The Environmental Accelerator Fund and Equinox Center

In 2007 SDSVP launched an innovative initiative to further increase our impact. We wanted to apply our strengths in capacity-building and collaboration to help a sector of the community in a more sustainable and leveraged way, and to increase the funds available for leading-edge philanthropy.

We established the Environment Accelerator Fund to collaborate with outside funding sources, to increase giving with matching grants, and to ensure the most strategic use of this larger pool of funds. With a focus on the environment, Partners completed a 900-person-hour research and analysis project—the largest in SDSVP history. They identified the need to work on San Diego’s future development to ensure that economic and population growth happens in a way that is better for the environment. Their research showed that balancing the economics and ecology of the region is a central, highly leveraged issue—affecting urban development, habitat preservation, transportation, quality of life, economic sustainability, climate change, and many other issues.

To bring the best available solutions to San Diego, the Environment Accelerator team decided to replicate the successful approach of a Seattle nonprofit, Sightline Institute. With their input we established a new organization dedicated to economically sound environmental sustainability in our region, Equinox Center.

Equinox Center is designed as a non-partisan, independent, nonprofit organization working at the intersection of scientific understanding, community values, government policy, and economic strength. It will provide San Diego's community leaders with usable information, practical vision, and innovative thinking—fostering factual dialogue to help shape our region’s future.

Numerous groups throughout the San Diego region have come forward and voiced support for Equinox Center, building the foundations of a strong network with the environmental community, business, academia, and government. Equinox Center is also receiving tremendous support from pro bono services offered by Mintz Levin attorneys-at-law, Bente Hansen executive recruiters, and marketing firms Oster & Associates and Incitrio. SDSVP partners continue to support the project with their own time and talents. As of June 2008 the project had raised $800,000 and formed an initial Board of Directors, and was recruiting a full-time Executive Director and additional board members.

SDSVP's Bingham Stone Award 2008

The Bingham Stone Award is named in recognition of the founders of San Diego Social Venture Partners, Darcy Bingham and Carrie Stone. Each year, a Partner is given the Bingham Stone Award to honor outstanding leadership skills, commitment and “no BS” attitude. Each recipient exemplifies our goal of developing engaged philanthropists who are accelerating social change in the community.

Working for Bill Gates in Seattle in 1997, Aaron Contorer could not help but notice Gates’ benevolence as a philanthropist. After cashing in some Microsoft stock options, Aaron saw some successful colleagues follow Gates’ lead by doing good in their communities. Aaron felt a moral responsibility to share his good fortune with his community. He was introduced to the SVP group in Seattle but chose instead to pursue philanthropic causes as an individual and by starting a family foundation.

When Aaron moved to San Diego in 2004 to start a company, he recognized that his real passion was for giving something back to society while continuing to grow as an individual, surrounded by great people. That’s exactly what SDSVP offered him.

Aaron and several other Partners created SDSVP’s Environment Accelerator Fund (EAF). The team met with leaders in the nonprofit, business, academic, military, and philanthropic communities and identified a need to address issues concerning San Diego’s future growth and development resulting in the creation of Equinox Center. Aaron is now chair of Equinox and believes that working with SDSVP partners to create Equinox Center has been one of the most gratifying experiences of his career.

Aaron was awarded the 2008 BS Award due to his significant contributions to SDSVP’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee also serving on the Investment Working Group and Communication Working Group while launching the EAF. The commitment to create a start-up, personally commit major funds, reach out across various stakeholders groups to conduct research, enroll up to 20 SDSVP partners, and remain committed to building SDSVP is an amazing accomplishment! Thanks, Aaron, for all you do for SDSVP and the community!

Past Bingham Stone Award Recipients:
2007 Diane Rosenberg
2006 Richard Bockoff
2005 Dale Stein
2004 Alan Sorkin

Project Seeks to Raise Green for the Environment

From The San Diego Union Tribune
11/28/2006

By Mike Lee

Former Microsoft executive Aaron Contorer settled in San Diego two years ago, aiming to start a software company. He found that his heart just wasn't in it.

Contorer, 39, soon discovered what he really wanted to do: Jumpstart the region's mostly cash-strapped environmental movement. He and others say it largely lacks the sophisticated management and well-heeled backers befitting a county of some 3 million people, many of whom enjoy nature as they swim, hike and surf.

So, along with other philanthropists, Contorer aims to raise $1 million by year's end for groups that do things like fight for clean water and better beaches. They will announce their campaign today – to take advantage of year-end giving by companies and major donors – after having provided $400,000 in seed money.

Their project, known as the Environment Accelerator Fund, is the latest in a string of recent efforts to boost the profile of conservation causes in San Diego County. For example, a leading foundation is trying to build a $25 million endowment for environmental work. Elsewhere, new alliances have been formed for canyons, sustainable development and global warming.

“San Diego's environmental nonprofits are poised to grow to the next level to help bring vision, science, and intelligence” to regional issues, said Paul Eichen, chairman of the Rokenbok Toy Co. in Solana Beach and a charter donor for the new fund.

The region is widely recognized as a biological gem and it's home to one of the nation's largest collections of threatened and endangered species. But the county's environmental corps still hasn't reached the big leagues.

“Historically in San Diego, the environment has been woefully undersupported and underfunded,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper. “It's sort of an odd dynamic considering that people come to San Diego for the coast, for the environment, for the water.”

Reznik joined what was then called Baykeeper seven years ago. Despite having only two employees at the time, it was the region's largest nonprofit group dealing with coastal issues, he said. Today, the regionally prominent organization has seven staff members but often struggles to meet budget.

“I have a little bigger vision than my ability to raise funds,” Reznik said.

Scrappy movement

The reputation of a small and scrappy environmental movement in the county is largely supported by a new report from the University of San Diego.

Researchers there counted 257 locally based groups dealing with animals and the environment. Because of how the IRS keeps its data, the category goes far beyond what generally is considered environmental activism. For instance, it includes dozens of pet welfare and garden groups.

The organizations reported combined revenues of nearly $240 million in 2004. The total is far larger than in Orange County or the Silicon Valley but far smaller than the Bay Area, which is home to the Sierra Club's national headquarters and about 750 other environmental and animal outfits.

Much of the local income is raised by one organization – the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park and a research center. Tax records from 2004 show that its revenues topped $160 million, about two-thirds of the regional total.

More than 60 percent of the county's environmental groups collect less than $25,000 per year. That means they can't support a professional staff, a typical prerequisite for generating more income and improving the quality of their programs.

Nonetheless, thousands of volunteers, new alliances and a few major court victories have helped environmentalists gain influence beyond what their balance sheets might suggest.

“(Environmentalists) seem to be doing a lot with a little,“ said Laura Deitrick, co-author of the USD report.

She does see a potential problem.

“They have been busy doing their daily work and have not spent as much time thinking forward in terms of growing their assets,” Deitrick said.

Less 'old money'

San Diego County's environmental sector remains modest because of several reasons, nonprofit experts say. One is that the region's growth spurt is relatively recent, so there's less “old money” than in places such as San Francisco and Boston.

The limited number of major corporate headquarters also plays a role. Such offices often employ big donors who become board members for nonprofit groups.

“We are just now starting to see the generational continuity and the embracing of place” that long has been common in Northern California and other parts of the country, said Bill Kuni, a local entrepreneur and philanthropist.

When Kuni arrived in San Diego 24 years ago, he looked for groups helping to protect the landscape that he found so attractive.

“It was almost totally individual champions who did not have a major organization behind them,” Kuni said.

In 2000, he helped start the Environment Working Group at The San Diego Foundation in an effort to buoy conservationists trying to contain fast-growing development.

The Environment Working Group proved to be an important mechanism for spreading cash and convening experts in ecology. It has distributed about $3.35 million since its inception. The money often is awarded in chunks of $15,000 to $50,000.

Last year, the foundation kicked off a $25 million endowment campaign to support environmental work. There is $1 million in the pot.

Many of the county's well-known environmental groups owe part of their growth to the foundation. They include the San Diego River Park Foundation, the Environmental Health Coalition, the local Sierra Club chapter and the Escondido Creek Conservancy.

The Escondido conservancy started in 1991, but didn't have the money for an executive director until last year. Unlike most environmental leaders in the region, the conservancy's executive director, Geoffrey Smith, has a master's degree in nonprofit leadership.

“A lot of . . . (environmental groups) really lack the business skills of understanding what their mission is and how to build a program around their mission and stick to it,” Smith said.

A 2003 study of land conservancies in the county found they were twice as likely to have done a formal planning process for on-the-ground work as they were to have a strategy for the organization.

The lack of management expertise is especially apparent at the board level, Smith and others said. Currently, the boards commonly consist of friends and activists without much regard for specific skills such as public relations and fundraising.

That's where Contorer and Eichen come in. They are seeding the new fund with $200,000 each as they court other contributors.

They also expect to get donors involved on boards and demand measurable results from groups receiving money from them. Their fund is managed by San Diego Social Venture Partners, a grant-making group that donates its services.

“We're trying to grow the (environment) sector. That means supporting the research to understand the problems and what it takes to fix them and then impact a society,” said Contorer, a full-time philanthropist.

The effort comes as national environmental groups are struggling to connect with the American public. Contorer thinks there is a large and untapped segment of donors who don't consider themselves traditional environmentalists but want San Diego to not become “a second-rate Los Angeles” because of overdevelopment.

“It's not about banning cars and hugging trees. It's about having a wonderful way of life now and not ruining it” for future generations, Contorer said.