Press Release

New Teacher Center and Reading Partners
secure national funding for scaling

LOS ALTOS, CA, December 19, 2011 – For SV2, 2011 has been a banner year. Two SV2 Alumni Grantees have gone on to receive grants from the leading national venture philanthropy organizations, to aid them in their national expansion efforts. These funding achievements embody SV2’s work to build and scale successful social innovations – SV2 Partners pool their money, skills, energy, and ideas to make three-year capacity-building grants to promising nonprofits at crucial “inflection points,” and then continue to support Alumni Grantees as they implement their ambitious growth strategies.

This year, New Teacher Center received the prestigious Skoll Award, making it the only nonprofit to have received grants from all four leading national venture philanthropy organizations focused on large scale change – New Profit, NewSchools Venture Fund, SeaChange Capital Partners, and the Skoll Foundation – for a total of $6.4 million in funding.

“The SV2 grant really propelled NTC forward,” says New Teacher Center CEO Ellen Moir. “SV2 Partners challenged us to broaden our vision and bring our Teacher Induction model to the entire nation.” Ever since New Teacher Center received a grant from SV2 (2004-2007), SV2 Partners have “gone beyond the dollars” to invest their time and expertise helping New Teacher Center become an independent nonprofit and scale to a point where they are mentoring 25,000 new teachers each year, and making introductions to open up national funding opportunities.

Also this year, Reading Partners won a $7 million grant from the Social Innovation Fund, one of the nation’s most competitive and high-profile grants for nonprofits attempting to scale up their services. Reading Partners was by far the smallest nonprofit to receive a Social Innovation Fund award this year. Reading Partners has also previously been awarded major funding by NewSchools Venture Fund.

“SV2 changed history for Reading Partners,” says Reading Partners CEO Michael Lombardo. “SV2 Partners believed in us, and then they led the way as we scaled our impact.” In 2003, Reading Partners had just one tutoring site in East Menlo Park, but SV2 Partners saw tremendous potential for growth. SV2 awarded a three-year grant and several SV2 Partners joined the Reading Partners board, helping to create and implement aggressive strategic plans. Today, Reading Partners is a nationally-recognized tutoring program, serving nearly 3,000 students in 60 sites throughout California, Washington, D.C, and New York.

“Several SV2 Partners have generously donated their time and expertise to New Teacher Center and Reading Partners to help both organizations shape and achieve ambitious goals,” says SV2 Board Chairman Lance Fors. “Without SV2, neither of these organizations would be where they are today – serving thousands of students and teachers throughout the country.”

“We are thrilled with the success our Alumni Grantees have achieved this year, and we look forward to similar accomplishments from many of our other Grantees,” says SV2 Executive Director Lindsay Austin Louie. “This is the power of the SV2 model – to change the trajectory of high-impact nonprofits so that they can replicate their promising models and move the needle on society’s toughest problems.”

About SV2 - Silicon
 Valley
 Social
 Venture Fund
SV2 is a high-impact giving circle. Our donors (“Partners”) pool their skills, energy, ideas, and money ($5-25K annually) to make a bigger, more meaningful difference than any one person could make alone. Our 100 Partners together decide which cutting‐edge nonprofits will receive SV2’s 3-year grants ($100-150K each)
 in the areas of Education, Environment, and International Development. Embracing the “venture philanthropy” model, Partners select Grantees that have proven models and are at crucial inflection points in their organizational development, and Partners offer professional advising to help each Grantee build capacity and scale up, not just pay for current programs. Founded
by Laura
 Arrillaga‐Andreessen in 1998,
 SV2’s mission stretches beyond helping Grantees - SV2 Partners become more strategic lifelong philanthropists as they select and advise Grantees, attend SV2 educational events, and learn from one another.

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