What might SV2 look like in several years? What ultimate impact does SV2 seek to have in Silicon Valley? And what activities will help us achieve that impact? These are just a few of the questions under consideration as a part of this year’s strategic and business planning process.

SV2’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee has been exploring some fresh, creative ideas that we are excited to share with you. Whether you’re eager to share your feedback or you’re just curious to learn more about these ideas for SV2’s future, we hope you’ll join us for one of two upcoming community-wide workshops – lunch on May 11 (RSVP) or dinner on May 16 (RSVP).

SV2 is pleased to be working with the team at Open Impact, who is helping to guide the SV2 Board of Directors through an inclusive strategic planning and business modeling process.

A Strategic Planning Steering Committee, made up of Board Members Bill Brownell, Lisa Jones, Kelly Pope, Tony Stayner, and Paru Yusuf, is leading this work, and will ultimately make a slate of recommendations to the full Board regarding SV2’s vision and goals to guide the organization over the next several years.

To date the Steering Committee has:

• Conducted three generative workshops with different subsets of SV2’s Board
• Gathered candid feedback from SV2’s Grantees
• Researched seven “big bets” that SV2 could explore to achieve even greater impact

After a great deal of work over the last three months, we are now ready to share some draft ideas and ask for your valuable input through an all-Partner survey and two interactive Partner workshops at SV2 in May.

The first workshop will be held on Thursday, May 11 from 11:15am – 1:30pm (RSVP); the second will be held on Tuesday, May 16 from 6:15-8:30pm (RSVP). The content in each workshop will be the same; please choose the time that better fits your schedule.

If you have any ideas that you’d like to share or questions about the process, feel free to reach out to any of the Steering Committee members listed above. Thank you in advance for your input!

In April, we had a packed house at SV2 to hear from experts at the forefront of the impact investing field on how to move from awareness to action – as an organization and as individual investors. In case you missed it, you can check out this video of the program, featuring leaders from Omidyar Network, Toniic, Village Enterprise, and OpenInvest.

And if you’re in a learning mood, check out our robust YouTube library to watch more of our learning sessions.

At this learning session, titled “Impact Investing: Meet the Action Leaders,” we heard first from Adam Bendell, CEO of Toniic who shared early findings from the Toniic 100, a cohort of investors who have committed to 100% Impact Portfolios. Then Robynn Steffen, Senior Manager of Impact Investing at Omidyar Network, presented Omidyar’s framework set forth in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) article “Across the Returns Continuum,” along with lessons from Omidyar’s extensive and sustained on-the-ground experience.

Then, we applied these frameworks to two organizations in the SV2 portfolio. Joshua Levin, Cofounder of recent SV2 Impact Investee OpenInvest, presented how OpenInvest’s platform supports “socially responsible investing made easy”, and Dianne Calvi, CEO of SV2 Grantee Village Enterprise, shared how Village Enterprise is piloting the first development impact bond in poverty alleviation. Attendees then discussed potential direct and/or market level impact, as well as how these organizations map into selected Omidyar and Toniic frameworks.

If you are interested in learning more about SV2’s impact investing work, contact co-leaders Bill Brownell, Lisa Jones, or Tony Stayner. Thanks to our fantastic lineup of expert speakers at this learning session, and to all the Partners whose hard work has made SV2’s first two years of impact investing a learning-filled success!

Food Shift, a 2014-2017 SV2 Grantee, works with communities, businesses, and governments to develop long-term solutions to reduce wasted food and hunger.

At the end of Food Shift’s three years with SV2, we are inspired by all the impact this powerhouse organization has created in this short period. Not only has Food Shift recovered and donated over 40,000 pounds of food to community organizations in the past two years, but their recently launched Food Shift Kitchen is creating jobs, preventing waste, and changing the food recovery system as we know it.

Dana Frasz founded Food Shift in 2012 on the belief that a more sustainable food system was possible, one in which all food that’s produced is processed and recovered. Moreover, Food Shift believes that a zero-waste food recovery system can also help solve other entrenched social issues including hunger and underemployment.

Since their founding, Food Shift has partnered with many Bay Area businesses, institutions, and governments to bring awareness to the hidden issue of food waste and create new food recovery systems. In 2015, Food Shift launched the Food Shift Kitchen, which produces healthy food products made of imperfect produce that would otherwise discarded and sells them to local businesses and food-insecure communities. The Food Shift Kitchen is housed at Alameda Point Collaborative, a housing community for homeless individuals, and provides training and jobs for residents of the collaborative.

SV2’s financial support has supported Food Shift’s launch of the Food Shift Kitchen, their strategic planning process, and their hiring of a Director of Operations. Through a Beyond-the-Dollars partnership, SV2 connected Food Shift to Stanford Alumni Consulting Team, which helped Food Shift develop a strategic plan, business model, and staffing strategy.

Want to get involved with Food Shift? Check out ways to volunteer and support their work here. We’re grateful for and inspired by Food Shift’s work, and look forward to seeing how their impact continues to expand. Congratulations, Food Shift!

Be on the lookout! SV2’s 2017 All-Partner survey will launch this week. This survey is one of the most important tools we have for understanding our Partners, your interests, needs, and valued ideas, and the impact that SV2 has had on your lives and giving journeys. Your input is critical!

You’ll receive the survey in an email soon. We look forward to hearing from you.

Don’t miss SV2’s Spring Gathering: The Big Think-A-Thon on Tuesday, May 2 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. We’ll hear from nine of our Grantees and Impact Investees, who will each share a rapid-fire pitch on a challenge they are currently facing, then break into small groups to brainstorm actionable solutions together.

We’ll also have plenty of time to connect with old and new friends, and we’ll honor the recipient of the 2017 Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Social Impact Award. RSVP today! 

The Big Think-A-Thon will spotlight nine of our spectacular Grantees and Impact Investees:

• The Big Lift
• Destination:Home
• Food Shift
• Global Press Institute
• Learners Guild
• Learning Genie
• Nepris
• Silicon Valley Urban Debate League
• Somos Mayfair

In 90-second presentations, Grantees & Impact Investees will share a challenge with which they’re wrestling right now. Check out this video from last year’s Big Think-A-Thon to see this in action. Then, we’ll harness the collective knowledge and talent in the room as attendees join in small group conversations with Grantees & Impact Investees to generate solutions together.

This event will stretch your creative and problem-solving muscles, fuel your inspiration, and deepen your relationships across the SV2 community, including with Grantees & Impact Investees. SV2 Grantees & Impact Investees will walk away with actionable ideas and everyone will leave with new connections and renewed energy for making positive social impact in our Bay Area community and beyond. RSVP here.

We’re pleased to announce that uAspire is the winner of this year’s first Education Lightning Grant Round, which was led by Partners Jim Basile and Aarti Chandna, and focused on College Access and Success. uAspire will receive a one-time $30,000 grant and opportunities to connect with our Partnership over the next 12 months. We’re offering a repeat version of the Education Lightning Round, and we hope you’ll join us on May 17 and May 31 for this final Lightning Round of the year. RSVP deadline is May 3 to allow for pre-diligence work. If you are a current Partner and would like to participate in the Round or learn more, please email Jody Chang.

Each Lightning Grant Round is offered twice in order to leverage the opportunity for SV2 Partners to learn directly from our funder allies, who nominate best in class grantees from their own portfolios and then share their sector and diligence expertise with us. The Education Lightning Grant Round had a pool of seven applicants, nominated by our funder allies, Sobrato Family Foundation and Westly Foundation. uAspire was chosen as the Grantee in the March Round, and the May Round will consider the same pool of applicants, excepting uAspire.

uAspire’s work is laser-focused on removing the financial barriers to both college access and success by embedding their College Affordability Advisors in high schools, where they support and mentor students one-on-one so they have the information and resources they need to make an informed choice about where to go to college and how to pay for it. We are thrilled to welcome uAspire to our portfolio and look forward to learning more about their important work in the year to come!

The Big Lift, a 2014-17 SV2 Grantee, is a collective impact initiative uniting San Mateo County toward the common goal of raising the percentage of county third graders reading at grade level from 50% to 80% by 2020.

At the end of The Big Lift’s three-year tenure with SV2, we’re looking back at the incredible work they’ve accomplished since they joined the portfolio. Highlights include expanding their initiative to include 300 businesses and organizations; securing over $30 million in funding, including a $16.9 million White House Social Innovation Grant; and launching their ambitious literacy program in seven pilot communities. Congrats, Big Lift!

The Big Lift’s evidence-based plan focuses on four key initiatives proven to boost third-grade reading – kindergarten readiness, summer enrichment, reducing chronic school absenteeism, and supporting learning at home. After rigorously researching the educational landscape of San Mateo County, the Big Lift launched this plan in seven pilot school districts across the county.

The Big Lift was SV2’s first collective impact Grantee, and Partners have enthusiastically engaged with The Big Lift Beyond-the-Dollars, with Lead Partners Marcia Pade and Kelly Pope at the helm. Partners worked with The Big Lift on launching its preschool and summer learning programs, including assistance in the selection of a firm to evaluate the Big Lift’s impact. Kelly Pope serves as an edtech advisor to The Big Lift, helping them assess the best early learning technology programs to serve their goals. Also, through a strategic alliance with SV2, the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team analyzed the long-term return on investment that quality preschool learning could have on students in San Mateo County.

Learn more about volunteering with The Big Lift here. And come see the Big Lift in action on May 2 at the SV2 Big Think-A-Thon, where you can help Big Lift Lead Strategists Jane Gardner and Joe Rodriguez brainstorm actionable solutions to a challenge they are currently facing – RSVP here. As the Big Lift graduates from the SV2 portfolio, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for these remarkable changemakers!

On Thurs., March 9, SV2 hosted a dynamic discussion around the role of philanthropy in advancing equity. The panel, moderated by SV2’s Director of Grantee Impact, Ashley Clark, featured an outstanding lineup of philanthropy practitioners including Fred Blackwell, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation; Ellen LaPointe, President and CEO of Northern California Grantmakers; and Justin Steele, Principal at Google.org. If you couldn’t make it but are curious to learn more, you can check out the video here.

During the conversation, we discussed what exactly equity is (spoiler alert: there are some great images that you’ll want to check out!), why this work is integral to grantmaking, how we can advance equity as individuals, and what it might look like for a philanthropic organization to focus on equity.

In this session, we established some common language around the meaning of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as we reflected together on  how we might continue our learning journey individually and as an organization. And because we could only cover so much in an hour and a half, we hope that this conversation will be the first of many.

A number of SV2 Partners have expressed an interest in the creation of a my.SV2 group to share articles and learning opportunities and engage in further discussion related to philanthropy and equity. If you’d like to be added to the distribution list, please email Ashley Clark.

On the evening of Thursday, April 13, we’ll explore how we can move from awareness to action – as an organization and as individual investors regardless of portfolio size. Top field leaders from Omidyar Network and Toniic will share their thinking, research and deep experience with values-aligned portfolios, what it means to generate positive social impact, as well as frameworks for evaluating appropriate returns across asset classes and sectors. Participants will then put these frameworks into action by applying them to OpenInvest, a recent SV2 investee, and Village Enterprise, current SV2 Grantee.
Presenters: Robynn Steffen, Senior Manager Impact Investing, Omidyar Network; Adam Bendell, CEO, Toniic; Dianne Calvi, CEO, Village Enterprise (SV2 Grantee); and Joshua Levin, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, OpenInvest (SV2 Investee).

Part One: Impact Investing in Action: Action Leaders

Adam Bendell, CEO of Toniic will share early findings from the Toniic 100, a cohort of investors who have committed to 100% Impact Portfolios. The T100 Research Report is full of insights and data that can inform both SV2 and individual journeys from “awareness to action”. The T100 Launch – Insights from the Frontier of Impact Investing 2016  is available from Toniic here.

Robynn Steffen, Senior Manager Impact Investing, Omidyar Network will share Omidyar’s work – presenting the framework set forth in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) article Across the Returns Continuum, along with lessons from Omidyar’s extensive and sustained on-the-ground experience. Robynn will also share how this framework has become a useful tool and could be used by SV2 and our Partners.

The presentations will be followed by open Q&A.

Part Two:  Impact Investing in Action: Emerging Innovation Leaders

We’ll then shift to presentations from two SV2-affiliated organizations that are innovating in the impact investing ecosystem. Joshua Levin, co-founder of recent SV2 Investee OpenInvest, will present how their platform supports “socially responsible investing made easy”.  Dianne Calvi, CEO of  SV2 Grantee, Village Enterprise, will present their plans for the “first development impact bond in poverty alleviation”. After hearing about the impact and business models of these ventures and open Q&A, attendees will engage “hands on” — similar to the SV2 Impact Investing Working Group – discussing potential direct and/or market level impact, as well as how these organizations map into selected Omidyar and Toniic frameworks.