SDSVP Partner, Aaron Contorer Wins 10News Leadership Award

From OurCity San Diego

October 27, 2009

10News and OurCity: San Diego honors Aaron Contorer for establishing the Equinox Center – a non-profit organization with the mission of navigating San Diego on its best course for a prosperous future. The Equinox Center conducts objective research, shares insightful data, makes strategic policy recommendations, and assists community leaders, policy makers, the media, and individuals to comprehend the complex issues surrounding San Diego’s sustainable future.

Aaron Contorer serves as the Board Chairman of the Equinox Center and is involved with all details of the organization as an active volunteer, marketer, capacity builder, strategic advisor, fundraiser, and a number of other different aspects. He has contributed personal funds and dedicated all of his spare time for the success of this organization.

The Equinox Center was founded in 2008 and its mission is to be a catalyst for advancement and provide reliable and thought-provoking ideas for San Diego’s future. Their mission and core values are centered on ensuring thriving communities, a strong economy, and a quality environment. Inspired by such values, the Equinox Center conducts research and strategically plans for the projected increased strain on the water and energy supplies, natural areas, transportation systems, housing infrastructure in order to ensure San Diego’s ongoing prosperity.

Aaron Contorer will receive the 10News Leadership Award on Wednesday Oct. 28 in the category of Environmental Stewardship. Watch 10News, Live @ 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 for the presentation of the award. For more information, visit http://www.equinoxcenter.org/.

Meet Partner, Linda Bernstein!

By Lori Thiel

San Diego Social Venture Partner’s new board member Linda Bernstein spent 20 years accumulating knowledge about how to successfully run a business, knowledge that in retirement she wants to share with area nonprofits through her work with SDSVP and other philanthropic organizations.

Despite her demonstrable business savvy, Linda — who ran a start-up from her home and sold it 20 years later after growing it to 50 employees and 500 customers worldwide — was an unlikely manager. With an education degree from UCLA and work experience as an elementary school teacher, she took the plunge into the world of business in 1982 when her husband Robert started SeaSpace Corporation in their San Diego home.

SeaSpace provides satellite ground stations and processing software to sense meteorological, oceanographic and environmental data from space. So it was a natural next step for Robert, who earned his Ph.D. in physical oceanography from Columbia University and founded Scripps Satellite-Oceanography Facility.

Within a short while of starting the business it became apparent that someone needed to manage it. So Linda gave up her teaching job to run the company.

“SeaSpace,” Linda remembers fondly, “was like a science fair project for my husband” who is a renowned oceanographer and an expert in satellite data acquisition. But for a novice businessperson, Linda had to learn on the go. She went from the classroom where she taught elementary school to the boardroom, where she learned the hard way how a business operates.

During her time with SeaSpace she learned to draw on resources and look to other credible sources for help. In the last five years of her tenure at SeaSpace she participated in Vistage, a CEO leadership organization that hosts monthly workshops and networking opportunities for professionals to share insight, strategies and support. There she met like-minded entrepreneurs and made long-term friends. One in particular had a commitment to philanthropy and led her to SDSVP.

As she learned more about SDSVP she says she appreciated the meaningful work the organization does partnering with nonprofits to help them solve problems. “It’s a smart way to invest time and money,” she says.

Given her background in childhood education, it’s not surprising that she particularly enjoys SDSVP’s focus on those areas. “One of the major ways to improve the world and raise people out of poverty is through education,” she says.

And Linda has done her share of raising and educating children: Her son Aaron, 36, is a business developer at Qualcomm locally, and her daughter Sarah, 33, is a physical therapist in Oregon. Each has two children, making Linda a grandmother four times over.

Learning BIG at the SVPI Conference

SDSVP Staff along with Partners, Alan and Louarn Sorkin, Mark Fackler and David Lynn attended the annual SVPI conference in Dallas, Texas. SDSVP enjoyed learning from SVP Partners from around the world. Many great ideas were shared through key note speakers, workshops and even hallway conversations. In addition, our own Alan was inducted as the Social Venture Partners International Chair!

Some Key Learnings:

• Stories are key: SDSVP needs to have stories. Andy Goodman suggested that we could build a story around each one of our Investees. Every staff member, board member, and key player should know 5-7 core stories about the organization, and be able to tell them passionately and effectively; take advantage of social media.
• Measuring outcomes is hard: Keep it simple: it’s nearly impossible to get to the point of causal relationships with any sort of outcomes, it’s hard enough just to measure if you’re having any short term effect.
• Venture Fund – create a leverage fund where others can invest in our portfolio of Investees; foundations who don’t have staff, could utilize SVP as a resource.
• Partner Advisory Board - Quarterly meetings open to all Partners to maintain transparency and distribute responsibility.

Meet Partners, Ray and Gina Ellis!

Ray and Gina Ellis found SDSVP through their involvement with Second Chance, an Emeritus Investee. They joined SDSVP because, like many Partners, they recognize that SDSVP provides a unique opportunity to leverage financial contributions and expertise to produce long-term results.

As Ray celebrates his first anniversary on SDSVP's board, he says that the organization’s return on investment is crucial, and demand is high for his Fund Development Resource Team's services. His professional background includes being principal for his own investment and consulting firm, serving as president of marketing for Protocol Communications, and founding MC Direct, noted for its dominance in the direct mail and marketing industries.

In addition to their philanthropic efforts through SDSVP, Ray and Gina's family foundation supports a variety of local nonprofits. Ray and Gina live in Carmel Valley with their 7-year-old son, Jake. Ray also has a 24-year-old son, Matt, working in Los Angeles, and a 19-year-old daughter, Jessica, who is enjoying her college experience at Texas Christian University. Both Matt and Jessica are starting young in their philanthropy by their involvement in the Ellis Family Foundation.

Advocacy Working Group Update - October 2009

• In order to begin investigating options for advocacy within SDSVP, we are forming the SDSVP Advocacy Working Group
• The Advocacy Working Group will initially function by bringing in nonprofit Executive Director’s to hear about their issues/needs, then determine how SDSVP can best support their efforts, whether by supporting connections to funding or legislative officials and/or direct advocacy efforts
• The general focus area of the Advocacy Working Group is Effective Philanthropy, which includes a) connecting our Investees and their sector with funding sources, and b) non-monetary support on issues, either as individual partners or officially as SDSVP
• Ideally, the Advocacy Working Group would work on a second 3-year phase of our Investees that have successfully built their capacity and can handle a more significant role, including efforts to promote sector-wide changes and/or larger sources of funds
• First test case with Laurin Pause, Executive Director of the Community Resource Center, regarding homeless issues in San Diego. Initial expectation is that SDSVP has the opportunity to actually move the needle on this issue – rumor has it that as few as 100 contacts from respected people may be enough to affect the legislation.

For more information contact the Advocacy Working Group Chair, David Lynn davidl@ayamba.com

Report Reveals SVP Partners Give More

San Diego SVP and 17 other SVP affiliates around the world recently conducted outcomes research among our Partners to measure changes in how much Partners give, how Partners give, and Partners’ involvement in their communities. Over 600 Partners participated, and the results are impressive.

•Partners’ giving increases because of SVP. 60% of respondents stated that their giving has increased since joining SVP, and 79% of them credit SVP with at least some impact on their giving.
•Partners give more strategically because of SVP. Respondents’ use of each of ten giving criteria has increased by 67% ‐ 232% since joining SVP.
•Partners are more involved in the community because of SVP. Respondents report increases in nine areas of community involvement, including a 64% increase in volunteering.
•The longer a Partner is involved in SVP, the larger the changes in all three outcomes. Almost twice as many (79%) long‐term Partners report an increase in their giving than new Partners (43%).

We are proud that the SVP network is making a significant difference in our local communities. These internal findings have also been corroborated by a USC study done by Dr. Michael Moody, “Becoming a Venture Philanthropist: a Study of the Socialization of Social Venture Partners.”

Read the SVP International report at the following link: Strong Partners, Stronger Communities

Meet SDSVP Partner, Steve Ness!

By Paul Thiel

People come to philanthropy in many ways. For SDSVP new board member Steve Ness, 55, it was a perfect storm of events. “I had sold my company about two years ago,” he says, “and [wife] Pam and I were at a point where we had the time and resources to give back to the San Diego community. It was perfect timing for us [to get involved].”

Of course there are numerous worthy causes to champion in San Diego and nationally, but what appealed most to Steve about SDSVP is its structure. “It’s an organization that actually teaches you how to be a good philanthropist,” he says.

The company he sold is San Diego-based Dynamic Instruments, Inc., manufacturer of audio recording and vibration monitoring products for commercial and military markets.

DI, which Steve and partners founded some two-dozen years ago, purchased the floundering Hardy Scales [now Hardy Instruments] and grew it to profitability within three years, thanks to an $11 million Navy contract followed by a $10 million USPS contract. Within 10 years, they added an analog recording company, which ultimately pioneered digital recording technology initially for Navy Intelligence and now available to the commercial sector, such as 911 call stations and any company that records customer conversations.

For Steve, who graduated UC San Diego — with honors — in 1976 with a degree in applied physics and information science or, in today’s parlance, computer science, the technical nature of DI was interesting but finally trumped by a higher calling. “Basically I worked for about five years as an engineer, but the balance of my career — about 27 years — I spent in technical management and corporate management.”

Of his four children, Steve suspects that only one, his youngest, may follow in his entrepreneurial footsteps. “Kyle is very much an inventor and problem-solver,” he says. "He is also interested in business concepts such as marketing and raising capital. I worked with my dad and brother and really enjoyed working with the two of them,” says Steve, “and Kyle has said he’d really like the opportunity for us to work together.”

Kyle, who is a senior in high school, is about four hours away from earning a private pilot license and shares a love of racing Porsches with Steve and Pam. Their oldest son, Scott, teaches English in China to preschool and elementary children and plans to return to the states and earn a PhD in literature and become a university professor. Daughter Stefanie works for Swiss company Tecan, maker of lab instruments for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and universities. And their youngest daughter, Shaina, is a single mom who is pursuing her degree while working.

“Every child is different and wonderful in their own way,” says Steve of his offspring.

So now that he has raised four kids and run and sold a successful company, does he consider himself retired? “I did for about two years,” he laughs, “but now I’m helping my wife run her new real estate company.”

This is the third such company started by Pam, whom Steve calls “fearless” about business. Her first was Teaching through Technology, a philanthropy that collected, refurbished and then donated used computers and printers to local public schools in the early 1990s. The second was a marketing and communications company she started so that she could be available to their children when they were younger. And her current venture, Stone Enterprises, buys, renovates and sells homes to first-time buyers. Their first property was renovated in five weeks and then sold in a mere 90 days.

“I am no longer the CEO of a company,” says Steve with a happy sigh, “I’m now just an employee, and I’m loving just working at her direction and doing what she needs done.”

Meet Partner, Peg Eddy!

By Paul Thiel

For Peg Eddy, CFP (r), joining San Diego Social Venture Partners was a step toward a new phase in her life. Having founded and built a financial and business advisory practice with her husband, she was looking something to move toward as she built and implemented a succession plan.

“I’m a Type-A personality going at 120 miles per hour, so I knew I wasn’t just going to stop – I really need something to move toward when I finally hang up my spikes here” says Peggy. “Plus, I can’t tell my clients that that need to have balance in their lives and move toward something if I’m not doing it myself.”

Peggy has gradually been getting herself involved in SDSVP and recently joined the Board, where she will be working on membership recruitment and retention. She likes the SDSVP philosophy that Partners can be as involved – or as uninvolved – as they want. Says Peggy, “It’s a guilt-free group.”

Long involved in philanthropic efforts – she has played substantial roles over the years in organizations ranging from Lady of Peace Academy, Lightbridge Hospice, TKF, and Rotary International, San Diego Club 33. She is also the founder of the National Organization of Women Business Owners’ San Diego chapter and the Family Business Forum at USD – Peggy is especially interested in education and financial literacy training.

The latter is close to her heart – and her life’s work. Peg and Bob started their firm, Creative Capital Management, in 1975 to work with business owners and entrepreneurs who need help managing their personal and professional finances. They started the business shortly after they were married and had lived for a short period of time on the East Coast. Bob chose the business, and Peg got to choose the location. “I said I wanted to move to San Diego because we had friends here who would take us in if we we’re starving to death,” she says.

The first few months were tough. “We started the business by cold-calling on businesses in El Cajon during a Santa Anas – I remember it clearly,” says Peggy. “We went three months without a client. I was ready to hawk our wedding gifts.”

Things turned around, however, and the couple built a very successful firm while living a very active lifestyle and raising two sons. Sean, 31, graduated from Washington & Lee University and worked for Deloitte Consulting before earning his MBA at Northwestern University. He now works in strategic planning for Wells Fargo in San Francisco and his wife teaches at a private school in Walnut Creek. Younger son Ryan, recently engaged, graduated from Santa Clara University and spent a few years in public relations and as a volunteer firefighter before decided to do the latter full-time. Peggy recently did a ride-along with him, which lessened her anxiety about his chosen profession. “Ever since he was a little boy he wanted to be a firefighter,” says Peggy, “I think he was called to do that type of work.”

It’s no mistake that neither son is part of Creative Capital Management. Peg and Bob were very clear very early that working with them was not a birthright, and said that if they wanted to work with them they would have to interview, report directly to other people and earn a salary on a level with station in the business. Both ultimately decided to do other things.

Meanwhile, Peg and Bob designed and implemented a succession plan, and have in place one of the professionals who will take over the company in the next few years. Peggy will leave first – and get move involved in SDSVP – while Bob will work through the transition.

Peggy anticipates that SDSVP will provide the energy for the next phase of her life: “All of us need a purpose to get out of bed in the morning, and it’s different for everyone.”

An Army “brat”, Peggy has taken great delight over the years in getting deeply involved in the community of greater San Diego. Having attended eight grammar schools and three high schools – ironically graduating from high school in Coronado despite the fact that her father was an Army, not a Navy, officer – Peggy says her upbringing provided some interesting life skills. “I learned to work a room quickly,” she says. “Because I never knew when I would be leaving!”

Quick 4 About Peg:

What's on your iPod? I like quiet. But when I do listen, I listen to from Bach to the Beatles.

What do you like watch? Monk or PBS

What do you do for fun? Hiking, biking. We are a pretty active family.

If you could live somewhere for two years, where would it be and why? Bellagio, Italy. It's just so beautiful and relaxed and the people are friendly.

Meet SDSVP Investee, TKF Executive Director, Lisa Grogan!

By Paul Thiel

Although Lisa Grogan has no kids of her own, children have always been a deep passion for her. With that kind of passion, some become elementary school teachers, others may opt for a career in pediatrics. Grogan, the Executive Director of new SDSVP Investee Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF), headed to the other side of the tracks: she spent a dozen years as a probation administrator for juveniles.

“I like working with a vulnerable population -- I want to make a difference,” says Grogan. “And one of the attractions of coming to TKF was the opportunity to help kids before they enter the juvenile justice system.”

TKF, as the foundation is known, aims to stop the cycle of violence among kids. The foundation was started by Azim Khamisa shortly after his son Tariq, was shot and killed while delivering pizzas to earn money to pay his way through San Diego State University in 1995. Tariq’s assailant was 14-year-old gang recruit Tony Hicks, who became the first juvenile tried as an adult in California and is now serving 25-years-to-life sentence at Pelican Bay State Prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2027, when he is 46.

Like the foundation itself, Grogan began her journey to end youth violence at SDSU, where she majored in criminal justice while taking a minor in social work. While in school she started in the Volunteers in Probation program, and loved the work.

In her former position Grogan oversaw about 3,000 probationers at a time, learning how, for many kids, violence begets violence. “It often starts with the family – often a violent offender comes from a family with a lot of violence. It really is a cycle of violence.”

In addition, Grogan says, she learned why kids join gangs. It’s a matter of protection from others, belonging to a group and being targeted to join. In fact, Hicks was ordered to shoot Tariq by an 18-year-old leader of a gang he was being recruited to after running away from home.

“We try to show that there are other ways to deal with your anger – the answer is not violence,” she says. In addition, “one of the things we teach is forgiveness. Kids think that if they are treated violently they need to respond violently.”

Since inception TKF has reached over 8 million students in 12,000 schools across the nation via a documentary created by Channel One News, more than 300,000 students via in-school presentations and more than 70,000 students in San Diego via a live program, teaching hope, personal responsibility and forgiveness.

One of the several programs run by TKF is the Violence Impact Forum, a unique and powerful school-based violence prevention education program for students in the 4th -12th grades. The assembly includes a high-impact video with powerful speakers and lively student audience participation, focusing on the personal story of Tariq Khamisa, Tony Hicks and the lifelong consequences of one deadly choice.

Grogan sees SDSVP’s support as critical to TKF’s national aspirations. “When I came here I took the philosophy of running a nonprofit as much like a business as possible, and the idea of SDSVP is to marry corporate business strategy to the heart of a nonprofit for success.”

Having helped nearly 20,000 kids so far this year just in San Diego, managing a budget of $1.8 million and a staff of 12 permanament full time and 38 AmeriCorps Mentors, Grogan is well-positioned to lead TKF to national prominence – but with the help of the experts at SDSVP. “There is a monetary component to SDSVP, but the biggest value to us is working with all these incredible people and gaining the expertise the Partners have to move us to the next level.”


Quick 5 with Lisa Grogan

What have you read lately? Good to Great by Jim Collins, Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

What is on your iPod? Kings of Leon, Lucinda Williams, Dave Matthews Band, Bob Marley, Pink

What do you watch? The First 48, Gangland, Discovery Channel, History Channel

If you could live somewhere else for 2 years, where would it be and why? I would buy a RV, live in it and travel the country for 2 years. There are so many sights, sounds, smells, and people I would love to experience around our great country. It would be a blast!

What do you do for fun? Travel to Mexico, going to concerts and going camping and fishing.