In a new article from Fast Company, SV2 is highlighted as an example of a successful collaborative giving organization. Read more about how organizations like SV2 and Open Impact, a social change advisory firm, are helping Bay Area givers practice more generous and effective giving strategies in the original article from Fast Company.
We’re thrilled to invite you to SV2’s Spring Gathering, Resilience in Action: Strengthening Communities in Turbulent Times, on Wednesday, May 16 from 6:00 – 8:30pm at the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto.
“Re·sil·ience: the capacity to recover from difficulties; toughness.”
In today’s turbulent times, community-based organizations are demonstrating a tremendous capacity to strengthen and advocate for their communities. Join us for candid conversations with longtime Grantee Somos Mayfair and new Grantee Youth Law Center. We’ll hear how they’re each actively working to flip the script through responsive community-led initiatives, and how funders can most effectively support them in this work.
We’ll also take the conversation beyond the stage, leaving time to connect over hors d’oeuvres and drinks. And we’ll honor one outstanding SV2 Partner who will receive the 2018 Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Social Impact Award for his or her contributions to SV2’s social impact and community. If you’d like to nominate a fellow Partner for the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Social Impact Award, email this form to Jody Chang by Sunday, April 1.
We can’t wait to see you there.
The Art of Assessing Nonprofits, an interactive workshop for Partners taught by SV2 Interim Executive Director Jody Chang and Former Executive Director Jen Ratay on Friday, March 9 from 10:00am – 1:00pm, will help demystify the craft of nonprofit due diligence. We’ll introduce workshop participants to an easy-to-use organizational assessment framework and key organizational health indicators that can be used both in SV2’s nonprofit due diligence process and in one’s own funding decisions.
What will you learn?
Please bring: your sense of humor, openness to improvisation and role-playing, willingness to share your own experience and expertise, and commitment to jointly creating a safe space for Partner-to-Partner learning. Lunch will be served. RSVP here.
Village Enterprise, a 2015-18 SV2 Grantee and now 2018 Impact Investee, works to end extreme poverty in rural east Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. Founded in 1987, Village Enterprise offers entrepreneurs a one-year Graduation program that provides them with seed capital, training and ongoing mentoring by a local business mentor. Since joining SV2’s portfolio in 2015, Village Enterprise has helped launch 6,000 additional business and trained 20,000 East African business owners. In total, they have started an impressive 39,000+ businesses and trained over 156,000+ business owners. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Village Enterprise as they join our portfolio of Impact Investees.
The Work
Village Enterprise serves individuals living in extreme poverty on less than $1.90/day. Village Enterprise’s indigenous staff provide a year of rigorous business training, a micro-grant of $150 to start a business, ongoing mentoring, and a group business savings program. After a year of business training and saving, entrepreneurs in Village Enterprise’s program have on average doubled their personal savings, increased their food security by 178%, and increased their overall standard of living by 35%.
Why are we still so excited?
Since joining SV2’s portfolio, Village Enterprise has actively pursued new approaches to realizing its mission of ending extreme poverty in east Africa. One such approach has been the creation of a first-of-its kind outcome-based Development Impact Bond (DIB) for poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. The DIB is a results-based funding tool, in which investors like SV2 provide upfront capital for Village Enterprise’s transformative poverty alleviation work. Investors receive their funding back if Village Enterprise’s target outcomes, which are based on measurable increases in consumption and net assets, are met. In just 3.5 years, the $5.26M DIB will be invested in 4,000+ sustainable microenterprises, transforming the lives of 12,000+ households. Village Enterprise’s continued commitment to large-scale, measurable impact makes them an invaluable addition to our investment portfolio.
After nearly four years with SV2, our Director of Grantee Impact & Strategic Initiatives Ashley Clark is moving on to her next adventure in early March. Ashley is a passionate advocate for equity and justice, a bold and strategic thinker, and the kindest and most welcoming person we know. We’re beyond grateful for Ashley’s service to SV2’s mission and excited to cheer her on in her next step.
Ashley came on board Team SV2 in August 2014. Over her four years here, she’s worn many hats with skill and grace, and her fingerprints are all over SV2. In the communications arena, Ashley led our strategic branding process, which resulted not only in a new logo and branding materials but in clearer messaging to better tell SV2’s story. She also led the charge on our beautiful new website that launched in January 2017, and she managed the transition to our new online collaboration platform, my.SV2. Last spring, Ashley skillfully navigated us through our 2017-2020 strategic planning process with her unique combination of an incisive, analytical mind and ability to unify a range of diverse viewpoints. To say SV2 is a stronger and better organization because of Ashley is certainly an understatement. For years to come, SV2 will reap the benefits of Ashley’s strategic mind and hard work.
Almost two years ago, Ashley gracefully transitioned from her communications and operations role into our Director of Grantee Impact. She’s worked alongside our Grantee and Impact Investee leaders and SV2 Lead Partners to ensure SV2 is most effectively serving our Grantees and Impact Investees in bringing their missions to life, through Beyond-the-Dollars Support and capacity-building. Additionally, this past fall and spring, Ashley has led our Lightning Grant Rounds focused on Resilient Youth. She’s also courageously pushed forward SV2’s thinking on how our work can address the systemic racial and economic inequities entrenched in our society. As just one example, check out Ashley in action at this panel of experts on the role of philanthropy in addressing equity, which she organized and moderated in March 2017.
Even with all of her impressive accomplishments, anyone who knows Ashley would say that what she’s done is nowhere near as important as who she is. When we think of Ashley, the words that come to mind are “welcoming,” “ray of sunshine,” and “passionate” (to name a few!). Ashley has brought joy to our team every day that we’ve worked with her. She models for us what it means to be a compassionate, supportive, and caring team member. If you’ve been within two feet of Ashley, chances are you’ve been the recipient of one of her trademark hugs or her million-watt smile. In her work with our Grantees, Impact Investees, and applicants, Ashley embodies a spirit of servant leadership with humility, respect, and a dedication to justice and equity. She inspires us all to be kinder, braver, and more joyful.
Please join us in thanking Ashley for her years of service to SV2. Ashley, you are always part of the SV2 family, and we will always be cheering you on.
We are delighted to introduce and welcome California Youth Connection (CYC) to the SV2 community! As winner of the February Resilient Youth Lightning Grant Round, CYC will receive a one-year general operating support grant of $30,000.
California Youth Connection, led by Executive Director Haydée Cuza, empowers foster youth ages 14–24 to build leadership skills and forge supportive relationships while advocating for child welfare reforms that directly impact foster youths’ lives.
CYC was founded in 1988, a time when child welfare policies were developed without input from those most impacted. A bold group of foster youth, including CYC’s now Executive Director, decided to speak up; they convened their peers to educate policymakers and advocate for the needs of youth in care.
Over the last thirty years, CYC has grown to 42 chapters throughout California with over 900 youth members, and the organization has refined an effective and sophisticated system of youth-led policy development, securing the passage of dozens of laws, while helping implement local and statewide child welfare policies. Here are just a few of CYC’s legislative accomplishments:
We are inspired by the ways in which CYC places youth voice at the center of policymaking, which has resulted in a significant shift in child welfare policy in California. We are excited to work with and learn from our newest Grantee partner!
To learn more, please visit CYC’s website and stay tuned for future updates about CYC’s work.
