The Case for Social Venture Partners

By Alan Sorkin, SVP International, Board President & San Diego SVP, Partner

It has been said, “No amount of travel on the wrong road will get you to where you want to go.” Our most respected charitable foundations have spent billions of dollars in the last 100 years and the world’s population seems worse off, not better. Today’s intractable problems require innovative solutions. Throwing more money at the same organizations will not yield different results.

If Boston College’s Paul Schervish is correct about the $41 trillion wealth transfer that is occurring as baby boomers inherit, we have a unique opportunity if we can do something different.

Social Venture Partners (SVP) believes one of the best ways to deal with these issues is to dramatically leverage the number of donors. There is a new generation of successful business people turned social entrepreneurs. Examples like: Skoll, Gates, and Buffett. SVP attracts these same types of donors.

We are network of 2000+ engaged donors who care passionately about changing the world one community at a time. We are having a positive impact by using effective, innovative strategies to address complex social issues and our model is readily scalable.

SVP transforms individuals who in turn transform nonprofit organizations who transform their community by bringing together worlds that typically do not overlap: grant making, volunteerism, nonprofit capacity building, and philanthropic education.

A recent USC Study found “79% of SVP partners report increases in their amount of giving, 86% said they have changed how they give; and 27% report they gave more than $50,000 last year.”
Our Partners are taking on leadership roles in the nonprofit and public sectors and exerting their influence in important public policy debates including public education, affordable housing, early childhood services and youth aging out of the foster care system.

SVP is the largest network of engaged donors in the world. I believe we engage donors better than anyone else. We have 26 member organizations in 3 countries. Partners give their time, professional skills and creativity to work in partnership with hundreds of local children's, education, and environmental nonprofit organizations.

Our business-like approach is cutting edge. Major philanthropic organizations now validate much of what we began saying for 12 years. More and more funders and foundations are recognizing that building capacity is more important than funding another innovative program year after year and almost everyone is now looking for impact accountability and sustainability.

With more visibility, come more donors providing their time, talent and resources to most of our world’s problems. Imagine how many more nonprofit organizations will be dramatically impacted with SVP involvement?

With your help we can change even more in the world.