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Welcome, Newest Lightning Grantee: GridLab!

• News •

Our Environment Lightning Grant Round was action-packed! We had the amazing opportunity to get to know how six organizations are advancing climate solutions and environmental sustainability, as well as replicating and/or scaling their work. SV2 Partners selected GridLab as our new Lightning Grantee! 

GridLab provides technical grid expertise to enhance policy decision-making and to ensure a rapid transition to a reliable, cost effective, and low carbon future.

We’re also thrilled to have learned more about the two Finalist organizations: Canopy (planting and caring for trees where people need them most, prioritizing tree planting and stewardship, education, and advocacy in communities where people do not have a thriving urban forest due to limited resources, competing priorities, and historical development and urbanization patterns) and Menlo Spark (helping Menlo Park become climate neutral by 2025, collaborating with local government, businesses, residents, and top experts to apply proven sustainability measures to Menlo Park through community engagement).

We were honored to hear from Catherine Martineau and Kammy Lo (Canopy), Ric O’Connell (GridLab), Diane Bailey and Kristin Kuntz-Duriseti (Menlo Spark).

Of the Partners who responded to the LGR feedback survey, 100% shared that their level of knowledge about local community needs and potential solutions increased as a result of participating in this LGR.

Some Partner testimonials:

“More serious than ever about climate change challenges and importance of communication and advocacy as well as local action and technological knowledge.”

“Participation allowed me to gain a perspective from knowledgeable fellow SV2 partners with different areas of expertise. It broadened my personal lens and made me feel more connected to SV2.”

A big thank you to our highly accomplished and thoughtful Funder Allies – Devra Wang, Program Director Climate and Clean Energy with Heising-Simons Foundation and Ash McNeely, Executive Director with Sand Hill Foundation. Also so much appreciation to Bill Brownell and Jennifer McFarlane (our ambitious, detailed, and innovative Grant Round Partner Co-Leaders), and all who participated in making this an action-oriented and insightful learning experience.

Welcome, SV2 Teens 2020 Grantees

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This year, SV2 Teens decided to learn more about criminal justice reform. We went on site-visits, learned more about and allocated a $20,000 grant across three organizations: Defy Ventures (shifts mindsets to give people with criminal histories their best shot at a second chance through career readiness, personal development, and entrepreneurship training programs offered in prisons and in the community), Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (engages in public policy advocacy, offers training and technical assistance, and seeds restorative practices in schools, communities, and juvenile justice), and Young Women’s Freedom Center (ensures that young women who have been deeply hurt and excluded — who have been homeless, incarcerated, or otherwise severely impacted by poverty — have a place to heal, achieve self-sufficiency and become positively engaged in their communities).

We were so energized to experience how all three organizations are engaging “systems impacted” people to be part of the solution, energizing youth as changemakers, and taking holistic community-led approaches. During our site visits and virtual celebration meeting, we got to hear directly from systems impacted people who now work or volunteer with Defy, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, and Young Women’s Freedom Center. 13 Teens participated in the program this year. Thanks to all Teens for your participation (and your adaptability in going virtual!), teamwork, and leadership, all the families for all your support, and all three organizations.

The program continues to be Teen-led, and we had a thoughtful and strong leadership team this year – shout out to Brian Penchina, Daisy Koch, Emily Boal, Hope Morita, Jared Boal, and Sophie Callcott!

This year’s program was co-facilitated by SV2 Partner Anne Maloney and Amy Badiani.

Meet our North Fair Oaks Community Grantees

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This year, SV2 hosted our first-ever place-based Grant Round in a particular geography: the North Fair Oaks community in San Mateo County. As part of SV2’s Pathways to Opportunity initiative, this Grant Round looked at the overlapping levers of Education, Workforce Development, and Basic Needs — all of which provide proven pathways out of poverty. In previous years, Grant Rounds have focused on one or two of these levers, or looked at them through the lens of “early life” (birth to age 8). For the North Fair Oaks Community Grant Round, we looked at all three levers, bounded by this particular geography. Partners Rachel Klausner and Kwok Lau co-led the Round with staff member Jody Chang.

This Grant Round was full of innovative experimentation! We integrated “Get Proximate” experiences into the Round itself, with walking tours of North Fair Oaks, and participation in a library open mic event in the community. We substituted in-person “coffee chats” with the Executive Directors in place of written grant applications. And of course, we took the whole Grant Round virtual once Shelter-in-Place began. After an engaged learning and diligence process, Partners selected two outstanding organizations as Grantees. One Life Counseling and Upward Scholars will each receive a grant of $75,000, given over three years, along with beyond-the-dollars support. In addition, Community Schools was awarded a finalist grant of $20,000.

One Life Counseling provides individual and group therapy, both to private clients and through community and school-based programs. They provide mental health services to schools in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks, offering group therapy to “newcomers” — recent immigrants  who have experienced trauma. They believe that “access to mental health services should be easily accessible, readily available and comfortable,” and have pivoted to offering services virtually through the pandemic. 

Upward Scholars is the only nonprofit in the Bay Area providing financial and academic support to adults struggling with economic hardship so they can transition from adult schools to community colleges and attend college part-time. As a result of their work, students continue their education, get higher paying jobs, and serve as role models and advocates for their children. They provide financial assistance to cover students’ textbooks and transportation to college, laptops, tutors, mentors, and additional support services.

SV2 Partners appreciated both organizations’ focus on North Fair Oaks residents through direct service with a ripple effect: as students receive mental health services, they are better able to succeed in school and life, and as adult scholars successfully transition to the next phase of their education, they earn more to support their families and inspire their children to succeed as well. Join us in welcoming these effective and impactful organizations to the SV2 Portfolio!

Impact Investing in a Pandemic: What We’re Learning

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SV2 launched our impact investing work in 2015, and a committed and engaged group of Partners meets monthly to discuss prospective impact investment opportunities, hear pitches from social entrepreneurs, and conduct due diligence in order to make informed investment recommendations on behalf of SV2. Our current portfolio includes 10 companies and three funds. SV2’s “returns framework” includes this prioritized list:

  1. Return on learning; 
  2. Social impact return;
  3. Financial return.

When Shelter-in-Place began, we moved our impact investing meetings online — but larger changes than a shift to virtual format were afoot in the sector as a whole. Disaster and crisis response efforts typically follow three phases: immediate relief, medium term recovery, and long term rebuilding. After attending multiple webinars on “impact investing in crisis,” the leader team (Partners Aarti Chandna, Jason Chen, and Ron Morita, and staff member Jody Chang) articulated a shift in investment approach for April and May. We paused new investment opportunities in early stage companies. We reached out to our current portfolio companies to learn of any immediate relief needs they had. And finally, we considered new investments in funds which were geared at COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts for small businesses and social enterprises.

We learned that none of our portfolio companies was seeking emergency investment funding (for example, bridge loans). One company, Needslist, was raising philanthropic capital, and we made a small $6k grant following their pitch in April. However, Partners were interested in investment (vs. grant) funding opportunities, so in May we heard pitches from two COVID relief funds. After consideration, Partners recommended a $25k investment in CNote’s COVID Rapid Response Fund — a five year, 1% note; funds are re-loaned to small, women and minority-owned businesses nation-wide through the CNote CDFI network.

The Impact Investing Working Group will once again hear pitches from early stage social entrepreneurs beginning with our June 10 meeting (RSVP here). We’ll continue our learning by including a COVID-19 lens in our diligence — asking questions like “Has the company pivoted due to the crisis? Does their business model demonstrate crisis-resilience?” Join us!

SV2 Annual Grantee Reporting & Ways to Support Our Grantees

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In line with funder best practices in times of crisis, SV2 recently made changes to our annual grant reporting process. Specifically, we did not ask our Grantees to write grant reports, but relied on our Lead Partner liaisons to write reports after checking in verbally with our second and third year Grantees; we postponed our annual Portfolio Review process; and we released funding ahead of schedule to our Year 2 and Year 3 Grantees. These actions are aligned with the Funder Pledge we signed: “Philanthropy’s Commitment During COVID-19.” We are reflecting on practices we can continue after this pandemic to further our commitment to break down power dynamics and ‘walk alongside’ the social ventures we support — in order to demonstrate empathy, trust and support of these impactful and inspiring organizations. 

We want to give a big shoutout to our Lead Partners (SV2 Partners who are liaisons and champions of our Grantees) for your thoughtful work and strong relationship-building to make this a success. During our check-ins, we learned ways our community can support some of our Grantees. Please see the following list. The full list of our Grantees is here. You can also participate in #GivingTuesdayNow on May 5th to join a global movement to donate to these nonprofits. We all have a role to play in this, and appreciate your support!

Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) [starting year two of their three year grant]
SV2 Lead Partners: Deb Dauber and Kelly Pope

Almost 90% of the children and families we serve are people of color living at or below the federal poverty line. We provide every service to our patients free of charge, but as a small nonprofit we are also facing the financial challenges and stress of COVID-19.

 Fund Development

  • Please consider donating to continue to support the Bayview Hunters Point community and help those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Inner City Advisors (ICA) [starting year two of their three year grant]
SV2 Lead Partners: Bill Brownell and JoAnne Tillemans

Our challenge is to help our companies survive in the short term, and be ready to thrive as the economy opens up down the road. Building resilience into the small business sector now and into the future is where we’re headed. 

Community and Volunteering

  • ICA will pair businesses with our network of expert advisors, and continue providing tailored resources to our companies to help them survive this and grow once stabilized. Volunteer as an Advisor.

Fund Development

  • Actively seeking additional capital to extend to our community as well as resources to arm our community with. Please send any leads to Allison Kelly | allison@innercityadvisors.org and Dianna Trembley | dianna@innercityadvisors.org 
  • Bay Area small businesses need our support. ICA is creating a Rapid Response Liquidity Fund, in the form of a zero-interest loan, to address the immediate liquidity crisis faced by many of our companies. Our goal is to raise $5 million to help address the gap between what our companies need now, and government subsidies and other relief funds that may become available, so that as few people as possible lose their jobs and financial stability. 
  • Donate here.

Partnership for Children & Youth (PCY) [starting year three of their three year grant]
SV2 Lead Partners: Grace Mah and Jan Half

Fund Development

Board Development

“We are particularly interested in folks who can help us build our strategies around corporate partnerships and individual donors to our statewide advocacy work.  However, the major criteria is folks who could be passionate about our mission, enjoy sitting on a small board, and willing to roll up their sleeves when we need support on various projects.” – Jennifer Peck, Executive Director

Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA) [starting year three of their three year grant]
SV2 Lead Partners: Julie Cates and Steve Levy

Community Volunteering

Finances

  • Help develop 3-5 year budget plan – contact Amy (abadiani@sv2.org) and Lead Partners

Fund Development

Social Venture Bright Spots

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The Social Ventures we support (Grantees and Investees) are heroically, resourcefully, and lovingly rapidly adapting to fulfilling community needs. We want to highlight some ways they are doing this. We encourage you to look through their websites and other communications directly to learn more!

Amped Innovation successfully expanded their series A round to secure additional working capital and is actively extending their cash runway.

BAYCAT Studio is partnering with organizations to create socially-conscious media. If you know someone who needs content, please contact them: info@baycat.org. BAYCAT is helping nonprofits, especially in District 10 who need support in telling their story. Apply here. BAYCAT also produced this video honoring our heroes.

Center for Youth Wellness is developing and curating resources for families and supporters, including resources to help overcome trauma and practice self-care. 

Fresh Meat Productions is offering free concerts, classes, workshops, and more. “As we all navigate caring for ourselves and each other by sheltering-in-place, please know that Fresh Meat Productions LOVES YOU”

Haven Connect hosted a COVID-19 roundtable which was well-attended, and attendees requested another one at the end of April.

Inner City Advisors launched an online marketplace to support small businesses. The companies employ more than 500 people. Business is booming through the marketplace!

Learning Genie is providing its digital early learning tools free through December 2020 in order to support many struggling agencies with tools they can use readily.

NeedsList is making their tools available for free to organizations coordinating disaster relief response to COVID19 — and they were included in  Fast Company’s Round up of World Changing Ideas… (right between Burger King and Nike!)

Nepris is seeing increased interest from school districts and other entities to help them address virtual education and community outreach needs. In order to immediately help meet needs of kids who are no longer in school, Nepris is providing parents free access to some of their content for a period of time.

Partnership for Children & Youth is developing and curating “Shelter in Place” resources for educators in distance learning, afterschool programs, public & affordable housing, social-emotional learning, and funding. 

Suyo recently launched a five-year, $3.4 million USD technical consultancy contract to lead innovation efforts nationally for more effective land titling in post-conflict areas of Colombia. 80% of their projected workload from March through August is composed of design, strategy and analytics work that can be executed remotely.

Silicon Valley Urban Debate League had a successful online debate tournament that brought “a little light into our students’ lives”, and “continues to cultivate students’ love of learning and their ability to adapt – skills that are important for life beyond high school.”

SV@Home put out a Call For Action on COVID-19 to keep up the fight for investment in new affordable housing development, preservation of existing affordable housing, and protection of our residents from displacement.  

Working Partnerships USA worked with Santa Clara County to launch COVID-19 Assistance Navigation (CAN), a call-in support group that connects people who have lost jobs or are struggling to pay bills with resources and safety net programs. They are taking volunteers (English and more languages).

If you have more bright spots you’d like us to include in our communications about our Grantees and Investees, please send them to Amy Badiani and Jody Chang – abadiani@sv2.org and jchang@sv2.org.

Lessons Learned from Getting Proximate in North Fair Oaks

• News •

Mural depicting the past and present of the North Fair Oaks district of Redwood city
Artist: Jose Castro

There are many ways to learn about an issue, a population or a place. Some important learning occurs without ever connecting directly with someone affected by an issue or who lives and works in a particular community. 

At SV2 —and particularly in light of current public health guidelines—we certainly believe in the value of “at-a-distance” approaches, particularly to conserve the time and energy of all involved. However, we’ve also learned that  there is no substitute for first-hand immersion – for getting proximate. 

Through our current North Fair Oaks Community Grant Round, many in the SV2 community have experienced the value of getting proximate as a powerful way to understand the complexities and nuance of a community and its people, and to inform their perspective and actions going forward. 

What have we learned so far?

Recurring themes which call for both short and long-term responses.  Our SV2 Grant Round leaders conducted 18 “discovery conversations” with both formal and informal community leaders. Recurrent themes emerged:  the assets and challenges,  joys and  fears, aspirations and anxieties of the North Fair Oaks community.  Some tilt more toward the short term  “urgency of now” –  since exacerbated by the current COVID-19 crisis. Others call for a longer term strategy to change underlying policies and systems. We need both. 

  • housing (costs rising, displacement, gentrification)
  • local schools/education (local school closing, charter options, teacher turnover/low pay, homework help programs discontinued at the library) 
  • health care (including dental)
  • mental health (working 2-3 jobs, early life trauma, immigration challenges, a culture that doesn’t encourage self-care)
  • building leadership capacity in parents and community residents (developing community voice, agency, empowerment)
  • childcare (few high quality options, high cost)
  • transportation (railroad tracks divide the community, lack sidewalks and bike lanes), workforce development 

All the senses inform experience. It’s personal and emotional, not just intellectual.  

SV2 Partners came to better understand the North Fair Oaks community through several in-person Get Proximate  experiences: 

Partners participated in a facilitated Reflection Call following these experiences, sharing their observations—what moved and surprised them, how their multi-sensory experiences shifted their perspectives, and could change the course of their actions going forward. 

Some themes that emerged:

  • Strength of the local community
    • “You could see in the residential neighborhood how some took such pride in their homes.  The mural was beautiful and so were the vegetable plots in the park.”
    • “You could see the strength of relationships in the little markets.” 
  • Geographic and governance obstacles 
    • “The railroad tracks are a division, and there is not a way for the youth to cross the tracks so they need vans to get to some of the local programs.” 
    • “North Fair Oaks is in an unincorporated part of San Mateo County, so they don’t have a local say in the operations.  No local control.” 
  • The huge potential and heart of North Fair Oaks residents
    • “There was so much community spirit and talent at the Open Mic Night.”
    • “ I had an inspiring conversation with a Mom at the North Fair Oaks library. Her son is about to transition from community college to university studying engineering. She is also taking English classes and building her own skills.”   
    • “We need to talk about assets rather than deficits.”
  • The power of personal relationships and partnership
    • “I have now spent time there and developed some friendships. I can reach out directly. It keeps deepening.”
    • “We got to talk to others on the walk, like in the garden.  We learn more with natural exchanges.”
    • “We are not there as tourists but partners; we need to avoid talking about the community as them, as others. How do we do this genuinely and be more watchful with how we describe it and the words we use?” 

We need to gain understanding through both “intellectual sources” and by getting proximate. And when we truly get proximate, it’s  more meaningful, more fun, and ultimately, we’ll build deeper relationships over time that strengthen agency and leadership in the communities we seek to serve.  We look forward to continuing to integrate our Get Proximate learnings throughout our SV2 programming.

How we are Partnering with Social Ventures and Going Strong Together

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We’ve checked in with our current Grantees and Impact Investees, who are hard at work continuing their invaluable work. It’s quite the range: from helping children and families overcome adverse experiences, to systemically enabling affordable housing solutions, supporting afterschool program providers, tech platforms for distance learning, coordinating crisis response, channeling capital and training to small businesses, ensuring protections and healthy work environments for workers and families, helping people gain skills to increase employability and living wages, advancing environmental sustainability, the arts, inclusion and more. 

We have curated a resource list for our Grantees and one for our Impact Investees and have shared them with all our portfolio organizations. Please email Amy Badiani or Jody Chang if you come across more resources!

As many of our Grantees and Investees continue their important work in this turbulent time, we’re lightening their load by listening more to how they’re doing and ways to help. This includes relaxing site visit requests, postponing reporting, sharing resources, and taking more actions in this pledge to walk alongside our social ventures.

Please consider supporting our social ventures during this difficult time, and in turn, helping our communities stay resilient and pull through this together. You’ll likely see COVID-19 updates and specific ways to help on their website and/or newsletter section.

What SV2 Partners are doing during this challenging time!

We know that many Partners are taking action to advance social impact at this time. We have compiled a summary of what Partners are doing and would love to share more. We invite you to check out this list and if you’d like to share what you’re doing with the rest of our SV2 Partner community, please email Lucinda Brommersma and she will add it to the list.

SV2 Bright Spots: Uplifting Updates

• News

We realize many of our community members might be feeling overwhelmed due to rising challenges surrounding COVID-19 disruptions and ramifications. In an effort to disrupt news feeds full of discouraging news, we are sharing some of the bright and impactful work happening currently in our SV2 community. 

  • As SV2 goes fully virtual, attendance at events remains strong as people engage in learning and giving together while sheltering-in-place. Our grantmaking, impact investing and learning sessions are continuing – we invite all Partners and Prospective Partners to participate!
  • We’re living out our value of innovation – live in every meeting as we experiment with different ways to engage participants in virtual experiences and using Zoom features like polling and breakout rooms!
  • We are lowering our carbon footprints with less driving and less printing. 
  • North Fair Oaks Coffee Chats were a big hit
    • These in-person chats were designed as a replacement for our traditional written grant application. The intent was to reduce the time spent by nonprofit applicants on our process. This goal was realized — and the Coffee Chats also enabled Partners to meet the Executive Directors in person, a special boon given that we will not be able to conduct site visits due to the shelter-in-place directive.
  • SV2 Impact Investee OpenInvest has been included in Fast Company’s 2020 Most Innovative Companies List (#10 in the Finance category) and won “Best Retail Investment Platform” at the annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards. Read more.
  • Nonprofits are still eager to engage with SV2 — in the words of one Executive Director: “Thank you for reaching out! [The Environment Lightning Grant Round] sounds like a fantastic opportunity, and we’re so honored to be invited in. I appreciate all the due diligence around COVID-19, and for putting together such a thoughtful, streamlined process for applicants. During a week full of cancellation notices and doomsday headlines, your email landed in our inboxes like a breath of fresh air.”
  • As many of our Grantees and Investees continue to do important work directly with our local communities, we’re lightening their load by postponing reporting and taking more actions in this pledge to walk alongside our social ventures.
  • Our first virtual SV2 Teens site visit a few weeks ago was a big hit with successful org and Teen co-facilitation, authentic stories and community sharing, insightful information, and mutually high energy!

We hope these updates brought some brightness to your day. We are tremendously grateful to our Partners for your continued  support of SV2’s mission in activating givers and strengthening promising social ventures at a time when strategic and engaged giving is especially critical.

Wishing you and your families health and peace in the days ahead.

 

SV2 Spring Gathering Postponed to Fall

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Like many other organizations, SV2 is having to adjust our plans due to COVID-19. Since so much of our Spring Gathering involves bringing our community together, we have decided to move our currently planned program and speakers to our Fall Gathering. In lieu of Spring Gathering, we hope to have one or two smaller, more casual events over the summer, assuming public health guidelines enable a return by then to a normal social gathering environment.

We appreciate the strength and resiliency of our community in this rapidly changing environment. Thank you for your continued support and engagement with SV2. We look forward to seeing you at future gatherings, and wish you health and peace in the days ahead.