2019 Year in Review
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 high-quality, culturally-relevant early learning experiences. To this end, we collect data to understand the impact of our investments, and ensure we continuously improve.
We were a significant contributor to these 2019 successes in the early learning landscape:
$200 million in new state funding to support early childhood learning was approved through the Student Success Act.
Multnomah County’s Preschool for All Task Force published a comprehensive report on how to make universal preschool a reality for Portland’s kids.
Our Community Partner organizations are more equipped to offer quality preschool programs and meet workforce development needs. For example:
Since our investment in the Latino Network in 2013, their Juntos Aprendemos program grew from three schools in one community to 17 schools state-wide.
In partnership with Albina Head Start, we created a job training program for parents. The first cohort of received certificates in healthcare administration, creating a two-generational growth model.
We invested in a collaboration between Metropolitan Family Service (MFS) and Teaching Preschool Partners (TPP) to further strengthen each organization’s early learning program. MFS’s Ready, Set, Go! staff received comprehensive training on the Reggio pedagogy, while TPP received coaching and feedback to improve the program’s in cultural responsiveness.
“SVP’s greatest contribution to the Preschool for All initiative is the diversity of skills and depth of expertise that Partners have brought to the Steering Committee and Work Teams over the past year. We’ve particularly relied on SVP expertise in the areas for early learning, real estate, and infrastructure. This is not to mention all of the groundwork SVP laid throughout the past five years, beginning with their leadership of the Ready for Kindergarten Collaborative. I have no doubt that the Preschool for All report – with recommendations on how to make quality universal preschool a reality – would not have happened without SVP.” — Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson
BY THE NUMBERS:
2,970 Children Served
In order to work toward a more equitable distribution of philanthropic resources and to quantify community-level outcomes in our community, we collect annual data on children served by our Community Partners. “Focusing on an organization’s overall health and sustainability is vital, though these administrative needs are rarely able to be prioritized given the lean staffing and full roles within more nonprofits. SVP’s Partnership can fill that gap. An investment in capacity building leads to an organization’s ability to innovate and design programs that address systemic issues. This is the key to long-term, transformational change in our community.” — SVP Partner Megan Loeb
19:1 Leverage*
We are more than grantmakers. Engaging our human and social capital in concert with funding multiplies our impact beyond traditional grant-making alone. In 2019, for every dollar SVP Portland invested in direct financial grants to our nonprofit Partners, we saw a 19:1 return on investment through volunteer hours and other funding provided because of SVP Partner influence. *Note: this does not reflect the $20M we helped raise from the State of Oregon for the Early Childhood Equity Fund. “What one can do well, many can do exceptionally. Partners and Fellows have rich professional backgrounds and SVP provides a supportive and collaborative platform for each to be heard, recognized, and valued. This creates a fertile landscape to aid community nonprofits...in a fast growing diverse world.” — SVP Partner & Board Director Vân Truong
$181k in Grants to Community Partners
Community Partners are the organizations, collaborations, and initiatives in which we invest our human, social, and financial capital. The broader goal is to collectively increase access to culturally relevant early learning experiences for all children—regardless of ethnicity, wealth, religion, gender, or zip code.This year, $181k in total grants went out to our Community Partners. Of that total, $76k were direct capacity building grants from SVP and $105k were pass-through grants as part of the Equity Collaborative. Building Community Partner Capacity Portfolio
Albina Head Start
Black Parent Initiative
Center for African Immigrants & Refugees Organization (CAIRO)
Community Education Workers (CEW, a program at Oregon Community Health Workers Association, ORCHWA)
Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
KairosPDX
Latino Network
Metropolitan Family Service
Teaching Preschool Partners
Threads of Justice Collective*
Amplifying Systems Change Portfolio
Equity Collaborative (aka Culturally Specific Early Learning Advocacy Collaborative)
Growing Master Trainers
Multnomah County Preschool for All Task Force
Regional Kindergarten Readiness Network
* new investment in 2019
“SVP Portland is like family. They not only change organizations, they capacitate organizations to change systems permanently—and as a result, help benefit the lives of so many in our community facing barriers.” — Latino Network Executive Director Carmen Rubio
122 Total Partners
Our Investor Partners are the catalysts that drive change by working alongside our Community Partners. Dedicated businesses and individuals like you directly invest your unique skills and resources, and the results are impressive. While our Partners contribute their expertise to our community, they also benefit from their engagements. Through first-hand experience in a partnership, SVP Partners learn directly from the organizations with whom they work, create social connections, grow professionally and personally, and have the opportunity to achieve their philanthropic goals. “SVP brings together knowledge, talent, motivation, and dollars for the greater community good. Being a Partner is as inspiring as it is motivating and rewarding.” — SVP Partner & Board Director Nicole Thibodeau
4,814 Skilled Volunteer Hours
SVP Partners and Encore Fellows bring decades of expertise to build the capacity of our Community Partners as well as our internal operations.In 2019, Partners were engaged in a variety of projects that tapped into their professional experience and stretched their nonprofit engagement. Backgrounds in financial management, executive coaching, business planning, and more all helped us develop transformative partnerships with our nonprofit Community Partners.“I am extremely impressed by the impact that SVP has made in the community. The unique model of working side by side with community organizations enables them to solve problems they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise." — SVP Partner & Board Director Steve Fields
$1M Dollars Influenced
Leveraged funds represent the social capital of our Partnerships, that is using our 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 connections, or a Partners’ direct donation to an organization.Additionally, our Partnership’s time and influence contributed to a historic win at the state level this year. The Student Success Act was passed by the Oregon legislature and signed by the governor. It includes $20M for the Early Childhood Equity Fund. These funds will be used to expand access to early learning programs for thousands of children, including culturally specific programs for children of color and dual language learners. (We chose not to include this number in our total so as not to skew our historical tracking.) “Our model connects and supports donors and nonprofits, amplifying their impact to do good in the community. As a Partner, I know that the relationships we are building are tackling our community's social challenges effectively.” — SVP Partner & Board Director Paula Little
9 Capacity-Building Areas
We define capacity building as increasing the “knowledge, leadership, infrastructure, and resources that enable an organization to fulfill its mission.” The areas of focus in 2019 included:
Financial Management
Fund Development
Human Resources & Organizational Infrastructure
Information Technology
Leadership Development (Staff & Board)
Policy & Advocacy
Program Design
Strategic & Business Planning
Succession Planning
“In my over 40 years leading Head Start, the SVP team is the best group of outside partners I have worked with. They quickly understood what Albina wanted to do in creating another parent training plan that would lead to employment. This past June's first graduating class is testimony to SVP's skill and ability to help make life changing opportunities for Head Start parents that have few champions.” — Albina Head Start Executive Director Ron Herndon