Blog


Preschool for All Research Findings
Portland Portland

Preschool for All Research Findings

A new report synthesizes extensive input from nearly 50 key participants in the effort, captured by the research firm Dialogues in Action. As you can see in the documents and videos below, the findings provide an example of public policy centered on racial equity, community voice, and grassroots coalition building -- an example poised for replication far beyond Multnomah County, and relevant to other issue areas. We invite you to read on to gain insights about this innovative - and effective - approach to policy making!

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Heightened Challenges for Child Care Providers
Portland Portland

Heightened Challenges for Child Care Providers

New research by The Oregon Early Learning Division (ELD) shows how severely COVID-19 impacted Oregon’s child care and education programs’ ability to remain open and serve families. “These are criti­cal losses, particularly from the standpoint of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The loss of these providers may mean that multilingual children and families will have even fewer opportunities to use child care in which staff reflect their cultural background and who speak the child’s language, deepening inequities.”

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Partner Highlight: Cassie Fowler
Portland Portland

Partner Highlight: Cassie Fowler

"I’ve been attending SVP Portland events with my dad since I was in high school and, since then, have looked up to the people in this organization and respect their dedication to impact in the community. By the time I moved back to Portland after college, my dad had moved out of the city, but he was still connected to SVP. I was unsure of the career path I wanted to pursue, and my dad encouraged me to join his partnership with SVP and dive into the community to make connections with smart people who shared my interest in working hard to make a difference."

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2021 Summer Social & Sarah Cohen-Doherty Community Impact Award
Portland Portland

2021 Summer Social & Sarah Cohen-Doherty Community Impact Award

For the first time in 17 months we held an in-person Partnership event, our 20th Anniversary Summer Social! A thirst for human contact -- and fabulous wines from Stoller Wine Group! -- was apparent with more than 40 attendees representing all facets of the SVP Portland community.The event was also an opportunity to present our first Sarah Cohen-Doherty Community Impact Award. The annual award recognizes a person within the SVP Portland community who epitomizes the characteristics that enabled Sarah to have such a positive impact at SVP, including warmth, compassion, & genuine care for others, a focus on developing strong, meaningful relationships, a personal commitment to equity & supporting SVP’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion commitments, and being a changemaker to ensure that all children thrive.

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Partner Highlight: Nicole Thibodeau
Portland Portland

Partner Highlight: Nicole Thibodeau

"SVP has provided a space to grow and to engage in the community. I am continuously learning and thinking about the historical role of philanthropy and how to leverage the good aspects while shifting power toward a community-driven approach to solving issues. I am a member of our Equity Team, and our equity work has challenged me to explore the different forms and significant impact of systemic racism and other pervasive inequities, in our town, in this country, and in the world of business and finance. There is a long way to go on my journey, but SVP has given me strong momentum and it helps that I get to work with really thoughtful and committed Partners and staff. Working with Community Partners has only further clarified for me the barriers faced by communities of color. The most satisfying aspect of my engagements has been seeing Community Partners strength and leadership as they work in their communities."

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The Alliance for Equity in Montessori Education
Portland Portland

The Alliance for Equity in Montessori Education

Our partnership with the Alliance for Equity in Montessori Education (AEME) will include a $15k general operating grant and Partner time. AEME appreciates SVP's general operating grant (rather than restricted) so that it can use the financial resources to invest in key aspects of running the organization well, such as DEI training, fundraising & grant writing, and staffing for community/parent engagement. Partners will work with AEME to achieve its vision by assisting with developing a strategy timeline, board governance, business model & financing, operational policies, and marketing.

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Changing Philanthropists' Role to Share Power
Portland Portland

Changing Philanthropists' Role to Share Power

Earlier this year, SVP International solicited “Stories of Change” from affiliates as an opportunity to celebrate the collective accomplishments of our global network and amplify SVP’s commitment to achieve greater equity and systemic change. SVPI chose to feature SVP Portland’s story about the changing role of philanthropy from transactional to transformational partnerships. Executive Director Lauren Johnson explained, “This is a time for philanthropy to really step up and be courageous about doing things differently - we need to think long term, shift power, address root issues, and co-create solutions with community.”

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The Continued Impact of Encore Fellows
Portland Portland

The Continued Impact of Encore Fellows

When Lee Rosenbaum retired from Intel, he decided to expand his volunteer work as a trail host for the Mount St. Helens Institute (MSHI) through the Encore Fellows Program. When he made the institute aware of the fellows program, he found that they were in need of an online image database so staff could find images for their work more readily.

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Partner Highlight: Holly Levow
Portland Portland

Partner Highlight: Holly Levow

"SVP has definitely changed me for the better. With SVP Portland's focus on early childhood education and closing the opportunity gap for priority populations*, I'm constantly getting educated on and learning how to advocate for our most vulnerable children and their basic right to access quality education."

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Preschool for All Washington County
Portland Portland

Preschool for All Washington County

At the May SVP Portland Board of Directors’ meeting, staff presented an opportunity to support the newly-formed Washington County Preschool for All effort. Given our early, deep, and long-time work to make Preschool for All a reality in Multnomah County, we were asked to join the Washington County effort. Just as in Multnomah County, all young children in Washington County deserve positive early learning experiences that help them develop cognitive and social-emotional skills and prepare them for kindergarten.

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Social Capital: Underutilized Partner Resource
Portland Portland

Social Capital: Underutilized Partner Resource

Recently, the Portfolio Management Team (PMT) considered how we can work to maximize opportunities to leverage our social capital in a way that is equitable in opportunity and can benefit all of our Community Partners. While we often focus our attention on contributions of Partner money and time, the Partnership has valuable yet underutilized social capital and influence that can have an equally profound impact when leveraged in support of our Community Partners.

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We Welcome Kaye Gardner-O'Kearny
Portland Portland

We Welcome Kaye Gardner-O'Kearny

Kaye joined the SVP Portland team as an Encore Fellow. Her fellowship is focused on helping us ensure we have a sustainable approach to providing Partners and Fellows the support they need as they collaborate across our broad range of Community Partners. Kaye will begin by taking a look at our current onboarding and training model, as well as historic approaches. Her goal is to help us make improvements to our approach for onboarding Partners to community impact work and supporting them throughout their volunteer projects.

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Child Care Shared Services Alliance Finds a New Home
Portland Portland

Child Care Shared Services Alliance Finds a New Home

We’re excited to report that the Child Care Shared Services Alliance (CCSSA) is preparing to recruit its first cohort of child care providers this summer, with Neighborhood House as its newly-selected backbone organization. Following completion of the incubation phase,  SVP will remain involved, serving as an advisor to the project in the pilot phase, alongside the Co-Design team and contracted facilitators.

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The Case For Universal Pre-K Just Got Stronger
Portland Portland

The Case For Universal Pre-K Just Got Stronger

”The most eye-popping effects the researchers find are on high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The kids who got accepted into preschool ended up having a high-school graduation rate of 70% — six percentage points higher than the kids who were denied preschool, who saw a graduation rate of only 64%. And 54% of the preschoolers ended up going to college after they graduated — eight percentage points higher than their counterparts who didn't go to preschool.“

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16 Over 61: Meet Gerald Cohen
Portland Portland

16 Over 61: Meet Gerald Cohen

SVP Partner Gerald (Jerry) Cohen was just honored as one of 16 Over 61, a collaboration between the Forward Jewish news and the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan’s Wechsler Center for Modern Aging, who states that "With these honors, we've aimed to spotlight the creativity, leadership and initiative of adults who exemplify our collective values." Jerry doesn't let age define or stop him, he shared, "The point is to embrace and celebrate age wherever one is on the chronological scale. We have been granted a gift of longevity, and we must use that gift."

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Partners Training Partners
Portland Portland

Partners Training Partners

"At SVP, Investor Partners work hand-in-hand with nonprofit leaders to build the organizational capacity of our Community Partners. SVP staff members asked us to take this to the next level. This next level is about becoming a "thought partner" rather than being the expert. To achieve this goal we took a “Partners training Partners” approach, building the capacity in our Lead Partners so they could be more powerful at helping nonprofit leaders -- a virtuous loop."

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Partner Highlight: Chris Nelson
Portland Portland

Partner Highlight: Chris Nelson

"SVP provides a unique platform and opportunity to plug into a greater network of people to help leverage greater impact in the community. I am a big believer in the power of aligning like-minded people to solve big problems. SVP is the best organization to do that in Portland."

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Preschool for All: Where do we go from here?
Portland Portland

Preschool for All: Where do we go from here?

With the funds secured, now what? As the county began to staff up and put the structures in place called for by the project design, it became clear that the P4A initiative was seen by many outside the county and the state as something worthy of emulation. Laudatory newspaper articles notwithstanding, even from the New York Times, what to tell other jurisdictions when they called?

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Reflecting on the Chauvin Verdict
Portland Portland

Reflecting on the Chauvin Verdict

The April 20th guilty verdict in the Derrick Chauvin trial was momentous. And while we are relieved by that outcome, we recognize the verdict in and of itself does not signal systemic change. If we are to dismantle systems of oppression and white supremacy in our society, much deeper transformation is needed.

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Jumpstart Investment Builds Fundraising Capacity
Portland Portland

Jumpstart Investment Builds Fundraising Capacity

Over the two-year time project, both Jumpstart participants built critical fundraising capacity which translated to significant revenue growth for their organizations. By the end of the program, their final year-two gains each represented more than a 50% increase from their revenue totals in the year prior to beginning Jumpstart.

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