First Year Investee Highlights: REBOOT

• Bank of America has picked REBOOT as one of two national nonprofits that they are highlighting. Bank of America recently finished filming content onsite at the REBOOT facilities to be used in promotions.
   
• University of San Diego has been commissioned to do a third party evaluation of the REBOOT program for scalability, measurable outcomes and effectiveness. This effort will be completed by August and will help in getting influencers and funders to have clear picture of the program’s success for delivering results in the lives of veterans.

To learn more about REBOOT by the National Veterans Transitions Services, Inc. visit www.nvtsi.org.

The “New” ARTS Center

A little over five years ago SVP Investee, A Reason to Survive (ARTS) opened the Pat D’Arrigo ARTS Center at NTC Promenade. It was a major milestone for ARTS, transforming their organization from solely an outreach effort to having a “home.” For the last four months they’ve been hard at work with officials in National City to secure what used to be the old city library.  It has since been transformed into a community arts center and officials have been seeking a nonprofit partner to operate it. ARTS has been chosen to be that partner.

Click here to read more.

Outstanding Student Outcomes at TKF!

• In January, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation(TKF), a third-year investee, received results from a third party evaluation of their Safe School Model. The study from two independent sources reported that within the San Diego Unified School District and Escondido Union School District Safe Schools, TKF has significantly reduced behavior referrals for student misconduct by 63% in San Diego and 65% in Escondido. The full reports can be found in their Press Room.
• TKF’s Founder, Azim Khamisa, was named Spiritual Hero of the Year by Science of Mind Magazine and was on the cover of the January issue. Past recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Carter, Christopher Reeve, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Click here to hear an interview with Azim.
• Check out TKF’s brand-spanking-new website…just launched!

Learn about our New Investee, Barrio Logan College Institute

From Coronado Lifestyle Magazine
March/April 2012
By Kris Grant

In Coronado, it’s pretty much accepted that most students will graduate from high school and continue on to college. But look across the water to the barrio that spreads out below the pillars of the Coronado bridge and you’ll find quite a different set of circumstances. Barrio Logan is an area where average household incomes are less than $20,000 and only about one in three adults over the age of 25 has a high school, much less a college, diploma.

For the past 16 years, one nonprofit institute has been quietly working magic in this Latino community. The Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI) has been raising a passion for — and lighting the pathway toward — higher education for Latino students who have been historically underrepresented on college campuses.

Click here to read more.

SVP Selects New Nonprofit Partners for 2012

We are proud to announce our newest Investees!  San Diego Social Venture Partners chose to invest in two local nonprofits, Barrio Logan College Institute and Pro Kids who are developing educational aspirations in children and youth that lead to increased graduation rates. For the next three years, support from SVP will strengthen each organization’s infrastructure in areas such as board development, outcome planning, operations and financial systems, information technology and marketing communication.

Thank you to our InvestmentWorking Group and chair, Mark Fackler, for all of their hard work and commitment in selecting two phenomenal organizations for our Partnership to support!

Mid Year Updates: Year-2 Investees

Audeo Charter School

• Audeo has a more defined and focused approach to their market as a result of their newly developed business plan and outcome and marketing planning with SVP.
• Students served have grown from 150 to 700 in seven years and anticipate 1,000 by the end of 2012.

Reality Changers

• Launched College Apps Academy, a fee-for-service program committed to helping high school seniors gain admission to the top colleges and universities.
• Last year, 130 students graduated from the program as compared to 51 in the previous year

REBOOT Receives Grant from Bank of America

REBOOT by the National Veterans Transition Services, Inc.graduated its 26th class on Friday, December 16 and received $100,000 from the Bank of America Foundation to support REBOOTing transitioning service members.

Click here to view the news coverage.

ARTS: Student Featured in Documentary Film

Witness the impact of SVP Investee, A Reason To Survive (ARTS) on the life of a 15 year old girl. Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Inocente is one of the youth served by the ARTS Empower program.

This film is in production. Click here to view the trailer.

Join SVP for a Night at ARTS!
Thursday, Jan 26
4-5 PM - Interactive Tour
5-6:30 PM - Happy Hour at Solare
For more info or to RSVP, email Dan at dan@sdsvp.org

Record-Breaking Grant Awarded to Reality Changers

The California Wellness Foundation awarded a record-breaking $250,000 to Reality Changers, making this the largest grant ever received by the organization. "This program is helping young people from neighborhoods with the highest rates of gang violence and homicides in San Diego become the first in their families to go to college," said Julio Marcial, a Foundation program director.

TKF Says Goodbye to Summer

As summer officially came to a close, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) found it only fitting to reflect back and share some memorable moments from their Summer Program.

Click here to enjoy their short photo montage.

New Veterans Struggling to Reboot

From The San Diego Union-Tribune
October 3, 2011
By Jeanette Steele

Eric Bernal was sitting at home, unemployed and depressed. After 13 years of proud service, including six sea deployments, the San Diego sailor was pushed out in April as the Navy trimmed its ranks. “I went from providing for my family to this,” said Bernal, 31, who eventually overruled his pride and filed for unemployment benefits.

Facing those obstacles, a year-old nonprofit group in San Diego is testing a novel approach. Reboot — co-founded by retired Rear Adm. Ronne Froman and Maurice Wilson, a retired Navy master chief — offers a “reverse boot camp” for people leaving the military.

Click here to read more.

Reality Changers now offers to help ALL San Diego 12th graders seeking to ace college applications

Reality Changers now offers to help ALL San Diego 12th graders seeking to ace college applications

It's "crunch time" for college-bound high school seniors and their families! As deadlines loom, the pressure to write compelling essays, compose resumes, garner recommendation letters and submit application packages for college will escalate dramatically.

SVP Investee Reality Changer’s new fee-for-service program, College Apps Academy, delivers an effective, proven system that takes the student through the intricacies of the college application process.

If you have friends or family with kids who are seniors, please spread the word.

Could the sewage spills' environmental and economic impact have been prevented?

By Megan Baehrens, San Diego Coastkeeper

On September 7th at the Social Venture Partners Grant Briefing, SVP Partner and Board Member, Joyce Ross highlighted the incredible growth in capacity and impact that San Diego Coastkeeper experienced as an SVP Investee.

That growth in capacity has shown in Coastkeeper’s ability to respond immediately to a catastrophic environmental event just down the hill from SVP’s office, where 2 million gallons of sewage spilled into Los Penasquitos Lagoon as a result of the power outage on September 8th.

San Diego Coastkeeper has already brought about corrective action. Thanks to the evidence collected by our volunteers, responsible parties will pump about 1M gallons of untreated sewage out of the lagoon. It was too late for the fish that died and devastating harm to that waterway, but it’s a start.

We can’t wait until another catastrophe like this occurs to act. We desperately need to work with authorities now to prevent further sewage crises and other devastating harms that lurk one generator failure away.

Our mayors, city council members, state officials and other decision-makers have the power to prevent serious environmental and economic damage before they happen. We know that SVP Partners care about our region’s social, economic and environmental vibrancy and we’d love your help in encouraging important conversations that educate the public about dangers we face and get decision-makers to make responsible choices.

Some examples of the work our region desperately needs San Diego Coastkeeper to do:

- Sewage: In 1995, San Diego averaged a sewage spill each day. San Diego Coastkeeper’s work reduced sewage spills by 90% since then. Old and easily clogged or damaged infrastructure must be monitored and routinely replaced. This weekend’s events demonstrate the catastrophic environmental and economic harm of not prioritizing this work.

- Copper boat hull paint: We are working with state senator Chris Kehoe to phase out copper hull paint that flakes into the water and sediment and kills marine life in marinas and the bay. The state bill was held back this session, but will return in January and we’ll be pushing for statewide support.

- Sewage in the bay: Coastkeeper employs scientists, educators and attorneys. We encourage our staff to pursue higher education. Dylan Edwards is working on a masters thesis related to gathering data about the extent of this problem in the bay and how to educate boaters and enforce proper use of mobile pump-out stations to prevent it.

- Sea level rise: A new state-commissioned report by San Francisco State University economists predicts that if we do nothing, the economic impact of sea level rise on Torrey Pines State Reserve and the local economy in Torrey Pines will be $125-500 million in the next 90 years. We have the opportunity to advise the San Diego Bay jurisdictions about preparing.

- A coordinated voice that speaks for the region. San Diego environmental groups from Sierra Club to Audubon to Environmental Health Coalition to Coastkeeper has come together weekly for years to collaborate and strategize around region-wide environmental issues. The power of our united effort greatly outstrips the “sum of our parts.” The coordinating member was recently re-assigned due to lack of funding. San Diego Coastkeeper would like to take up that mantle.

San Diego Social Venture Partners, thanks for all you do. As always, my team and I are happy to speak to anyone with an interest in these issues.

Megan can be reached at MeganB@sdcoastkeeper.org.

Driving Informed Decision Making for San Diego’s Future

All in a Day’s Work for Equinox Center

By Trevor Callan
CEO, Callan Capital
Board Member, San Diego Social Venture Partners
Vice-Chair, Equinox Center

This summer, the City of San Diego unveiled its first ever recycled drinking water project. Fittingly, the unveiling occurred almost two years to the date of Equinox Center’s official founding.

An independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit policy center focused on how the San Diego region can achieve a more prosperous economy and healthy environment, Equinox Center was founded in 2008 through the support of San Diego Social Venture Partners. As the San Diego region prepares to add another 650,000 people by the year 2030, Equinox Center’s policy analysis, communications and convenings inform and engage the public and decision makers in crafting bold, intelligent solutions to our region’s growth challenges.

Seeing the recycled water project come to fruition was a gratifying moment for many of us involved with Equinox from the very beginning, as the organization had played an instrumental role in this outcome.

By conducting independent analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of recycled water, publishing a policy brief, and collaborating with a broad coalition of business, environmental, labor and community groups to disseminate its findings, Equinox Center helped encourage the San Diego City Council, Mayor Sanders and the San Diego Union-Tribune to reverse their earlier opposition to San Diego’s first recycled drinking water project. (Based in part on this success, Equinox Center was recently highlighted in national magazine YES! as a promising model to drive positive change in other regions across the United States.)

Part of Equinox’s success so far has been as a result of its strong network and spirit of collaboration, both of which are in its DNA as a result of its birth from the SDSVP network. For example, on September 14, 2011, Equinox Center will co- host a convening of our region’s top business leaders and policy makers, with the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The convening, “The Young & Restless: Winning the Race for America’s Best Talent,” will feature Joseph Cortright, a noted economist, Brookings Institution fellow and senior policy advisor to CEOs for Cities. Together, we’ll explore the question of how ensuring our region’s long-term competitiveness means being strategic about courting the “Young & Restless”—well-educated 25-34 year olds—tomorrow’s knowledge workers and entrepreneurs. (I encourage San Diego Social Venture Partners to attend!)

What are they looking for? According to Cortright’s research, this population is ditching the suburbs for urban neighborhoods at a rate of 2 to 1. They seek vibrant, walkable communities and multiple transportation options. They value culture, diversity and a high quality of life.

That means that in order to attract this demographic to the San Diego region, we need a new way of planning for the future. A more integrated approach toward economic development, transportation and land use can create vibrant, appealing communities to live and work while maintaining the high quality of life so many of us treasure here today.

This is precisely Equinox’s “sweet spot.” Evidence from its research shows that through intelligent policy making we can advance both our region’s economic and environmental goals. With the help of many SVP Partners over the past few years, Equinox is poised to do both. The organization has expanded its board of directors to include individuals involved in the real estate, health sciences, recreation and tourism industries, and has a new strategic plan and fundraising strategy. We continue to welcome the involvement of SVP members in Equinox’s work going forward, and I encourage you to attend one of our events or to follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages.

For more information about Equinox Center, visit: http://www.equinoxcenter.org/.

College prep program for innercity spreads to more affluent areas

From The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Maureen Magee | June 29, 2011

The man who steers homeless teens and ex-gang members to the Ivy League is expanding to La Jolla, Solana Beach and suburban San Diego.

Christopher Yanov and his nonprofit Reality Changers will debut a spinoff operation in the fall, marketing to paying clients who can tap the expertise navigating college applications that has earned the organization national recognition.

Click here to read more.

Social Venture Partners Flourishes Despite Recession

Nonprofits nationally received $3.75 Million and countless hours of volunteer expertise

from 2,022 SVP citizen philanthropists in 2010

At a time when charitable gifts to nonprofits declined, a report released by Social Venture Partners International (SVPI) revealed an upward trend in its latest numbers associated with grant making, volunteer service and its organizational growth in 2010. Despite the recession, the collective of 26 Social Venture Partners experienced growth two consecutive years and is poised to hit its 11 percent growth target in 2011. In total, 136 nonprofits across North America and Tokyo received $3.75 million in SVP funding last year.

Fundamental to the SVP model is engagement in which individual members give of their time, professional business experience and creativity to work in partnership with nonprofits and local leaders to meet vital community needs. Therefore, cash grants are only a portion of the value that grant recipients gain through their relationship with SVP. In volunteering professional skills and strategic council, SVP members, or “Partners” as they are called, help nonprofits reach their full potential. This level of volunteer engagement translates to effective philanthropy and a high level of satisfaction among Partners throughout the SVP network.

“We have extensive data in this report which points to the strength and effectiveness of engaged philanthropy and what that can mean to a community,” says Alan Sorkin, President of the Board of Directors of Social Venture Partners International. “Community needs are increasing and nonprofits feel the strain in trying to deliver services. Never before has the SVP business acumen and unrestricted, multi-year funding been more valued and critical. And, those involved in SVP have never been so energized.”

“The collective strength of 2,025 partners across the network is increasing and more importantly, unlocking the philanthropic potential of the both the individuals involved in SVP as well as building the long-term capacity of the nonprofits,” says Ruth Jones, CEO of SVPI, “People are eager to get involved in their communities and give more than a financial contribution to a cause. The data shows new people are joining SVP because they see our model of citizen philanthropy as a proven and effective way to make a difference in their communities,” Ms. Jones added.

The partner satisfaction and engagement rate sits at 92 percent. Rogers Weed, Director of the Washington State Department of Commerce and Partner in Seattle since 1997, says he continues to be involved with SVP because of what he and his wife Julie receive in return. “The flow of information is terrific. I would never have heard about many of the organizations we support today, if not via SVP. Plus, the SVP model of funding gives us higher confidence that the nonprofits being supported are constantly improving effectiveness against their mission,” he says. “As an efficient way to give to the causes we care a lot about -- children, education and the environment -- SVP is a winner.” Mr. Weed adds, “The network of partners in Seattle and across the US have been instrumental in providing me access to people or events that have helped me raise my understanding of, and figure out how to be more personally effective against, issues I care about. Finally, SVP ensures that when I volunteer, my experience is a good one, for me and for the nonprofit.”

Report Highlights:

Ø SVP distributed $3.75 million in grants to 136 nonprofits in 2010.

Ø SVP is investing in communities and making a difference for children and the environment. Last year, 136 nonprofits across North America and Tokyo received $3.5 million in funding from 26 SVPs.

Ø Cumulatively, the network had 2,022 individuals in 2010.

Ø The SVP network continues to grow and give – despite a recession.

Ø The number of individual partners grew by 5.6% The retention rate for individuals was 80%.

Ø Go here to see a summary of the report.

About Social Venture Partners International

Social Venture Partners International (SVPI) is the membership association for Social Venture Partners – an international network comprised of 2,000 accomplished individuals who combine their professional skills and financial contributions with a passion for philanthropy. Partners belong to local SVP member organizations and SVPI supports each SVP by providing technology, professional development, an annual conference and peer networking opportunities designed to share knowledge and promote best practices throughout the network. The SVP network stretches across 25 cities in United States, Canada and Tokyo North America. To learn about SVP or how to start an SVP affiliate in your city, please visit www.svpi.org.

To learn about the SVP annual conference Oct 13 and 14, please visit: SVPI Annual Conference website.