Strategizing for Our Future
As key partners in our work, we want to keep you updated on both internal planning as well as our community impact, as they’re both critical to the successful pursuit of our mission. This serves as an update on the former.
In 2022, SVP developed a new Strategic Framework and refreshed its vision, mission, purpose, and goal statements. We launched an initial Dynamic Team as part of our new governance model, focused on determining Advocacy & Influence priorities, which resulted in high level recommendations. To build upon this work, we formed a Strategy Implementation & Evaluation Team in January this year, charged with developing an Implementation & Evaluation Plan.
We are pleased to share that this Strategy Team recently concluded their scope of work, after five months of collaboratively working to build a specific action plan, along with key metrics that drive toward our access to preschool goal. We embarked on this work because we believe it’s essential that we’re strategic around what we both do and don’t do with our limited resources. This will enable us to maximize our impact as well as hold ourselves accountable to the communities we serve for implementing our strategic priorities, while also living out our commitment to advancing social justice and racial equity.
Erin Stevanus shared, “In the strategy dynamic team, it was clear that while SVP’s resources are finite, our ambition is broad. But we knew the assignment: When we say yes to one thing, we are saying no to others -- so how do we ensure that we're focused on the right thing(s)? It was exciting to be able to sit in a room with other Partners and ask hard questions: What is our current capacity as an organization? How do we not lose sight of our target and goals, but be firmly grounded in a clear how and why? Perhaps most importantly, the team did not shy away from prioritizing the work that SVP Portland is undergoing to examine power dynamics and intentionally create more inclusive spaces in philanthropy.”
The strategy team members included both SVP Partners and staff:
Bob Tate, SVP Partner
Rob Aslett, SVP Partner
Melinda Gross, SVP Partner
Erin Stevanus, SVP Partner
Chris Hart, SVP Partner
Lauren Johnson, SVP Staff
Carolina Castañeda del Río, SVP Staff
Throughout the process, the Team engaged key stakeholders in our work to solicit feedback on the plan. This included SVP Portland’s Lead Partners, Finance Team, Board of Directors, all staff, Marketing & Development Team, and Portfolio Management Team. Additionally, feedback from our Community Partners will continue to inform priorities and sequencing, as agility and responsiveness remain core strengths. Bob Tate shared, “I believe that the depth and breadth of our strategies, actions and rationale are remarkable, and the challenge we faced in consolidation, prioritization and sequencing is a testament to the richness of this team’s work.”
The plan still needs refinement before it is fully unveiled later this summer. We look forward to updating you when it is ready for broadcast!
