP consulting hours.Barbara Francis took on the role of SVP’s Lead Partner charged with managing SVP’s relationship with Peninsula. “I served as a facilitator, organizer and communicator, establishing relationships with Ken Dale, the Board President and some of the staff,” Francis said. “My role was to get in there and get a deeper understanding of what their needs were and then make sure I’m communicating back to SVP.”

Francis, who taught at a Hillsboro elementary school for eight years before leaving to assist non-profits and do other community work, said the SVP/Peninsula partnership showed that SVP Partners need not always have specialized business skills to make an impact on a non-profit. “We need Partners who are people people, who will take time to nurture relationships, to get to know one another and build trust,” she said.

The SVP team helped Peninsula develop a 3-year strategic plan and complete a marketing plan that assisted Peninsula in clarifying and communicating its mission.“What we discovered was that their brand was unknown because they hadn’t advertised,” said Cheryl Edmonds, one of the Strategic Advisors on SVP’s Peninsula team. “So we helped them learn some business basics related to their industry.”

SVP’s team also did a competitive analysis of the market, identifying Peninsula’s principal competitors. “We showed them what other day care centers were saying and how they looked to the prospective parent looking for child care,” Edmonds said.

In addition, the SVP team suggested a new name for what was then the Peninsula Children’s Center by inserting the word “Learning”, expanded its presence on social media, helped design a new logo and arranged for Peninsula’s bus to be painted with whimsical, colorful designs, making it a travelling advertisement.

SVP encouraged Peninsula to give evening tours (in addition to its one on one tours) to interested parents and to do timely follow-ups. It also helped drive the push for more children, particularly children attending at market rates.

Enrollment at Peninsula is now close to 100 percent of capacity and is still serving low-income families, helped by SVP’s efforts, some talented new employees, an upgrade in Peninsula’s program and the general economic recovery.

Francis gave a lot of the credit for Peninsula’s success to its people. “Peninsula had to do the really hard work,” she said. “We just provided tools and ideas, which they then carried out masterfully. They had to get in the trenches.”

Peninsula is back on its feet, healthy and strong, and, instead of debilitating debt, it has money in the bank.

Peninsula is also now an exuberant supporter of SVP, maintaining that what SVP can bring to other non-profits is much more than money. “The money’s nice, but what you’re also getting is people outside the box with a variety of opinions who are giving you a lot of time,” said Dale. “It’s a wonderful program and I’m very pleased we got involved. The SVP staff and volunteers are great people to work with.”