Holiday Gifts - Where SVP Partners are Giving

During the Holidays, gifts are abound...charitable contributions included. Increasingly, we know that more people are not just writing checks but actually seeking a return on their charitable investment. The Wall Street Journal's How to Donate Like a Pro suggests that by volunteering your time and researching a nonprofit's effectiveness, your dollars will make the biggest impact possible. We here at San Diego Social Venture Partners are known for just that: doing our due diligence before investing in a nonprofit and then giving of our time and expertise to help them become more effective. Click here to learn more about SVP

I know some of you are asking: "Now is the season of giving...so where do I start?"

Our Partners are very generous with their time and donations, especially during the Holidays. Would you like to see what nonprofits they are interested in? Once a year, we highlight some of their favorite organizations with a link to donate or volunteer.

Disclaimer: The nonprofits on this list are not necessarily vetted by SDSVP. They only represent organizations where our Partners are giving during the holiday season.

Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Partner: Rachel van Betten

Providing information and resources to law enforcement, parents, children including child victims as well as other professionals.

http://www.missingkids.com

Community Resource Center

Partner: Laurin Pause

Providing critical assistance in the areas of domestic violence services, food programs, and emergency and transitional housing assistance.

http://www.crcncc.org/

Friendship Circle in San Diego

Partner: Jerry Schneider

Addressing the challenges facing the families of children with special needs in a novel and innovative way.

http://www.FriendshipCircleSD.com

George Mark Children’s House-San Leandro California

Partner: Peg Eddy

First children's hospice house in the U.S. providing medical, emotional and practical support to families with children that have life-threatening and terminal illnesses.

http://www.georgemark.org/

Horses of Tir Na Nog

Partner: Patsy Hartman

Providing consistent, quality care for horses in need of a loving, life-long home.

http://www.horsesoftirnanog.org/

Junior Achievement of San Diego and Imperial Counties

Partner: Wendy Gillespie

Providing financial literacy education that empowers young people to own their economic success.

http://www.jasandiego.org

Volunteers of America of SW California

Partner: Mark Neilson

inspire hope through our ministry of service by providing individuals and families with tools to improve their quality of life.

http://www.voa-swcal.org

SVP Investees:

A Reason to Survive (ARTS)

Providing visual, performing, and literary art programs for kids facing life challenges.

http://www.areasontosurvive.org/

Audeo Charter School

Provideing a unique alternative educational environment for students whose academic and psychosocial needs are not met by traditional approaches.

http://audeocharterschool.net/

Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA)

Enhancing the lives of Camp Pendleton Marines, Sailors, and their families by offering programs and services that focus upon Spirit, Mind, and Body.

http://www.camppendletonasymca.org

Reality Changers

Providing tutoring and mentoring to disadvantaged San Diego youth to become first-generation college students.

http://www.realitychangers.org/

REBOOT by the National Veterans Transition Services, Inc. (REBOOT)

Assisting veterans in adjusting to civilian life and securing meaningful employment by combining best-practice performance social solutions and techniques.

http://www.nvtsi.org/

Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF)

Teaching students about the realities of violence, forgiveness, gangs, and the importance of making positive choices in their lives.

http://tkf.org/

When You’ve Made Enough to Make a Difference

From Harvard Business Review
by William Foster and Susan Wolf Ditkoff
January 2011

Simply writing checks to organizations that do great work won’t create the ambitious changes many philanthropists are looking for. Even the richest individuals and largest foundations don’t have enough money to end poverty, reverse climate change, or cure cancer. Their staggering assets are tiny relative to the dollars involved in large, complex systems like education, the environment, and medical research…To achieve breakthrough changes, donors need a multiplier effect—an approach that delivers many dollars’ worth of impact for each dollar invested.

Click here to read more.

Saving Donkeys?

Last month, New Philanthropy Capital, a UK-based consultancy helping funders and charities to be more effective, blogged in response to a charitable act that involved "saving" an (unharmed) donkey in Russia who was forced to parasail as part of a publicity stunt. NPC wrote that spending charitable funds on donkeys is not an effective giving strategy and money could have been more wisely spent helping disadvantaged people. All this chatter about donkeys may seems silly, but SDSVP Partner, David Lynn made it relevant by asking, "Is giving to a less noble cause better than giving nothing at all?" We thought you'd like his response too.

I prefer to think any acts of charity are better than none, whether in-kind or cash, and help promote more charitable acts and better care of the bottom tier. So whether saving donkeys, local kids, or far-off areas, it’s all better than doing nothing. As long as people have a passion and do something about it, that will help everybody in the long run.

David took it a step deeper by asking a stickier question.

The dollar cost of saving a child in the UK or US is far more expensive than saving one in the third world. So should you save one child in the UK, or ten in Africa? How do you allocate your funds?

Definitely food for thought. What do you think?

Here at San Diego Social Venture Partners, our members have the opportunity to find their passion and determine how to best invest their money and their time. We are able to stretch their dollars as they give of their expertise to nonprofit organizations. Because we encourage open dialogue with these nonprofits about what they need to achieve lasting change, we know that wherever we allocate our generosity - to people or animals or the environment - we are greatly impacting the San Diego community for good.

Learn more about San Diego Social Venture Partners

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