Blog
Where Are They Now: Children’s Book Bank
In honor of our 20th anniversary, we are taking a look back at our past investments to see where they are now. When we first partnered with The Children’s Book Bank (CBB) in 2014, they were a five-year-old organization dedicated to closing the “book gap” that exists between low-income neighborhoods and middle- and upper-income communities. From 2014 to 2017, over ten SVP Partners and four Encore Fellows engaged with CBB to build their organizational capacity.
Encore Fellows Spotlight: Molly Olson
Molly Olson recently retired from Intel with over 35 years leading strategic programs and managing technical design and operations teams in the semiconductor and electrical equipment industries. She is a certified New Ventures leadership coach and focuses her consulting and coaching on strategic planning, implementation planning, program management and leadership development.
From Encore Fellow to Board Member at KairosPDX
I accepted the nine-month Fellowship and dug in to learn as much about the financial inner-workings of KairosPDX as I could. I treated this opportunity from the perspective of a start-up not-for-profit business and asked myself what financial management structure would I want in place if I were to “invest” in KairosPDX.
Investing in the Future: Partnering with Latino Network to Build Capacity
‘Our newly enhanced infrastructure is starting to give us the strong base we need to keep growing,’ - Carmen Rubio, Latino Network Executive Director.Nearing its 20th anniversary of providing culturally specific solutions to the Latino Community, Latino Network had reached a critical crossroads. In working with SVP Partners to plan growth strategy it had become apparent, given expected growth in its programs and client population, that an investment in organizational capacity was needed. Supporting Latino Network to reach its potential meant investing in an administrative infrastructure that could support growth in its highly successful programs.
Encore Fellowship Prepares Marketing Professional for Encore Career
After I completed my Fellowship, I knew that I wanted to continue my work in marketing and communications for a nonprofit, so I applied to job postings on the MacsList website. I saw a position at Janus Youth, an organization that provides community-based services to enhance the quality of life for children, youth and families, had an interview and got an offer within two weeks. The experience I had in my Fellowship and the communication work I accomplished at PSU were crucial in preparing me for this position.
A Year of Making Impact as an Encore Fellow
As my Fellowship comes to a close and a new school year begins, I had and will continue to have great time reaching out to schools, stakeholders and families to help spread the word about Playworks NW and the Power of Play. As an Encore Alumni, I’ll continue to share my experiences with and about my new SVP community.
The Challenge of Measuring Impact
So, what to make of “all things can be measured”? I have learned, both from experience and in my Encore work, that the process of trying to develop and implement measures of impact alone is worthwhile work, even if true accurate measurement remains out of reach. Why? Focusing in a rigorous way on impact helps an organization to examine its activities in light of their intended impact.
Jim Agin - Running the Numbers at Virginia Garcia
Jim quickly encountered a common conundrum for people looking to move into a new career. “If you haven’t been in the industry, you don’t have the experience to work in a new field, but you can’t get the experience unless somebody will hire you,” Agin said.
Choosing Her Own Path: Cheryl Edmonds’ Story
Edmonds work was so successful and valued that MFS went on to use the same Encore Consultant model to do 6 more internal capacity-building projects.