This past February, we got together in-person with Code Tenderloin, one of our impactful and inspiring Community Partners. In a “Get Proximate” format, SV2 members connected with Code Tenderloin students and staff, participated in a walking tour led by Del Seymour, Founder, and known in the community as ‘Mayor of the Tenderloin’. We also had lunch together and did some resume reviews and mock interviews with students. This was a deeply motivating and encouraging experience. Special thanks to Justin DeMartra, Education Coordinator, for co-organizing this with SV2!

Founded in 2015, Code Tenderloin focuses on workforce development by addressing the digital divide and removing barriers — such as finances, legal, soft skills, childcare, transportation, and education —  that keep people from securing long-term employment. Based in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, Code Tenderloin prepares participants to succeed in the workplace, and connects local businesses, major tech companies, and nonprofits with the right candidates for long-term job placement. 

From the very beginning of our time together, it was so encouraging to experience our Tenderloin neighbors and SV2 members naturally getting to know each other. A bunch of students and staff joined us on the walking tour with Del, and shared what they’re doing now (a whole range of things such as learning programming, working in tech, pursuing social work, working with local council members and more!), challenges they’re experiencing or overcoming, why they are proud about their community, their hopes, and aspirations. The walking tour included stops at the Black Lives Matter community mural, booming small businesses (such as Friscostocks sneaker store), a theatre and lounge where Code Tenderloin started and runs some classes, meeting Code Tenderloin alums now working in the community, and bumping into Shamann Walton, President of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. Of course, Del and Shamann know each other! 

As Del shared with us:

I spent 18 years being homeless, addicted to and selling drugs. I got my life together, I worked on bridging the gap between this community, other communities, and people coming to Tenderloin, so we could get to know each other better.

The government and media misaligned who we are and other communities are. There are people living two miles away who have no idea who we are.

We had a big scare 8 years ago, when the international tech industry decided to make the Tenderloin their new global home. People in the Tenderloin were terrified that the tech industry would take their homes. The tech industry was afraid that they would be robbed walking the streets. Neither of those things have ever happened. It has turned out to be a wonderful collaboration between those two populations.

As the Unofficial Mayor of the Tenderloin, I along with the Code Tenderloin team spend half of our day in the tech community, working to bridge the gap socially, economically, and emotionally while we dedicate the rest of our day in the Tenderloin community.

As we closed, Donna Hilliard, ED, shared ways to partner and get involved, including individual volunteering, group volunteering, tech visits, head shots, and mentorship. 

Upon reflecting on the experience, Meg Bannick, SV2 Partner shared:

“I am so glad I was able to visit Code Tenderloin with other SV2 Partners last month. Learning about the organization and its founder during the grant round was most certainly inspirational, yet could not compare to actually being there. Walking the Tenderloin neighborhood led reverently by Del with other staff adding their perspectives gave me an opportunity to appreciate the histories, tales and people calling it home. Practicing interviewing skills with clients gave me a greater understanding of their journeys and their drive to succeed. I expected to be impressed by the mission and the community, but I was blown away! I look forward to returning soon to “get engaged”, as Del calls it. Thank you, SV2, for the ability to “Get Proximate” through this experience and for impacting my personal view of philanthropy in such a meaningful way.”

We’re deeply grateful to have had this experience together, and look forward to more such opportunities to be in community together.

Code Tenderloin’s newly confirmed, ever caring, and experienced SV2 Lead Partners are Helen Jiang and JoAnne Tillemans.

Join ValuesAdvisor’s Kate Simpson and SV2 CEO David Onek for a two-session workshop on Values-Aligned Investing on May 12 and May 19. With a focus on interactive discussion and community building, the workshop will help you better align your investments with your values. You will be guided through a unique, personal reflection journey that incorporates guided meditations with group work and journal writing. The workshop is designed for all levels of expertise, from novice impact investors to experienced practitioners: all will uncover new learnings. The material in session 2 will build on the material from session 1, so we’re encouraging participants to attend both sessions for the fullest experience.

You will:

• Explore your money story, the origin of your relationship with money
• Identify your money mindset and limiting beliefs you may hold about money
• Determine what is deeply important to you, personally and in the broader world
• Learn the basics about the impact investing field: the categories of impact and impact examples within each asset class
• Craft a written “values” investment policy statement

Each session will include:

• Interactive discussions led by facilitating teachers Kate Simpson and David Onek
• Short guided meditations and journal prompt writing
• Discussion and reflection, in pairs and as a whole group
• Q&A
• Access to accompanying online workbook to support in-person sessions, offering additional research, guided meditations and writing prompts to enhance and support your learning experience.

If you’d like to attend, please RSVP here.

We’re pleased to introduce our newest Impact Investees, Change:WATER Labs, Sanivation, and Croptix. SV2 has made a $25,000 investment in each of these companies.

Change:WATER Labs and Sanivation both work on sanitation. The opportunity and its potential for positive impact are enormous. Poor sanitation is responsible for a wide range of problems including the spread of disease, diarrheal deaths, and water pollution. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted when toilets are not available because they risk physical violence or rape when meeting their needs in an open area, or perhaps could miss school during menstruation. Sanitation affects all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

4.2 billion people (61% of the population) live without a toilet that safely manages waste. Change:WATER Labs (CWL) offers a low tech, low capital expense toilet solution in locations where sewer/water access is not available. The iThrone is a waterless, odorless toilet that uses a patent-pending 3- layer membrane bag to remove water from the waste, reducing the volume by 6x – 10x. Because human waste is 95% water, the solution can save cost and effort of waste collection by evaporating the water. Each bag has a target use cycle of 3-4 weeks. If CWL is successful in building a profitable and scalable solution and is able to pull it off, it will be industry defining and will disrupt the sanitation markets and service models by proving out the economics for a more sustainable, healthier and cleaner sanitation system.

Sanivation designs, builds and operates waste collection and treatment facilities for secondary (non-sewered) cities in East Africa. The waste management market in East Africa alone is $2.6B with 90% of the waste going untreated. Only 23 of 87 utilities in Kenya have waste treatment facilities. Sanivation collects waste in four towns and has treatment facilities in three of them with the other under development. Sanivation combines the collected human waste with sawdust and agricultural waste to create briquettes. The briquettes are a cleaner fuel source than wood, and they also help to  prevent deforestation. Sales of the briquettes are offsetting 65% of Sanivation’s operating expense, and with scale they believe they can get to 100% offset. The large capital expense funding comes from institutions like the World Bank, African Development Bank and IFC.  

Croptix is a smart Ag subscription platform using data and machine learning analytics to help farmers detect and manage fatal diseases in permanent crops to save their farms. Croptix uses a patented handheld spectrophotometer which takes the spectral analysis of plant tissue and uses that to assess plant health and detect diseases. As the technique is probing the internal structure of the plant, it can detect minute changes, allowing for early intervention. This technique is first being applied to the detection of Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening, which is potentially decimating to all varieties of citrus and currently has no treatment and no cost-effective and scalable early detection technology. Preliminary work has also shown the spectrophotometric imaging technique effective in assessing a number of other diseases in permanent crops such as apples, grapes, yuca, and olives. If there is a disease detected, the impact of this technology is tremendous. Entire orchards as well as neighboring orchards can be saved. This means saving the livelihoods of many farmers, not just for that year, but for several years, as Croptix is dealing with permanent crops.  Early detection also stops the unnecessary use of pesticides. This company’s work is related to SDG 12 ( Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 8 ( Decent work and Economic growth).

We are thrilled to welcome Daisy Manapsal to the SV2 staff team and community! Daisy joined the staff team in mid-February as SV2’s new Operations Associate, and she has hit the ground running. Many of you will already have seen Daisy at a Zoom meeting or received a thank you email from her for your SV2 partnership contribution. She has been busy learning SV2’s systems and participating in programming events to see our work in action. 

In her role, Daisy will oversee a myriad of operational systems and details, including interfacing with SV2’s bookkeeping and HR firm, processing Partner contributions, supporting program event logistics, and overseeing SV2’s data tracking and dashboards. She will also oversee our website and eNews communications. If you have a question about an operational detail or just want to say hello, she can be reached at dmanapsal@sv2.org.

Daisy brings a deep background in nonprofit work and a passion for improving operational systems that enable social impact. She started her nonprofit career as a Residential Counselor for youth in foster care. She continued to serve children and youth in the dependency system at Child Advocates of Silicon Valley, both as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer and as a staff member. As the Director of Learning at Child Advocates, she oversaw recruitment, pre-service training, and continuing education for CASA volunteers.

In her free time, Daisy enjoys traveling, learning photography, and spending time with friends and family. Daisy holds a B.S. in Biology from University of California, Irvine and a Masters in Public Health from Drexel University.

We are thrilled to share SV2’s new Strategic Plan with our extended community! The Strategic Plan both preserves the heart of SV2 and pushes us into new territory. We will be enhancing what makes SV2 unique while piloting new approaches, learning from these efforts, and refining and fine-tuning as needed. The Guiding Principles of the Plan include fostering a community of continuous learners, broadening the voices involved in our work, aligning giving and investing with personal values, working with our network to drive impact in the Bay Area, and centering equity in all that we do. Among the strategic highlights are empowering more Partner-led initiatives, expanding SV2’s impact investing work, and adding Grantees and community leaders to SV2’s Board and other decision-making tables. 

We are excited to welcome Grace Mah to the SV2 Board of Directors! 

Grace Mah has served on the Santa Clara County Board of Education since 2007. Her previous committee work includes the Head Start Policy Council, Joint Legislative Advisory Committee (JLAC), Budget Study Committee, and Policy Development Subcommittee. She also serves as Board President of Stevenson House, a low-income senior housing program in Palo Alto. Grace is co-founder of the Strong Start Coalition of Santa Clara County, dedicated to increasing access to early learning opportunities for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in Santa Clara County. In addition, Grace has been a board member of the Palo Alto Family YMCA, a parent volunteer at Palo Alto public schools, and the initiator for a Mandarin immersion program in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Grace has 18 years of experience in the high-tech industry, including project management and sales experience. She has a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and is currently pursuing a Public Leadership Credential from the Harvard Kennedy School. Grace, her husband and their two sons live in Palo Alto.

SV2’s Spring 2022 Education Grant Round will focus on approaches and organizations that are advancing equity in education, resulting in underrepresented and underestimated BIPOC students thriving and achieving their goals. 

SV2 Partners, please join us at an Open House on Zoom on Thursday, January 13 from 1-2pm to learn more about the Grant Round and opportunities for engagement. RSVP here. We also welcome Partners to help us identify the pool of nonprofits we will invite to join the Grant Round. Email Jody Chang at jchang@sv2.org if you can’t attend the Open House but want to join the research team.

Long-time power structures and systems, as well as the ongoing pandemic, have disproportionately affected families of color and low-income students, and have both revealed and intensified inequitable academic outcomes. Building on the community insights, research and learnings from last year’s Education Grant Round, we will learn about organizations advancing equity in interventions such as teacher development, belonging and inclusion in school culture, and family engagement. 

As part of SV2’s commitment to embedding an equity lens in our grantmaking practice, we are designing this Grant Round based on insights from a variety of community stakeholders, especially those close to the ground and with lived experience. Last year, a Partner research team conducted more than 20 interviews with a variety of educators, funders, researchers, and nonprofit leaders. Their insights and recommendations will continue to shape our approach to this Grant Round as well as the pool of nonprofit organizations we’ll consider. In addition, we are planning a Town Hall with youth served by current SV2 Grantee Community Partners, in which the research team will hear directly about education equity from youth with lived experience.

The Grant Round itself will kick off with a learning session in mid February — stay tuned for details and exact date. We will continue SV2’s application approach in which virtual “coffee chats” between small groups of Partners and nonprofit applicants will take the place of written grant applications. Partners will learn about the sector and conduct diligence on the organizations over the course of four meetings from February to May. 

The Grant Round is led by Partners Kelly Pope and Jennifer Min, and staff members Amy Badiani and Jody Chang. Meetings will be held on Tuesdays from 12:30pm-2:30pm via Zoom.

If you’d like to participate in the Grant Round, please join the Education Group on mySV2 in order to receive future communications and access to files. Please contact Jody Chang if you have questions about the Grant Round or trouble accessing mySV2.

Three and a half years ago, Justina joined the SV2 staff team as Operations Manager. In that time, she has managed countless details, kept systems running efficiently, and supported SV2’s operations behind the scenes with skill and an ever-ready smile. During her tenure, Justina improved and implemented multiple systems that helped to streamline SV2’s work — from user testing and onboarding the mysv2 platform, to integrating our RSVP system with our database, to upgrading how staff track their time off, to managing SV2’s most recent Salesforce data project. She is truly a whiz with Excel spreadsheets! Both staff colleagues and Partners who worked with Justina universally commented on her positivity and good cheer. Her can-do approach to solving problems and her cheerful support for team members have been gifts to SV2.

Justina has accepted a position as Global Marketing Manager at EA Games. Please join us in thanking Justina for her years of service to SV2, and wishing her the very best in her next adventures.

By Paru Desai, SV2 Partner and Mindfulness Practitioner 

“Let’s take a minute to come into this space. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths.  Begin to notice any sensations in the body, your feet on the floor,  your back against the chair, your hands in your lap.. notice how you feel right now. Set an intention…how do you want to show up in this meeting?”

Starting a meeting this way, or sometimes just a chime which signals the start and finish of one minute of silence, were not the traditional way to start any gathering, especially one in a business or professional setting. But mindfulness is becoming more and more common in workplace settings from meetings of all sizes to conferences and events.  Backed by data that there is a high rate of return on such investments, companies of all sizes are embracing mindfulness as part of employee wellbeing programs.  As shown in an earlier article, nonprofits are especially turning to mindful practices as part of self-care and to help bring balance to high stress, high trauma environments. 

You may have noticed that the mindful minute is slowly being adopted into several SV2 sessions.  Staff meetings regularly begin with a mindful minute as do most Board meetings. I’ve also seen it practiced in small working group sessions.

What is a mindful minute and what can you actually do in 60-120 seconds?  Let’s try something: set a timer for one minute and try not to think of anything for that one minute.  Have your mind go completely blank with no thoughts or ideas whatsoever. (one minute later…) It’s pretty hard right?  You realize how long one minute actually is. 

The mindful minute is a quick and simple tool that can allow you to create space between one activity to the next, between one emotional state to another.  It can ‘clean’ the clutter and churn that exists in your mind  from whatever has happened up to that point. Those thoughts jumping around can also show up in your body as tension, tightness and constriction.  A mindful minute brings you into the present moment and with the pause allows you to notice what is happening in your mind, emotions and body.  And once you notice them, you can rebalance and refocus to meet the present moment. 

Because a mindful minute is so short, it can be used anytime and anyplace, regardless of how busy you are.  You can also use it multiple times a day, as often as needed to prepare for the flow of what is coming next.

So it turns out that you can actually do a lot with just one minute!

Here are some ways you can practice a mindful minute.  Start by finding a posture where you are relaxed but alert.  In meetings, this will likely be a chair but if you are home alone, you can stand or even lie down.

Breath counting:  closing your eyes, bring your focus to the breath. Continue to breathe normally in and out and do this for a few breaths. Once you feel comfortable that you have a sense of your breath begin the 1 minute with your timer and mentally count each out breath. Breathe in, breathe out, count 1. Breathe in, breathe out, count 2, etc.

Set an intention: Use the prompt that started this article and set an intention for the upcoming meeting or event.  I sometimes send stealth wishes to everyone – that we all recognize the value of coming together and that we jointly contribute to a successful meeting as we work towards common goals. This is also effective for social situations and family times as well.

Routines:  Incorporate mindful minute into routine tasks like brushing your teeth, the first minute of a shower, washing dishes, etc. This brings awareness to what we are doing rather than just completing tasks on autopilot as we usually do. With the focus often also comes appreciation — appreciation for hot running water, a wonderful meal that was just completed, the rest of a good night’s sleep.

Just breathe: You can also just set the time, close your eyes and just breathe, relaxing your body and releasing any tension you encounter.  Sometimes in the midst of rushing around, this is often all that is needed.

By the way, if you find yourself thinking about something else during this minute, that is perfectly okay.  Remember the earlier exercise of having no thoughts?  It is very hard, even for 60 seconds and it’s also part of being mindful to notice that your mind has wandered; with practice, you will be able to focus on your breath or attention area you have chosen for longer and longer periods.

A mindful minute does not take the place of my longer meditation practice but it is a core exercise that I regularly rely on daily to transition between activities, shift focus and help rebalance the busy-ness. Give it a try!  And please share your experience or thoughts with us on how you experienced your mindful minute today. 

20+ SV2 Partners participated in our Economic Inclusion Grant Round, learned more about community strengths and aspirations, what economic inclusion means, and selected these two community rooted and impactful organizations to each receive $75,000 in multi-year unrestricted funding, beyond-the-dollars support as helpful, and friendship!

Founded in 2015, Code Tenderloin removes barriers that keep people from securing long-term employment such as finances, legal, soft skills, childcare, transportation, and education. Based in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, Code Tenderloin prepares participants to succeed in the workplace, and connects local businesses, major tech companies, and nonprofits with the right candidates for long-term job placement.

Founded in 1998, Puente de la Costa Sur promotes and advocates for equitable access to education, health, and economic security among those in Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar, and San Gregorio. They focus on creating equitable opportunities for: farmworkers, low-income households, students and parents in the local school district, first generation college students, children 0 to 5 years old, and seniors.

We started off the Grant Round grounding ourselves in community insights about what economic inclusion means, we learned it means:

• Having the means to get a well paying job
• A fair work environment
• Supporting oneself and families with dignity
• A voice in the workplace
• Creating a culture of collective care for workers
• Equitable opportunities for advancement and leadership
• A seat at the decision and policy-making table
• It’s transformative and can be hard work over a longer period of time with different kinds of qualitative and quantitative impact, not a linear path or set framework!

Based on feedback and SV2’s evolved tenets, including broadening voices of those involved and equity as a central throughline of our work, we did some important re-design of our grantmaking process, key changes we continued or newly made include:

• Having two parts overall – Part 1: Community Outreach, Learning, and Grantmaking and Part 2: Getting Proximate (connecting with community members directly) and Relationship building, we just finished Part 1!
• Offering two multi-year unrestricted grants in an effort to make our process more collaborative than competitive
• Curating insights about what economic inclusion means 
• Sourcing almost 100 organizations from community nominations, self-nominations, and research 
• Engaging a Partner research team to shortlist organizations per SV2’s grantmaking and match criteria 
• Hosting a kickoff session “Economic Inclusion: The Underestimated in our Communities Reclaiming Power and Advancing their Goals” that engaged strong community leaders and experts | Our accomplished Speakers were:
  • Uma Viswanathan, Executive Director, New Pluralists Collaborative
  • Amelia Post, Director of Learning and Leadership Development, SOMOS Mayfair, SV2 Alumni Community Partner / Grantee
  • Angelica Flores, Eastside San José Community Leader and Resident, Co-Founder and Worker Owner of De Colores Cooperative
  • Ari Morales, Director of Programs, Working Partnerships USA, SV2 Alumni Community Partner / Grantee
  • Dianna Tremblay, Chief Program Officer, ICA, SV2 Community Partner / Grantee
• Encouraging Partners to research the organizations based on what’s already publicly available
• Streamlining the learning and diligence process for both the participating organizations and Partners
• Replacing applications and ED presentations with virtual “coffee chats”, more relational opportunities to connect and go deeper in learning about community strengths, aspirations, opportunities, what the organizations do, what growth looks like, team dynamics, etc. 

We’re getting some great feedback and will keep evolving and improving. 

Thanks to all who participated, and special kudos to Mark Wilson and Sneha Challa, Partner Co-Leaders of the Grant Round for their thoughtful re-design, community grounding, and dynamic facilitation, all as volunteers of this massive effort!