135 Bay Area changemakers gathered on the Sunday afternoon of August 28th, under one-hundred-year-old redwoods at the beautiful Atherton home of SV2 Partners Aarti and Asheem Chandna, to celebrate the end of summer.
After a long pandemic, 40 SV2 Partners were able to catch up with each other in person and engage in meaningful conversations with Grantee & Impact Investee Partners Upward Scholars, SV@Home, Puente de la Costa Sur, Redwood City PAL, College is Real, and Amped Innovation.
Gatanya Arnic, the Executive Director of Grantee Partner Safe & Sound Center for Youth Wellness who recently joined the SV2 Board, acknowledged the timely support of SV2 through a critical merger and unrestricted grant funding for 3 years, thanking SV2 Partners Deb Dauber and Kelly Pope and SV2 Director of Community Engagement Amy Badiani.
“We appreciate the trust from SV2 to let us lead the way we know how to lead the people we serve, but really—I just have to say that I appreciate how welcome you’ve all made me feel today,” said Grantee Partner Puente de la Costa Sur Executive Director Rita Mancera, who also thanked SV2 Partner Leaders Kwok Lau and Cindy Lang for their moral support through an unexpected pandemic and talent shortage.
Tony Stayner, who has been an SV2 Partner since 2013, shared his philanthropic journey with the SV2 community of continuous learners, encouraging the audience to look at the broader spectrum of giving. “My real passion is impact investing. In reality, we all have a lot more money to invest than we have to give away. If we can put that money to work through impact investing, we unleash market forces to scale true innovation.” Tony shared how proud he and the SV2 partners were of the impact investment portfolio of 22 social enterprises generating positive impact in the world, 4 of which have seen over 2x in returns after exit.
New friends and family of SV2 who joined the Backyard Impact Social included educators, doctors, community leaders, venture capitalists, artists, scientists, engineers, and strategic allies such as Thrive Alliance, Legacy Venture, Northern California Grantmakers, Santa Clara University Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and Berkeley Skydeck. Even the newly crowned Miss California 2022 Catherine Liang made an appearance.
Together, we caught up with old friends and made new ones while enjoying the stylings of a French jazz trio ensemble from SFJAZZ All-Stars, an award-winning training program for Bay Area high school-age musicians. Tasteful appetizers were prepared by Chef Susan Leon. We ran out Aarti’s special Spanish sangria but the adults joined the kids in supporting local food entrepreneurs Shao-ying Fang of SF Gelateria and Vincent Ma of Sana Tea by dutifully eating fresh gelato and slurping hand-crafted boba brûlée lattes.
“Magical things happen when we bring a diverse group of people committed to equity and power sharing together. We connect, we learn, and we practice innovative giving—in community,” concluded SV2 CEO David Onek. SV2 hosts two Backyard Impact Socials each year at the start and end of summer to bring together SV2 community and new friends to foster connection and collaboration. Save the date for our next all-community gathering, Fall Connections: Voices from Our Community, taking place on October 13th at EPACENTER in East Palo Alto.