Investing in High-Quality Pre-K
Caitlin Howard was a member of the Investment Team that explored the potential for investment in SVP’s most recent non-profit partner: Teaching Preschool Partners (TPP). TPP is dedicated to strengthening quality preschool education for children facing barriers to success.
The exploration of a potential investment in Teaching Preschool Partners (TPP) was a rich and relatively lengthy due diligence process. The goal was twofold. The first was more logistical: to understand of the current state of TPP (e.g. mission, programs, staffing, revenue & funding, impact in the community…) and their desired state (e.g. future programs, future staffing, future revenue & funding, increase impact in the community…). The other, crucial intention of the due diligence process was to get a feeling for the dynamic between SVP and TPP. Could we work together in understanding the current state of their organization and conceptualizing of a desired future? Could we communicate effectively in order to strategize how to get from point A to B? At SVP, we partner. So, if we were going to invest in this organization, we needed to be sure that there was a chemistry out of which innovation and impact could be created.
To ascertain all of this, my fellow SVP Partners, Will Gruner and Kris Irwin, and I met repeatedly with TPP Executive Director, Catherine Willmott to discuss what a potential SVP-TPP partnership might look like, both in terms of how TPP wants to grow as an organization and how TPP and SVP might work together as partners to foster that growth. Factors unique to TPP dictated our timeline, which saw us meet in the spring, then hold off until June in order to wait and see how things unfolded with the funding of classrooms they were planning to open this fall. As pieces fell into place and the immediate future took clearer form (TPP would not open the two classrooms they had planned to, due to funding discrepancies, but would instead open one—Parkrose—and postpone the second—Reynolds—until January) we were able to actively start brainstorming about what TPP’s path forward might be. Several ideas were thrown around, and this is where communication became key. I can’t stress the importance of keeping an open and frequent dialogue between everyone involved in this conversation. In order to assess ideas efficiently and realistically, it was crucial that everyone remained straightforward and that we ensured everyone was being understood correctly.
After an intensive due diligence process, I went before SVP’s Capacity Investment Team with the final investment proposal agreed upon by TPP’s leadership and the SVP investment team. A 9-month, $5,000 investment was approved, including an SVP Partner volunteer effort to help develop a strategic plan, a marketing & communications plan and business plan. We now begin the search for a Lead Partner!