At SVP Portland, we are committed to continuous learning and improvement in order to successfully build community capacity for solving problems together. We mobilize human, social, and financial capital for investment in nonprofits, collaborations, and initiatives to ensure that all children—regardless of ethnicity, wealth, religion, gender, or zip code—have access to quality, culturally-relevant early learning experiences*. To this end, we collect qualitative and quantitative data to understand the impact of our investments, and ensure we continuously improve.

*Ten-year goal, starting in 2012

“Most foundations just want to buy your product by writing a check. SVP is very different and unique in their approach to philanthropy. We said that we wanted to make a bigger difference in early learning. SVP believed in our vision, worked in partnership with our leadership, and brought valuable technical knowledge and skills in research and business planning. When some doubted whether our innovative, culturally-specific approach was effective, having SVP as an investor signaled that we know what we are doing. SVP helps its Community Partners be the best we can be.”

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Lee Po Cha, IRCO Executive Director

14 Community Partners

Community Partners are the organizations, collaborations, and initiatives into which we invest our human, social, and financial capital in order to collectively drive progress toward our current “Preschool for All” goal. Building Community Partner Capacity

Albina Head Start
Black Parent Initiative
Center for African Immigrants & Refugees Organization*
Community Education Workers (program at Oregon Community Health Workers Association)
Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization
KairosPDX
Latino Network
Metropolitan Family Service
Native American Youth & Family Center
Teaching Preschool Partners*

Amplifying Systems Change

Culturally Specific Early Learning Advocacy Collaborative (aka Equity Collaborative)
Growing Master Trainers
Multnomah County Preschool for All Task Force*
Regional Kindergarten Readiness Network*

* new investments in 2018

“Community Education Workers come from the communities they serve. They have real insight into what their community members need, and have the flexibility to adapt their work to their own language and culture groups. There aren’t enough of them yet–a major goal this year is figuring out how to expand their funding base and eventually add more CEWs–but they create ripples of impact greater than the sum of their parts.”

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Cory Mathews, SVP Lead Partner

10 Capacity Building Foci Areas

We define capacity building as the “knowledge, leadership, infrastructure, and resources that enable an organization to fulfill its mission.” The areas of focus in 2018 include:

Financial Management
Fund Development
Human Resources & Organizational Infrastructure
Impact Evaluation
Information Technology
Leadership Development (Staff & Board)
Marketing & Communications
Policy & Advocacy
Program Design
Strategic & Business Planning

“The partnership with SVP was instrumental. We had leadership, but not the capacity. We had to build on a shoestring. When you have time and expertise from SVP in the early stage, you build a foundation for an organization to be successful and sustainable. That’s game-changing.”

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Kali Ladd, Executive Director of KairosPDX

4,700 Children Served

In order to work towards more equitable distribution of philanthropic resources as well as community-level outcomes in our community, SVP collects data on children served, disaggregated by race and ethnicity as well as socio-economic status, from our Community Partners annually. The 4,702 children served in 2018 were served directly by nonprofit organizations in our portfolio.

“As a result of our work with SVP, we've set a goal of growing Ready, Set, Go, our early childhood program to ten sites, with a seventh likely. The goal we've set is double what it might have been without SVP's involvement.”

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Judy Strand, MFS CEO

“We have the power to change the trajectory for vulnerable children in our communities. By expanding access to quality early-learning opportunities that are proven to help children build cognitive, emotional and social skills, we can give all children entering kindergarten the best chance to be successful in school.”

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Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson

4,300 Hours of Skilled Volunteer Time

SVP Partners, Encore Fellows, and volunteers bring decades of expertise to build the capacity of our Community Partners and to SVP. This investment of SVP’s “human capital” hours is reported monthly.

“It has been a humbling and extremely fulfilling experience partnering with Albina Head Start. The passion that the Executive Director brings to advocating for our community is amazing and inspiring. Our partnership is expanding the opportunities for the parents of Head Start children through workforce readiness training in the healthcare sector integrated with educational opportunities for young children.”

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David Smith, SVP Lead Partner

$2.1M Dollars Leveraged

Leveraged funds represent SVP’s “social capital”, that is using SVP’s connections, networks, relationships, and influence to help attract additional financial resources for our Community Partners. Examples of this include an organization receiving a new grant due to SVP’s influence, or a direct Investor Partner donation.

“SVP opened doors that we were previously unaware of or unable to access, and made valuable new connections on NAYA’s behalf within the community.”

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Paul Lumley, NAYA Executive Director

15:1 Return on Investment

SVP is more than a fiscal grantmaker—when we invest, we also leverage our human and social capital. This holistic approach multiplies the financial donations that we receive. In 2018, for every dollar SVP invested in direct financial grants, the leveraged volunteer hours of our skilled Partnership represent a return of $15.20.

“I am glad that SVP is supporting this organization; Knowing SVP is invested will strengthen any proposal we receive from them.”

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Molly Day, Early Learning Multnomah

137 Investor Partners

At SVP, Investor Partners are the catalysts that drive change. Dedicated individuals like you directly invest time, skills, and resources to have meaningful partnerships with our nonprofit Community Partners. The results are outstanding. Your financial investments are leveraged 15 to 1 to help our Community Partners reach their goals and contribute to our common Preschool for All goals and provide sustainable, equitable solutions to families in the Portland area. We could not do this work without our Investor Partners!

SVP Portland Year of Impact 2018