Hats off to SV2’s outgoing board member in 2018: Kelly Pope. Join us in thanking Kelly for modeling shared leadership, thoughtful stewardship, and empathy during her time on our Board.

Kelly Pope concludes her six years of board service this June. She has been a spectacular leader in a variety of areas during her tenure, including chairing the Grant and Impact Investment Review Committee (GIIRC), serving on the steering committee for SV2’s Visionary Leadership Circle, and participating in not one but two strategic planning processes.

We’re also thrilled to welcome two incoming board members this summer: Alison Elliott and Nancy Heinen. Alison and Nancy are experienced SV2 leaders and longtime SV2 Partners who bring an impressive skill set to the Board. Read their full bios here.

Alison Elliott has multiple career experiences extending from a middle school social studies classroom to a large NYC bank to Silicon Valley software startups to the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University.  Most recently, she co-led the Pathways to Opportunity Classic Grant Round. Nancy Heinen is an experienced corporate lawyer and senior executive in both small and multinational corporations. Most recently she was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Apple, Inc. Nancy currently serves as Lead Partner to Village Enterprise and will become the new chair for the SV2 Grant and Impact Investment Review Committee (GIIRC) this summer.

This Spring, SV2 kicked off its first Advocacy learning series, with the aim of helping SV2 Partners, Grantees & Impact Investees, and the broader SV2 community to better evaluate whether, when, and how they want to incorporate advocacy as a social change tool in their philanthropy and work.

The series generated some great content and handouts that Partners and strategic allies may find useful as they continue on their advocacy learning journeys. SV2 Partners are welcome to dive into the full content library here on my.SV2. Below, we’re sharing some quick links to helpful resources and video recordings from all three workshops, some of which are available to all:

 

– Deep Dive Workshop #1 | “What it is, What it isn’t and How it fits in your Social Impact Toolkit” Featuring Christine Sherry of Sherry Consulting; Amanda Stanley, Executive Director of COMPASS, and Rebekah Saul Butler, Co-Executive Director of the Grove Foundation (February 2, 2018)

• SV2 Partners can access the video recordings, one-pagers and handouts here on my.SV2

 

– Deep Dive Workshop #2 | “Funding Advocacy, Funding Your Values” Featuring Sara Matlin of Bolder Advocacy and Salimah K. Hankins of Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA)(March 28th, 2018)

• SV2 Partners can access the video recording, one-pagers and handouts here on my.SV2

 

– Deep Dive Workshop #3 | “Applying an Advocacy Lens to your Own Giving” Featuring  Alexandra Acker Lyons and SV2 Partners Marcia Pade, Charlene Kabcenell, and Rick Tinsley (April 24, 2018)

• All of our readers are welcome to review the video of this session here on Youtube
• SV2 Partners can access the video recording, one-pagers and handouts here on my.SV2

We’ve completed our 2018 All-Partner Survey designed to assess SV2’s impact on Partners and provide our Partners with the opportunity to share their ideas for how we can continue to deepen our impact. This year’s results will feed directly into next year’s program plan and fuel SV2’s ongoing learning and improvement. Thank you to all the Partners who took time to complete the survey!

Here are some of the highlights:

• Our Partners make it a point to give locally: In the last year, over half of the survey respondents dedicated 50% or more of their giving to local community-based organizations
• SV2 Partners gave ~$800,000 in follow-on funding to SV2 Grantees and Impact Investees, which roughly doubles SV2’s grants out the door this year
• When asked what Partners value most about SV2, respondents mentioned SV2’s vibrant community and the rich, varied opportunities to learn about philanthropy and social impact
• 92% of respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with SV2

Everyone can read more highlights. SV2 Partners can also read the full report.

At the end of each fiscal year, the SV2 Board Grant and Impact Investment Review Committee (GIIRC) hears updates on SV2’s entire grant and impact investment portfolio and approves the renewal of multi-year grants. The GIIRC is led by Kelly Pope and committee members include Bill Brownell, Linda Lazor, Jill Matzke, Tony Stayner and Paru Yusuf. To maximize this rich opportunity to learn about SV2’s impactful and impressive portfolio, the Portfolio Review meeting is open to the entire Partnership.

Partner Jan Half attended the Portfolio Review meeting for the first time this year and had this to share: “When I joined SV2, I knew about the Classic Grant Rounds, but was not as aware of Lightning Rounds and Impact Investing. Attending this meeting really helped me learn about and understand the other areas — and possibly become more involved with impact investing as well as grantmaking. This meeting provides an important view of what happens in our relationship with Grantees and Investees after the initial investment is made. Because it’s a long meeting, it’s helpful that people have the opportunity to come to some parts and not others. The Portfolio Review provides a great overview of SV2’s work — and helped me as a Partner speak more intelligently about that work. I would really encourage all Partners to attend next year!”

SV2’s portfolio is made up of three types of organizations:

• Three-year “Classic” Grantees
• One year “Lightning” Grantees
• Impact Investees

As each of these types of organizations has a different relationship with SV2, the reporting for each looks different. Classic Grantees and Impact Investees have Lead Partners, who serve as liaisons between the organization and SV2. Part of their role is to report annually to the GIIRC on the progress, work, and impact of each organization. Due to their shorter time in the SV2 Portfolio, Lightning Grantees don’t have Lead Partners, so Jody Chang, Director of Grantmaking, reported on our Lightning Grant Round work and Grantees. Dan Barritt, Partner leader of the Tech Nonprofits Lightning Grant Round, also shared an executive summary of feedback from the Round. Lisa Jones, one of the co-leads for the Impact Investing Working Group, presented a helpful overview of SV2’s impact investing work, including a summary slide of our investees’ impact in the past year.

Following these reports and overview presentations, all participants joined in a generative discussion about SV2’s overall portfolio — particularly focused on the interplay between direct services and systems-change work through advocacy.

We are eager to explore ways to use these insights to continue to sharpen our grantmaking and impact investing approach and to think strategically about the direction of our overall portfolio. Thank you to all who attended!