Blog
2021 SVP Superstar Awards
SVP Portland staff is excited to share our second annual Yearbook Awards! The goal is to recognize Partners, Community Partners, and Encore Fellows who contributed to a successful 2021, and have a little fun along the way. Please help us congratulate this year’s recipients -- we couldn’t have done it without them!
Looking Forward After 20 Years of History
As the celebration of our 20th anniversary comes to a close, we are looking ahead to our future. The next step is an evolution of our governance that delivers on our mission, aligns with our values, and advances our commitment to be an anti-racist organization. At the November Board meeting, adoption of the new governance framework was unanimous. Bob Tate shared, “The 2021 Board charted a bold new course, designed to decentralize our governance operations and power our work with more inclusive and deeper community leadership. We’re expecting this to propel our potential for even greater impact, while continuing our drive to become an anti-racist organization. I’m excited to take on this new role as we thoughtfully and humbly advance this new concept, together."
Equity Collaborative to Extend Its Reach in 2022
We are proud champions of our Community Partner, the Early Childhood Equity Collaborative, a group showing that collaborative advocacy efforts by communities of color can result in significant shifts toward greater equity in policy and access to resources. The Collaborative formed in 2018 to engage the voices of communities of color who were not being heard in critical discussions about funding and policies related to their families.We are excited to share that SVP has helped secure $625,000 for the Collaborative over the next 2 years. Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Community Foundation, James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, and Ford Family Foundation are major funders and partners in the Collaborative’s work. Their support will allow this collective project to grow its reach in 2022, with a priority for rural and tribal representation, and to build on the victory of the 2019 Early Childhood Equity Fund.
2021 Encore Fellow Superstar Yearbook Awards
SVP Portland would like to congratulate all Encore Fellows who completed their fellowships in 2021! They each completed at least 1000 hours with local nonprofits, sharing their enthusiasm, professional skills, and expertise. They also gained valuable experience from their work alongside nonprofit leaders, including learnings about social issues, community-driven solutions, and nonprofit management. While all fellowships focused on capability-building projects, the areas of focus were vast - from IT systems to websites, data analysis, studies on forest recreation usage to employee satisfaction, computer education and fundraising to accreditation and archiving. They accomplished all of this while adjusting to the ever-changing demands during the pandemic. Here’s to the 2021 Encore Fellows graduates!
Threads of Justice Reinvestment & Insight
At the October meeting, our Portfolio Management Team voted to approve a reinvestment in Threads of Justice Collective, including Partner time and a $20,000 grant. We initially partnered with the collective in 2019 to support their focus on early childhood anti-bias education. SVP strongly believes the program offerings are important and needed in the early learning space, so this continues to be a critical investment.
20th Anniversary Equity Journey Reflections
The 20th anniversary of SVP Portland gives us an opportunity to reflect on our evolution to an organization that puts anti-racism and social justice at the core of our goals. We want to share our progress toward our commitment to advance racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in order to stay accountable to our Partnership and community. We know that lasting change will not happen overnight within our Partnership, nor the broader community. Our commitment will continue beyond our current goal, and regardless of discomfort or setbacks.
Tips to Maximize Your Dollars During End of Year Giving
The season of giving is upon us! When making your donations this giving season, check out the tips from Katherine Fox, CFP® and Investment Advisor at SVP Business Partner Arnerich Massena, to help you and your family maximize your dollar. We celebrate the impact you’re making on our community and the world through your donations!
Business Partner Highlight: Erica Penner
SVP Business Partner Brighton Jones is a financial wellbeing company that joined our Partnership in 2020 because they are a philanthropically-minded organization that wants to give employees opportunities to engage with SVP and our Community Partners. Erica Penner was one of its first employees who was eager to engage. "I have had the privilege to learn about the wide variety of backgrounds, expertise, and careers of other SVP Partners along with the phenomenal organizations that we support as a collective."
Matt Little, Looking Forward and Reflecting Back
How many of us have a childhood aspiration and actually have the opportunity to achieve it? We now know one of those people: Matt Little, SVP Portland’s Director of Investor Partnerships. Many of you know Matt because he helped recruit you to become a Partner, or because you’ve met with him to discuss engagement opportunities at SVP.What you may not know is that Matt dreamed of working at Ducks Unlimited since he was a kid in Minnesota hunting, fishing, and exploring with his dad. So, when the organization recently recruited him to be the Director of Policy for the Western Region, Matt accepted. Matt will be working on his dream to promote policies that conserve wetlands and wildlife. Staff and Partners alike feel this is bittersweet, and it is with both sadness and excitement that we wish Matt our best with his new role starting December 1.
Adelante Mujeres: Growth Through Partnership
SVP Portland began our partnership with Adelante Mujeres in 2012 to help them realize their goals, including strategic planning, which ultimately led to the desired organizational growth. Adelante Mujeres served nearly 3,000 people and had eight programs in 2012. Today they serve more than 10,000 people and have ten thriving programs, including an Early Childhood Education Program.
SJPLA: A Name Change to Reflect Their Equity Mission
Like SVP Portland, SVP Los Angeles has focused on having a deep and lasting impact through investments in nonprofit organizations and community initiatives. Last week, SVP Los Angeles renamed their organization to Social Justice Partners Los Angeles (SJPLA) to better reflect their purpose: to connect people creating systems of care and community for the well-being and liberation of all Angelenos.
IRCO Youth Outreach Team is Showing Up for Teens
Our longtime Community Partner, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), supports community members to become self-sufficient and thrive through creative programming, outreach, and education that foster understanding, compassion, and communication. One of their many programs worth celebrating is the IRCO Youth Outreach team. This year, the IRCO Youth Outreach team turned an idea into a reality by offering a Life Skills Month, where teens from immigrant and refugee families learned a particular life skill each week. Life Skills Month grew out of intentionally listening to how kids want to change the trajectory of their lives and their interest in envisioning their own bright futures.
Learning from Community Partner Perspectives
As a part of our commitment to advance our goal of being more diverse, inclusive, and equitable, we recently sought to hear directly from our Community Partners about how we can be more effective collaborators. We also wanted to learn how they experience SVP, particularly around decision making, power sharing, and relationships with communities of color. Encore Fellow Kaye Gardner-O’Kearny conducted deep-dive interviews with our Community Partners and solicited feedback from an anonymous survey before drafting a report.
Partner Highlight: Czarina Boyce
Czarina Boyce is one of SVP Portland's newest Partners. She has a wealth of experience from working with organizations that support children and their education, including co-founding Hope Chinese Charter School, the first public Chinese immersion school in the Beaverton School District. "I love the idea of not just giving money, but being able to give time and my talent to benefit my community. For me it is a win-win situation: I get to help people and have a chance to collaborate with other SVP Partners, making a meaningful impact on society by serving the youngest members of the community."
Latino Network to Build La Plaza Esperanza
Our longtime Community Partner, Latino Network, is building its first home! As with any friend committing to their forever home, we're so excited for them and want to help. It has been an honor and a privilege to have worked alongside this amazing organization for the last 7.5 years as lead partner. The tremendous growth of Latino Network and the increased impact on the community has been truly amazing. We now all have an opportunity to contribute to the continued growth of Latino Network and even greater impact on our Latinx community.
For Victory, Start with the Fundamentals
SVP Partner Mark Holloway recently published an article in EdSurge, “How Did Portland Pull Off a Universal Pre-K Victory? We Started with the Fundamentals.” This article focuses on the importance of a focused strategy and shared power that achieved the collective goal of preschool for all in Multnomah County.
A New Chapter for the Children’s Book Bank
On Thursday, October 14 former SVP Portland Community Partner Children’s Book Bank (CBB) announced their merger with SMART Reading. This unification will allow both organizations to have a collective impact that is greater than the sum of its parts. Their missions are already aligned -- they both aim to advance child literacy and allow Oregon children greater access to books -- and together there is huge potential to expand their reach throughout Oregon.
Supporting Afghan Oregonians
"The Afghan exodus is a time-critical, humanitarian crisis and SVP Partners, at our best, are responsive to community needs and thoughtful about where best to invest our resources. In this case, giving to a Community Partner who is at the center of this effort is an easy, clear choice." SVP Partner Mark Holloway shares about a community need being addressed by our Community Partner, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) -- and how you can help. Partners play an important role in supporting Community Partner fundraising efforts through direct giving along with collective fundraising through their networks.
Partner Highlight: Jodi Hummer
Jodi was a Partner at SVP Charlotte from 2015 to 2019 before moving to Portland. As a life and career-transition coach and consultant, she brings valuable insights in coaching and leadership development to the SVP Portland partnership. "Partners see that their collective efforts help pave the way for dramatic impact toward a shared equity goal. I love being able to volunteer in a way that has ripple effects into multiple organizations and allows me to use my strongest skill set."
Hungry to Learn, Hungry to Transform
SVP Portland was recently featured in a Philanthropy Together article on Giving Compass, “Hungry to Learn, Hungry to Transform: Advocating for Universal Early Education with SVP Portland,” highlighting how we deftly pivoted from a broad investment approach to focusing on the community goal of equitable preschool access.