SDSVP Earns 2011 PAWS Partnership Award

Congratulations to SDSVP’s Outcome Planning Resource Team including Kimberly Cantlon, Sherri Neasham, Richard Bockoff, Juliet and Ken Davenport, Diane Branon and David Lynn! They have been awarded the 2011 PAWS Partnership Award in honor of their guidance and support during the creation of PAWS' five year Strategic Plan.

PAWS' Volunteer Executive Director, Lisa Lipsey notes, "SDSVP's expertise and gift of time and talent has proven invaluable to us during this critical growth period. From all of us at PAWS, we look forward to our continued partnership with Social Venture Partners. Things are really starting to take-off as we work to further develop our brand, streamline core service and engage collaborative partners. Together we can meet our greater vision of measurably improving the well-being of pets and the low-income elderly, disabled and chronically-ill people who love and need them. Thank you, thank you!"

The 2011 PAWS Partnership Award will be presented on Saturday, June 11th at PAWS' annual fundraiser, Fiesta del PAWS, a festive afternoon garden party.

Previous Awardees: Gary and Mary West Foundation and PETCO Foundation

To learn more about Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), visit www.pawssdc.org

Resource Team Updates - May 2011

SVP’s Resource Teams have been hard at work! The Resource Teams assist our Investees as well as other nonprofits in San Diego to achieve performance targets and desired outcomes in key capacity building areas. If you have experience in a particular area or would like to learn more about a particular area, consider joining a team. The time commitment is up to you. It can be as easy as a 2 hour brainstorming meeting or a more in-depth 3 month project – you determine how you’d like to get involved based on your interests and availability. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Peggy at peggy@sdsvp.org. To see a detailed description of the services offered by each team, please click here.

Photo: Excellence in Justice & Education (EJE) Academies

Recent Resource Team Activity:

Board Development: EJE, Museum of Man, Foundation for Women
Business Operations: Welcome new chair, Tony Broad!
Fund Development: Jenna Druck Center
Information Technology: Welcome new chair, Ken Davenport!
Marketing: EJE, Reality Changers, SDSVP
Outcome Planning: Altus Institute (Audeo Charter), Words Alive, Summerbridge, PAWS, Angels Foster Family Network

Resource Teams

In the past year, SDSVP’s Resource Teams have been hard at work! The Resource Teams assist our Investees as well as other nonprofits in San Diego to achieve performance targets and desired outcomes in key capacity building areas. If you have experience in a particular area or would like to learn more about a particular area, please consider joining a team. The time commitment is up to you. It can be as easy as a 2 hour brainstorming meeting or a more in-depth 3 month project – you determine how you’d like to get involved based on your interests and availability. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Peggy at peggy@sdsvp.org. To see a detailed description of the services offered by each team, please click here.

Recent Resource Team Activity:

Board Development: Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs, Just in Time For Foster Youth
Business Operations: YWCA, Christian Community Services Association, End Violence Against Women International
Fund Development: YWCA, Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs
Information Technology: Shakti Rising, Coastkeeper
Marketing: Audeo Charter School, MatchingDonors.com
Outcome Planning: TKF, Reality Changers

SDSVP Resource Teams

Last year, San Diego Social Venture Partners established Resource Teams to provide more essential services and resources to its Investees and other San Diego nonprofit organizations. Staffed with SDSVP Partners, these teams address six critical areas: Strategic Planning, Board Development, Finance, Public Relations/Marketing, Information Technology, and Fund Development. Here are some examples from Strategic Planning, Board Development and Information Technology.

The Strategic Planning Resource Team combines leading-edge nonprofit planning practices with business outcomes, making Investees more competitive within their sectors and the wider nonprofit community and better-positioned to succeed.

Volunteer San Diego (VSD) has met real community needs with SDSVP’s help. VSD partnered with SDSVP on a collection drive for fire victims, received business plan coaching for the Social Enterprise Academy, and worked with the Strategic Planning Resource Team.

“Thanks to SDSVP, Volunteer San Diego is realizing more revenue from social enterprise programs and has a dynamic strategic plan that will help us increase the impact and value of volunteers throughout the county in coming years. I am particularly grateful for SDSVP Partner Sherri Neasham’s support and enlightened questioning and thinking. Never heavy-handed, she has allowed the plan to emerge from community, SDSVP, board, and staff participation, resulting in initiatives that everyone owns and finds inspiring. Sherri is one of VSD’s best ambassadors and a great example of the power of volunteers and SDSVP.”
Sue Carter, Executive Director, Volunteer San Diego

The Board Development Resource Team has supported many of our Investees, including several agencies outside SDSVP’s portfolio. This Team has helped organizations clarify roles and responsibilities, hire new staff, refocus missions, review bylaws, and re-energize their Boards.

“The Board Resource Team offered expertise to Just in Time for Foster Youth. Not only did the organization learn about developing an ideal board, it also participated in a comprehensive brainstorming session that imparted valuable business practices and highlighted the need to invest in infrastructure in order to grow. Just In Time learned the importance of hiring skilled staff to work on day-to-day operations, allowing board members to act strategically on the big picture, and recruiting talented, passionate, committed board members.”
Louarn Sorkin, SDSVP Partner/Just in Time Board Member

The Information Technology Resource Team has installed entire networks, built databases, created RFPs for consultants and managed the IT implementation process.

“Community Resource Center’s involvement with the Resource Teams has had a major impact in several ways on the organization’s infrastructure. The improved Information Technology support reduced annual expenses by two-thirds and enhanced operational capabilities of all staff. In addition, the Teams dramatically improved public relations through an enhanced website and marketing tools and utilized the Board Development Resource Team to enhance their Board and corporate structure.”
Laurin Pause, Executive Director, Community Resource Center

Resource Team Chairs

Board Development & Governance
Joyce Ross

Finance & Accounting
Lenore Hawkins

Fund Development
Barbara Bry

Information Technology
Eric Busboom

Marketing/Public Relations
Peter Cohen

Strategic Planning
Duane Trombly

Hobnobbing with Smart, Nice People While Making a Difference

By Cathy Yarbrough

The wildfires last October had one benefit: the catastrophe introduced the nonprofit Volunteer San Diego (VSD) to the energy, enthusiasm and talents of SDSVP.

SDSVP was eager to help fellow San Diego residents whose homes – and clothing, furniture and other possessions -- were destroyed by the wildfires. So VSD linked Partners with a local faith-based organization that was mounting a clothing drive

“Our three organizations brought the best of our abilities and networks together to meet a pressing community need,” said Sue Carter, executive director of VSD.

After the wildfires were under control, Carter turned to SDSVP to help her board and fellow staff leaders to evaluate VSD’s overall strategy and to create a new strategic plan that would communicate the organization’s positive impact on the community and increase its revenue through fundraising and fees for services.

(Under the aegis of SDSVP, Partners often volunteer their time and expertise to San Diego nonprofit community organizations that are not investees.)

Leading SDSVP’s effort to assist VSD with its strategic plan was Sherri Neasham, a Partner for two years. Neasham called upon the expertise of fellow Partners in SDSVP’s resource teams on strategic planning, finance, fundraising and other capacity building areas, to assist VSD.

“Sherri is an incredible ally,” said Carter. “She struck a great balance: offering her business knowledge and critical thinking while always respecting my knowledge of nonprofits and VSD. She knew which role was needed at which time – when to push and when to cheerlead.”

The Partners’ input persuaded VSD to define “what it does and to prove it annually with measurable outcomes,” Neasham said. As a result, the two and one-half year old community organization repositioned the way it describes its value and impact. “Whereas VSD before said they increased and facilitated volunteering, they now can say ‘Each year, we provide over $2 million in human capital to 500 community organizations in order to significantly impact the needs in San Diego County.’ ”

“Restating what they do in such a meaningful and measurable way will substantially increase the funding they receive,” Neasham added. “More importantly, VSD measures and focuses on the value of volunteer contributions; they’ll begin seeking more highly skilled volunteers, and will fund many other San Diego nonprofits with greater manpower at a higher level of expertise as a result. This will have a significant impact throughout our county.”

Carter said that SDSVP “provided outside perspective and expertise that wasn’t readily available within VSD. VSD is fortunate to have significant alignment within our board and staff for our overall goals and direction, but that alignment can work against us as we roll out programs to a large and diverse community.”

“SDSVP asked great questions that helped us refine and strengthen our position and the reasons why we did what we did,” she added. “They brought expertise in the form of one-to-one coaching, group facilitation, and tactical tools and resources that we could apply to our efforts. As VSD explores opportunities for mobilizing the professional skills and interests of prospective volunteers, we are looking forward to engaging with SDSVP as practitioners and thought leaders.”

For Partners without the time to work long term with one of SDSVP’s investees, organizations such as VSD are an opportunity to “have fun, learn a lot and make a difference in a very flexible time frame of two to 10 hours over a several month period,” said Neasham. “When you’re working with such groups as VSD, you can easily control your own schedule,” she noted.

Neasham added, “It’s a great opportunity to creatively use your experience or talents in new ways. You get to hobnob with some very smart and very nice people, and best of all, you can be truly helpful and make a difference.”