SDSVP’s College Volunteer Visits SVP Tokyo

For those who I haven't gotten a chance to introduce myself to yet, I am Lindsay Ujiie. I have been volunteering with SDSVP since last September and it has definitely been a great and inspiring experience. I am a senior at UC San Diego and study political science. I grew up in Japan until I turned 18 and came to the States for college.

I took a trip back to Japan this winter for job hunting and also had an opportunity to visit SVP Tokyo. Although I was not able to make it to their Network Meeting, I attended the dinner party held afterward and met a lot of their Partners and prospects. I was very surprised to see that the people there were mostly in their 20's and 30's and there weren't as many retired ones. Since the concept of "philanthropy" is still very new in Japan compared to the States, it seems that it’s attracting younger people. (The term "volunteer" was first introduced in Japan when San Francisco Earthquake happened in 1989. A group of 38 students came to help and it was the very first time Japanese people made a physical move instead of just writing a check in the interest of helping others.) Also, the gate to SVP seems to be more open to younger people there because their annual donation is lower. The biggest difference I saw is that SVP Tokyo has to put more effort in defining what philanthropy really is when recruiting new Partners, while SDSVP starts with why it is needed. However, according to their executive director, Junko Kishigami, they do share some common goals to pursue such as increasing the percentage of engaged Partners and broader recognition of SVP.

Although it was just a two hour dinner party, it was great to meet the people from an international SVP office and I was able to learn a lot more about how each office could be run differently. I hope this amazing SVP network will continue to grow both nationally and internationally, and someday become a Partner myself after I gain more business experiences and money to invest!