Meet SDSVP Partner & SVPI Board Chair, Alan Sorkin!

Since co-founding members of San Diego Social Venture Partners in 2001, Alan Sorkin has been the driving force in inspiring hundreds of men and women to become deeply involved and contribute their time, talent and resources to their local community. Alan's message: "You have more to give" - has resonated with the 275 individuals who have joined SVP San Diego since then.

Alan heard about the Social Venture Partners model and fell in love with it. "It changed my life. The idea of encouraging talented people (the Partners)to pool their time, professional skills and money and work collectively to solve social issues was brilliant. I have spent the last nine years recruiting people to the concept in San Diego and North America and plan to do so indefinitely."

SVP is volunteering and grantmaking with a twist: the Partners' shared goal is to work with promising organizations which are making a difference and build their capacity to effect real social change. Using their professional skills, insight and experience, Partners work hand in hand with nonprofit staff and boards to strengthen every aspect of their operations and maximize their impact.

"We're encouraging people to take their entrepreneurial skills and professional experience and apply them to the community's most serious challenges. People have so much more to give than just money. SVP is the perfect vehicle: it builds great volunteers and philanthropists and catalyzes social change," says Alan.

The SVP network has invested more than $36 million and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours in 350 nonprofits in its 13 year history. Since 2001, the San Diego Partners have contributed cash and in-kind services to 18 community organizations: nonprofits which help families and children living in poverty achieve greater self-reliance; which provide elderly people with the services and support they need in order to remain in their homes; build permanent, supportive housing for formerly homeless people; and find stable,long-term, loving families for foster children.

"Alan's like Johnny Appleseed," said San Diego businessman and SDSVP Partner Mark Fackler, "but he's not planting apple seeds - he's seeding philanthropy throughout San Diego. His message is that if we come together, if we roll up our sleeves and learn about what is happening in our city and community, we can really have an impact: we can be a powerful force for good in San Diego."

One influential outcome of this message was the establishment in 2007 of the Equinox Center. The center was founded after members of SVP realized that while balancing the economics and ecology of the region - an issue affecting urban development, habitat preservation, transportation, quality of life, economic sustainability and climate change of the region is vital, the San Diego community had no resources devoted to strategically plan for responsible growth. A nonprofit, non-partisan organization, the Equinox Center researches innovative solutions aimed at balancing San Diego's regional development with finite (and fragile)local resources.

Founder and CEO of companies in real estate construction, development, management and food services, Alan founded two 501(c)3 organizations in the 1990s which supported people living with a drug addiction and their families. In 2001, semi-retired and struggling to persuade San Diego’s business community to invest in the fight against teen substance abuse, Alan heard about SVP, jumped in with both feet and has been a catalyst in the strategic philanthropy network ever since.

Peggy Kidd, Executive Director of SDSVP sums it up: "Alan has created more new philanthropists than anyone in San Diego. It's his personal mission to drive new money to our community, and in a strategic way. He has a gift for finding a person's passion and connecting them to an organization which creates a win for the nonprofit and a win for the volunteer. Joining SDSVP has transformed the lives of many of the partners, connecting them to a meaningful experience at a time in their lives when they were searching for ways to give back."

Alan's leadership goes beyond his local community. He has travelled across the US on his own dime to mentor and advise burgeoning SVPs and has been instrumental in securing resources -funding, experts and tools - beneficial to all 25 SVPs and the 2000+ partners they represent.

Alan took the helm as SVPI's President at a time of great economic upheaval - particularly in the nonprofit sector. In keeping with his solutions-oriented outlook, Alan has chosen to focus on the possibilities rather than the challenges. He is currently leading SVPI through a visioning and planning process, reimagining SVP's impact on philanthropy and civic engagement, compelling people to take ownership in and personal responsibility for the health and well-being of their communities.