Year: 2019

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Partner Leader Call

• News

Did you know that at any one time roughly one-quarter of the SV2 Partnership puts their hands up to serve as active volunteer leaders? Check out this year’s impressive leadership cohort here and let us know if you are interested in a leadership role next year.

Central to what makes SV2 work so well are the many Partners who “power” our special SV2 community through their leadership. Some of these volunteer roles include:

  • Leading Classic and Lightning Grant Rounds
  • Leading the Impact Investment Working Group
  • Serving as Lead Partner liaisons to Grantees and Impact Investees
  • Facilitating Partner-led Interest Groups and/or Events
  • Facilitating educational programming and social events
  • Supporting SV2 Partner recruiting and onboarding
  • Serving on SV2’s Board of Directors and its various committees

Partner Leaders are supported in their volunteer leadership by the SV2 staff team.

If you are a new or veteran Partner interested in a volunteer leadership role at SV2, please contact SV2’s Chief Relationship Officer Lisa Van Dusen. In particular, if you are interested in leading a Grant Round next year, please contact SV2’s Director of Grantmaking Jody Chang.

 

Annual SV2 Portfolio Review

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Want to learn more about SV2 Grantees’ progress in the second and third years of their relationship with SV2? Curious about lessons learned from our impact investing? Want to learn more about the role of Lead Partners who support and champion our Grantees and Impact Investees? Join us for a “big-picture” understanding of our portfolio, the impact of our Grantees and Investees, and lessons learned along the way.

All current SV2 Partners are invited to participate in this unique learning opportunity on Thursday, June 13th from 10am-3pm.

In the interest of time, we ask that Partners who are not on the Grant and Impact Investment Review Committee (GIIRC), take an “observer only” role during the Lead Partner reporting sessions. All attendees are welcome to fully participate during the Portfolio Learning Discussions and final Generative Discussion.

Please RSVP here by Thursday, June 6th – this will enable you to receive summary roll-ups of our grant portfolio and impact investment portfolio for advance review before the meeting. We look forward to learning together in a day of discussion and insight. Lunch included.

Full Agenda:

10:00 – 10:30 Intros + Portfolio Overview

10:30 – 12:00 Impact Investees and Learning Discussion

12:00 – 2:00 Working Lunch, Grantees, and Learning Discussion  

2:00 – 2:45 Generative Discussion based on portfolio learnings

2:45 – 3:30pm GIIRC Executive Session

Get Proximate: Experience Mayfair – Si Se Puede!

• News •

Join us for SV2’s second Get Proximate experience in the Mayfair neighborhood of East San Jose with community members on Tuesday, June 4th. Facilitated by Somos Mayfair, SV2’s alumni Grantee, we will join residents of a community that is both grappling with challenges as well as building on its strengths as it looks ahead. We seek to listen and deepen our understanding of this community.

Our morning begins with a walking/driving tour of Mayfair accompanied by residents and community leaders who will share the rich history, many assets and vexing challenges of a dynamic neighborhood that is changing. Then we’ll engage in conversation with Mayfair residents and community leaders over a delicious lunch from Mayfair restaurant El Pirrin. We will learn about how history has shaped this community and led to some systemic issues that persist.

We will meet a community that is grappling with a variety of challenges and learn how various stakeholders are working to improve the future of this community. What role do we play in this? This experience is designed to help us shed our preconceived notions and bring back a deeper perspective to conversations about communities that are struggling throughout the Bay Area.

Understand the history of the church where Cesar Chavez organized. Learn how bridges can be dividers, appreciate the parks, community centers and changes afoot in this resilient 60 by 60 square blocks. Our goal with Get Proximate is to foster meaningful connections and more in-depth understanding through proximity. This event is open to SV2 Partners and their middle and high school children.

9:45 am– Gather/Orientation at Somos Mayfair 370-B King Road, San José, CA 95116
10:00 am– Depart for a tour in small groups with a community member
12:00/12:15 pm– Reconvene for lunch and conversation in small groups
2:00 pm– Wrap up

Pre-and post-experience reflection. Once you RSVP, we will send you some pre-experience info including background reading. Following our time in Mayfair, we invite participants to a post-event follow up call to share and explore your experience. We will follow up with details.

Located in East San Jose, Mayfair is a vibrant and historic neighborhood that has a legacy of social services, community organizing, and social justice movements. Mayfair was home to the renowned labor leader Cesar Chavez and birthplace for the Mexican-American civil rights movement. Today, the Mayfair neighborhood is a working class, cultural hub drawing immigrants from Latin American and Asian countries. Mayfair is both a community of transitions and new beginnings, where immigrants come, and families settle to pursue their dreams.

Approximately 56,500 people, predominantly first and second-generation Mexican-origin families, live in Mayfair. Immigrants from the Philippines, Vietnam, and India also reside in the Mayfair neighborhood. The median household income is roughly half ($47,063) of the Santa Clara County median income ($102,191). High school graduation rates for the neighborhood are estimated to stagnate near 50%, and rates of obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease far surpass the averages for the county.

Substandard housing conditions and poor infrastructure earned Mayfair the name of “Sal Si Puedes” or “Get Out if You Can.” Many residents of Mayfair organized themselves to improve their neighborhood through grassroots leadership, civic activism, and direct advocacy campaigns. Several of today’s regional elected officials and institutional leaders began their work in Mayfair. The legacy of this work infuses and animates the efforts of the Si Se Puede! Collective.

More about SV2’s Get Proximate Initiative

Get Proximate is a pilot initiative SV2 is launching this year to help explore the question: “Why do we give?” Most of us donate to organizations because we believe they are doing important work in the community. But how much do we know about the people these organizations serve and whose lives we indirectly hope to improve? How can we truly understand the needs of those in our community without “getting proximate,” listening to and understanding their personal stories and perspectives?

SV2’s Get Proximate initiative aspires to create mutually beneficial and authentic experiences with people in our community who have had different — and potentially difficult — life experiences. Getting proximate will take on multiple forms as we experiment in this inaugural year. Our first event was Around the Table at Maple Street with Life Moves on 1/21/19.

SV2 Advocacy Learning Session: A Powerful Framework

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Systems change almost always involves advocacy, and so does strategic philanthropy. Often it’s in the form of supporting those “on the ground” and in the community with funding and other support. At the very least, donors need to understand the role of advocacy in varying issue areas.

Building on last program year’s Advocacy Learning Series, SV2  is hosting its third Advocacy Learning Session for this year with Arabella Advisors. We’ll start by reviewing SV2’s and Arabella’s basic definition, concepts of advocacy and the value of advocacy as a lever for systems change and impact. Arabella Advisors’ Senior Directors, Jessica Robinson Love , Loren McArthur, and Liz Sweet, will introduce their Advocacy Framework as a tool for developing smart and targeted donor strategies for policy change initiatives.

We will hear from two SV2 Partners, Grace Mah (early childhood education), and Will Parish (environmental education), who will share their advocacy work through the lens of the Arabella Advisors Advocacy Framework. Workshop attendees will then pair up and reflect on and consider how this framework could apply to varying issue areas.

Read more about Arabella Advisors’ perspective on how advocacy fits into strategic philanthropy here. Join us on the evening of May 23rd! Dinner and social time will be at 6:00pm. Program will start at 6:30pm. RSVP.

Welcome Newest Lightning Grantee Fresh Meat Productions!

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Our Building Opportunity and Inclusivity through the Performing Arts Lightning Grant Round was a wonder! We had the amazing opportunity to get to know how six organizations are leveraging the performing arts to cultivate equity, community change-making, and boundless creativity. Of the six organizations, BAYCAT (educates, empowers and employs San Francisco underserved youth in digital media), Fresh Meat Productions (invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of transgender and gender-nonconforming communities), and Women’s Audio Mission (uses music, media, and training environment for the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts), moved to the finalist round. We were honored to hear from Villy Wang and Angela King (BAYCAT), Sean Dorsey (Fresh Meat Productions), Terri Winston and Katie Fahey (Women’s Audio Mission).

After a robust review and discussion process, SV2 Partners selected Fresh Meat Productions as our new Lightning Grantee. This is also the first organization to join our portfolio that supports transgender and gender-nonconforming communities – a promising milestone for SV2 in advancing opportunity and inclusion, and aligned with our criteria of benefitting low-income, vulnerable, or underserved communities.

A big thank you to Adam Fong, Program Officer in the Performing Arts Program with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (our gracious Funder Ally and Financial Sponsor), Ellen Lussier, JoAnne Tillemans, and Lisa Jones (our rockstar Partner Co-Leaders), and all who participated in making this a joyful and insightful experience!

In response to the question, “how if at all, has participating in this LGR impacted you?” One Partner shared, “Introduced me to a new area of giving and highlighted an organization that I can share with friends who are looking for such an org.”

Stay tuned for the Fall 2019 Performing Arts Lightning Grant Round!

Entrepreneurship Grant Round Kicks Off!

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The Entrepreneurship Grant Round — part of SV2’s local Pathways to Opportunity focus — will look at approaches and organizations which are empowering small business owners and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a strategic pathway to economic security for many in the Bay Area, including women head of households, former military, people who were previously incarcerated, immigrants, and refugees. We’ll consider models like micro-enterprises, social enterprises, and worker-owned cooperatives, as well as organizations providing training and/or capital.

This Round will be structured as a hybrid of our Lightning and Classic Grant Round models. We will work with local funders, including the Sobrato Family Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, who will nominate promising organizations from their portfolios and share their insights and best practices with SV2 Partners (as in Lightning Grant Rounds). Nonprofit applicants will submit SV2-specific grant applications, and Partners will conduct site visits (as in Classic Rounds).

The Round will be co-led by Shalyn Eason and John Sanchez, with staff support from Jody Chang. All Partners are welcome to join in the Grant Round in any way that meets their interests: to audit one or more meetings of the Grant Round, or to participate in the full Grant Round (four meetings in total). Meetings will be held from 11:15am-1:30pm at SV2 on March 28 (RSVP here), April 25 (RSVP here), May 16 (RSVP here), and June 6 (RSVP here). In addition, we are planning to pilot a Zoom dial-in option for the May meeting, when the finalist Executive Directors will make presentations.

We hope you’ll join us! Please email Jody Chang with any questions at jchang@sv2.org.

 

SV2 Spring Gathering- Rethinking Impact: Inspiring Innovation through Empathy

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SV2 will host our annual Spring Gathering, Rethinking Impact: Inspiring Innovation through Empathy, on Thursday, April 11 from 6:00 – 8:30 PM at the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto. This year we’ll feature innovation leaders who were inspired by their immersive experiences and empathetic understanding to develop out-of-the-box solutions to critical social challenges. Through storytelling and community connection, we hope to encourage our community of SV2 Partners, and current and alumni Grantees and Impact Investees to continue their work as positive change agents. We also welcome Prospective Partners who are interested in becoming an SV2 Partner to attend.

We’ll 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 2019 Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Social Impact Award for his or her contributions to SV2’s social impact and community. RSVP here.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Speaker Bios:

Nicole Taylor
President and Chief Executive Officer
Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Nicole Taylor is president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. She brings together a rich background in Bay Area philanthropy, nonprofit administration and fundraising with extensive experience in both the private and public sectors.

In joining SVCF in December 2018, Nicole returns to the Bay Area from Arizona, where she served as vice president of the ASU Foundation. She also previously served as deputy vice president and dean of students at Arizona State University. Prior to her time at ASU, Nicole was the associate vice provost of student affairs and dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University, after serving as president and CEO of Thrive Foundation for Youth in Silicon Valley.

Nicole also spent more than 15 years with the East Bay Community Foundation, eventually serving as its president and CEO for six years. Nicole received both her M.A. in Education and A.B. in Human Biology from Stanford University, and she began her career as an educator in Oakland public schools. She served on the board of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco for six years and is currently a board member for Common Sense Media.

 

Rey Faustino
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
One Degree

Rey launched One Degree to ensure that all families have access to services they need to overcome poverty. Rey began his career as a teacher and later was the site director at BUILD, a college access nonprofit organization that propels low-income youth to attain a college education. Rey received his B.S. in Business Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California and earned his Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is an alumnus of Y Combinator, an Echoing Green Fellow, and an Education Pioneers Fellow. Rey was nominated for the inaugural Visionary of the Year Award by the San Francisco Chronicle. In his spare time, Rey practices yoga, plays with gadgets, and builds furniture from scratch.

 

Adam Kircher
Co-Founder, Product & Technology
SIRUM

Adam Kircher leads recipient operations and is the chief architect of SIRUM’s patented technology. By day, Adam manages operations and uses technology to automate Good Pill Pharmacy. By night, Adam works as a liaison to the National Conference of State Legislatures and has written drug donation policies that have been incorporated into several state laws and regulations.

Adam originally founded SIRUM as a student project and left a full-tuition scholarship at Harvard Business School to work on SIRUM full-time. He brings broad experience to SIRUM as a full-stack software engineer and former management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he worked across various healthcare verticals, including pharmaceuticals.

Adam received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. Personally, Adam enjoys playing sports; while at Stanford Adam’s Varsity Crew boat placed 5th in the nation, the best in Stanford’s history. After McKinsey, Adam trained for and completed an Ironman Triathlon. After growing up in Florida and living in California, Adam has developed an aversion to cold weather of any kind.

Event Sponsor:

Board of Directors Openings & Accepting Social Impact Award Nominees

• News

SV2 Board of Directors Openings

We are pleased to announce that we will have at least one open seat on the SV2 Board of Directors to be filled this Spring. The SV2 Board has limited terms, and some current members will be terming off. There will be an open application process – any Partner who is interested in serving on the SV2 Board should fill out the Statement of Interest form, which you can access and download here.

If you are interested in applying, please email your completed form to the chair of SV2’s Nominating & Governance Board Committee, Jim Basile, by Monday, March 25, 2019. The Nominating & Governance Board Committee will review all Statements of Interest in May and will be in touch with applicants individually at that time.

New Board member(s) will attend an orientation over the summer and begin serving on the Board in Fall 2019. If you have any questions about the SV2 Board or the Board application process, please do not hesitate to contact Jim Basile. The Board looks forward serving with the new members who will help steward SV2 through our next exciting chapter.

2019 Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Social Impact Award Nominations

Each year, the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Award is presented to an SV2 Partner who has gone above and beyond in their service on behalf of SV2 and/or our Grantees and Impact Investees. 

Past award recipients include: Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen (2010), Mark Parnes (2011), Laura Lauder (2012), Nancy Heinen (2015), Kelly Pope (2016), Alison Elliott (2017), and Bill Brownell (2018). In SV2’s 15th anniversary year (2013-14), the awardees were a group of SV2 Pioneers, Partners without whom SV2 would not be what it is today: Susan Ford Dorsey, Marcia & John Goldman, Ted & Kathleen Kelly Janus, Karla Jurvetson, Charlene & Derry Kabcenell, Jeff Skoll, Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, and Akiko Yamazaki & Jerry Yang.

Nomination process and deadline: Any SV2 Partner may nominate another Partner for the 2018 award using this form. Please submit your nominations to SV2 CEO Linda Lazor via email by Friday, March 15, 2019. SV2’s Board Executive Committee will serve as the selection committee. The award recipient will be unveiled at SV2’s 2019 Spring Gathering, Rethinking Impact: Inspiring Innovation through Empathy on Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Introducing Our Newest Impact Investee: Suyo

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We’re pleased to introduce our newest Impact Investee, Suyo! SV2 has made a $25,000 investment in Suyo, which joins our portfolio as our ninth Impact Investee since 2015.

Suyo helps families secure their property rights by offering the most affordable and reliable property formalization services in Latin America. Suyo unlocks the social and economic benefits of property for low-income families by providing affordable and reliable property formalization services. Globally, over 4.5 billion land parcels are informal, and 140 countries do not have effective property administration systems. In Latin America, approximately 60% of families have not registered their property.

Families living on informal property miss out on numerous benefits that could potentially lift them out of poverty, such as access to loans, protection from eviction and the ability to transfer rights. With the economic boost of formalized property, families can make home improvements, send children to school and invest in small businesses. Accurate, up-to-date property data also enables governments to plan more effectively and improve social services.

Research has shown that secure property rights benefit the poor in numerous ways:

  • 12% increase in loan approval rates
  • 3.8 times more income for women property owners
  • 35% increase in individual savings
  • doubled investments in property improvements
  • 28% reduction in child labor

​​Based on their market analysis and model, Suyo aims to directly impact 571,600 primary customers with formal property and indirectly impact 1,420,000 lives with the broader societal benefits of property formalization over the next five years.

Join us in welcoming Suyo to the SV2 community. For more information, please visit Suyo on their website.

Impact Investing? Tell me more.

If you’re new to impact investing, learn more about how it works at SV2 by checking out our helpful overview. The SV2 Impact Investing Working Group meets monthly to discuss prospective impact investment opportunities, hear pitches from social entrepreneurs, and perform due diligence in order to make informed investment decisions on behalf of SV2. All Partners are welcome to begin regularly attending IIWG meetings at any point in the year or are welcome to audit meetings on a drop-in basis. This is a fantastic way to hear from inspiring social entrepreneurs and participate in a hands-on and highly engaged investment process.

Building Opportunity and Inclusivity through the Performing Arts – Lightning Grant Round

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Engagement with the performing arts can inspire individual growth, build community, and expand opportunity. This Lightning Grant Round (LGR) will focus on Bay Area arts organizations that use participation and exposure to performing arts disciplines to build opportunity and create inclusivity for low-income, underserved, or vulnerable communities. SV2 Partners Ellen Lussier, JoAnne Tillemans, and Lisa Jones are co-leading this LGR.

This sounds amazing! What will I do and how can I sign up?

Partners will review and select from a group of six Bay Area organizations nominated by our generous Funder Ally and Grant Round Financial Sponsor, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Partners will vote on 3 organizations to become finalists.

Meeting 1 (meet and get to know our three finalist organizations): Thursday, March 7th 6:30-9pm.

Meeting 2 (Partners discuss our three finalist organizations and vote on Grantee): Thursday, March 21st 6:30-9pm. To vote, Partners must read the diligence shared about the three finalist organizations before Meeting 2 and be present in-person at Meeting 2.

Both meetings will be held at Lucie Stern Community Center (Community Room): 1305 Middlefield Rd #1, Palo Alto, CA 94301.  

Please RSVP by Monday, February 18th, 2019. You’ll get more details once you RSVP.

Meeting 1 is open to SV2 Partners and Prospective Partners. Meeting 2 is open to just SV2 Partners.

RSVP for Meeting 1

RSVP for Meeting 2

What is a Lightning Grant Round?

Lightning Grant Rounds are a shortened grantmaking experience, taking place over four to six weeks with only two in-person meetings. For the Lightning Rounds, SV2 collaborates with funder allies who nominate organizations from their portfolios and share their diligence materials with us. Working with funder allies relieves the burden for nonprofit applicants and allows SV2 Partners to learn how our funder allies approach their work. For this Round, we’re delighted to work with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

During Lightning Rounds, participating Partners have the opportunity to research and get to know six organizations in the sector, learn from funder allies about these organizations, hear presentations from the leaders of three finalist organizations, and collectively select a single Grantee. Lightning Round Grantees receive a one-year general operating support grant of up to $30,000, and participating Partners get to engage in a fantastic hands-on learning experience.

Questions?

Contact Amy Badiani (abadiani@sv2.org).