February’s Partner of the Month, Diane McCartney, is no stranger to the SVP world. While she has only been in Portland for a little more than a year, Diane has been an SVP Partner for more than a decade—first in Dallas and then as a founding member of SVP Austin.

Working with Hanif Fazal, CEO of CEI, we are forming a new partnership with CEI. SVP will invest as we would with any Community Partner, providing human capital in areas of expertise that can help CEI achieve its social mission. In turn, CEI will engage with SVP as they would one of their clients, investing in our equity journey through trainings, consulting, and tools for implementation.

I am proud to announce the Board’s unanimous decision to appoint Lauren Johnson as SVP Portland’s new Executive Director, effective immediately. As our Senior Vice President of Community Impact for the past seven years, charged with providing strategic direction and oversight of SVP’s capacity building investments, Lauren has proven that she can deliver on our mission and commitments to the Portland community.

A critical aspect of SVP’s strategy for impact is leveraging the investments with our Community Partners by securing the resources they need to scale up successful early childhood programs. Before doing that, we work collaboratively to ensure clarity of organizational vision and strategy as well as measurement of their desired community impact. Once these are clear and compelling, they need the resources!

We are thrilled to welcome in 2019 by recognizing Clare Wilkinson as SVP’s Partner of the Month! A regular feature in SVP Portland’s communications, Partner of the Month recognizes donors and volunteers for their outstanding contribution to our impact. Partners are nominated by their peers.

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news with you that a friend, former Board Chair, and Partner, Les Soltesz, has died at the age of 71. Funeral services will be held on Friday, December 21, 10:30am at Congregation Beth Israel, in NW Portland.

The end of 2018 is nearly upon us! After a year of leveraging research and community input in order to refine our early childhood investment priorities, it’s quite appropriate to recognize Stephanie Feeney as December’s Partner of the Month!

The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) is at the heart of Portland’s Native American community, comprised of more than 40,000 Native American/Alaska Native people. As SVP and NAYA wrap up our five-year partnership, both organizations can look back and reflect on the mutual growth experienced as a result.

We are ushering in November by shining a spotlight on our Partner of the Month, Chris Nelson! Co-founder of Capstone Partners, Chris has developed some landmark real estate projects that have influenced neighborhood revival and livability. He brings the same passion to his philanthropic endeavors, through SVP and other community organizations.

Social Venture Partners is proud to announce our most recent investment in the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization (CAIRO)! CAIRO’s focuses on breaking down the barriers to success for Portland’s African immigrant children and families, including preschool programming that prepares their children for success on their first day of kindergarten and beyond. This investment will primarily tap into SVP Partner expertise to clarify and build CAIRO’s organizational strategy and leadership.

As kids head back to class and we approach the end of the year, we are excited to bestow October’s Partner of the Month on Teresa Gonczy O’Rourke. An early childhood specialist, Teresa has not only brought her expertise to SVP’s Community Partners (aka “Investees”), she and her husband are expecting their own little early childhood project due this winter!