Executive Director Reflections on 2024

Dear SVP Community,

As we begin a new year, I am filled with immense gratitude and optimism when reflecting on all that we accomplished together in 2024. It's been a period of significant progress and growth for SVP Portland as well as many of our remarkable Community Partners. 

This year, we continued to witness the pernicious social challenges and inequalities, but we also saw the remarkable impact we can achieve when we come together with a shared vision of creating a more compassionate and equitable world. The passion and dedication of SVP Partners and community leaders working collaboratively to ensure the health and vitality of preschool providers is truly inspirational. 

Our focus remains on ensuring that all children have access to high-quality, culturally-relevant early learning experiences, regardless of their background. Here are a few highlights that exemplify the collective impact we had in 2024:

● Scaling Our Impact: We grew our portfolio from 12 to 19 Community Partners, and also developed an innovative way to broaden our reach, moving beyond our traditional one-on-one coaching model to support multiple preschool providers simultaneously through our Ready to Grow program. Seven social entrepreneurs are participating in our pilot program to gain knowledge, skills, and connections necessary for building thriving businesses and expanding their preschool programs. 

● Community Partner Pipeline Project: We launched the Community Partner Pipeline Project to identify synergies amongst multiple Community Partners, allowing us to offer more efficient, collaborative and comprehensive support to organizations with shared capacity building needs.

● Demand for Capacity Building: We shifted from proactively pursuing new Community Partners to needing to respond to a pipeline of over a dozen nonprofit leaders seeking our culturally-responsive capacity building support. It is motivating to see that our credibility as a trusted partner has grown, and feedback is that our resources are making a meaningful difference.

● Encore Fellows: Our Encore Fellows continued to contribute their exceptional skills to local nonprofits. We placed 19 Encore Fellows in much needed roles, like Angela Rivera, for example, who played a critical part at one of SVP’s Community Partners, the Alliance for Equity in Montessori Education (AEME). Angela developed a comprehensive Preschool Site Handbook for AEME with information for legal and operational success, as well as created a Professional Development Plan to set, monitor, and achieve employees’ professional growth goals. 

● Responsive Model: We pride ourselves on being an exceptional, collaborative, responsive organization, as affirmed by Angie Garcia, founder and Executive Director of Escuela Viva: “SVP has played a crucial role in helping us clarify our position in the early childhood education sector. Our Lead Partner has skillfully crafted our story into a compelling narrative that not only better defines our mission but also directs our growth as a small organization. This growth is centered on empowering and supporting early childhood educators, along with advancing the Preschool For All initiative. SVP has been vital in assisting us in outlining how we can effectively contribute to this initiative in a way that is most beneficial for the children and families we serve.” 

● Strategic Evolution: A Dynamic Team completed a re-evaluation of our business model. After comprehensive research & analysis, the Team proposed a set of recommendations that position us to grow our community impact substantially over the next 3-5 years. Key actions include: Investing in SVP’s capacity & core capabilities (e.g., brand identity & marketing, tech stack, DEI and evaluation); Increasing & diversifying our resource development efforts (e.g., greater focus on major donors & foundations); and expanding cross-sector collaborations & influence in philanthropy.

The remarkable growth of many of our Community Partners exemplifies the impact of collaborative action. By uniting as a network of skilled professionals and values-driven philanthropists, we leverage our collective expertise, resources, and influence to achieve outcomes that surpass what any single individual or organization could accomplish.

We deeply appreciate your unwavering support and dedication; it is your generosity that enables our collective impact. Together, we are building a more compassionate and inclusive world for our kids.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Lauren