"The Brighton Jones Portland team has been looking for ways to increase our involvement in the community ... and we were immediately impressed by SVP’s data-driven approach to address the root causes of inequity and the commitment to driving systemic, scalable change. Our team feels that the Partnership’s approach truly magnifies the impact that an individual can have in our community, and we are thrilled to contribute to SVP’s mission."

One of the reasons we invested in a partnership with the Portland Children’s Museum is because of our strong alignment with their goal to develop culturally-responsive learning as part of the organization’s equity journey. Helping with this is a focus of our capacity-building work, so we want to feature PCM’s Opal Charter School as it explores Black History Month through the lens of empathy and compassion.

"While I’ve been a Partner for less than a year, I’m fortunate to have found connection points that both draw upon my experience and expertise, and challenge me to keep learning. Going forward, I’m certain there will be numerous areas where I can add significant value to both the implementation of P4A as well as nudge SVP forward in its culture of continuous improvement."

The Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) has been an SVP Portland Community Partner since 2016. They recently shared a success story that is a powerful reminder of why we support early-learning programs -- to provide opportunities for our kids that set the trajectory for learning and life success.“The Early Learning Program empowers Thi and her husband to take initiative of teaching and raising their children by providing the resources that will help them succeed. Prior to COVID-19, caseworkers visited the family two times per week to play with the children and talk to the parents about their progress. Thi acknowledged that the home visits were her children’s favorite part about the program.”

At SVP Portland we prioritize investing in communities of color as part of our work to dismantle structural barriers and systemic racism, including partnering with culturally-specific organizations serving Black and African American children & families. February is Black History Month and we want to spotlight and amplify the voice of a Community Partner that not only does transformative work in our Black community, but is also recognizing this important month through a series on social media. Each day you can read a highlight about a historic figure in Black history.

Joe’s Court is a celebration to honor SVP Partners who have served for 10 years or more. The concept for Joe’s Court came about in October of 2014 to recognize both the founding and growing number of Partners that remained committed to our mission and to “induct” Partners each year as they reached the 10-year milestone.This year’s group set a record for the number of participants -- 23 -- which represents more than 25% of our Partnership.

Reflecting back on 2020 and the enormous support provided by Partners during a very difficult time, the staff of SVP Portland would like to kick off 2021 with our inaugural Superstar awards! The goal is to recognize Partners who best helped us demonstrate remarkable resilience during a challenging 2020, and have a little fun along the way.

In spite of the numerous hurdles presented to us in 2020, our Partnership met the challenges and delivered some record-breaking numbers. More volunteer hours than ever before. More leveraged dollars than ever before. It was an extraordinary year of impact and growth. We look back on 2020 with many mixed emotions: gratitude, anger, inspiration, grief, compassion. In the spirit of resilience and hope we look forward to continuing our journey together, as a partnership of changemakers, in 2021.

"As a partnership of philanthropists, we should recognize that we have immense privilege. Not only in our collective resources, but also in our voice and influence. With frequency, we face decisions of how we use this power. Although we still have much to learn, I believe we should work to leverage our privilege, with integrity and humility, to advance our mission and goal. Philanthropy can better meet the challenges of today when we trust and amplify the voices of our Community Partners -- who are experts on the barriers children and families face -- while not exacerbating the myriad demands and burdens on communities of color."

After more than a decade as Executive Director, Carmen Rubio departed Latino Network to become Portland’s first Latinx city commissioner. After an extensive national and statewide search process, the Latino Network Board of Directors announced as successor Tony DeFalco.

2020 was a year like no other. Despite all the chaos, challenges, and changes, the SVP Portland Partnership has thrived. We both collaborated for tremendous community impact, while simultaneously building internal strength.As is our custom, we asked Partners for their feedback through our Annual Partner Survey. Thirty-eight Partners shared their “why SVP?”, thoughts about their engagement, offered opinions about our communications, and highlighted their most meaningful and proud SVP moments.

January 26 would mark Sarah’s 39th birthday, so we would like to take a moment to honor Sarah, the bright light that she shared with SVP Portland, and tell you how you can help us sustain her legacy.As we all know, Sarah was a shining smile of determination and hope; one always had her undivided attention and support. And she was both connector and maven.

On November 19th, our Portfolio Management Team approved a partnership proposal that was collaboratively developed by an SVP Investment Team and Hacienda Community Development Corporation (Hacienda CDC), making the organization our 12th Community Partner this year.

On the path of equity and anti-racism, I am happy to report that SVP Portland is deeply engaged in advancing self-work.  Building on commitment at the Board and staff levels, our Partnership formed an Equity Team (E-Team) and under facilitation by the Center for Equity and Inclusion (CEI) embarked on four afternoons of intact training.  The extended team gained an understanding of racism’s cultural and institutional frameworks, critically reflected on assumptions of white privilege, and enthusiastically dove into media coverage of the socio-political landscape.  We have committed our feet to move on the journey.

"Based on my Encore Fellow experience, I learned that my corporate skillset can be beneficial to working with nonprofits. I was drawn to the SVP model that enables working with a variety of Community Partners. I also like the concept of venture philanthropy, connecting monetary investments with the even more valuable investment of professional experience."

As we close out the year, I’m incredibly proud of how SVP Partners, Board, and staff alike have demonstrated their dedication to our mission and Preschool for All (P4A) goal. The tenacity, resourcefulness, nimbleness, and collaboration in face of adversity has been remarkable. So far in 2020, we have grown our resources -- human and financial -- by successfully recruiting 19 new Partners. (The vast majority are already engaged on SVP teams and with Community Partners!)

We are excited to report that the impact of SVP Portland’s Encore Fellows Program has continued at a steady beat despite the pandemic. We recently hit our 2020 goal of placing 16 new Encore Fellows! Throughout the year, we have consistently had more than 25 active Fellows working with nonprofits, including four SVP Community Partners, on their capacity building projects. 

"In the past, I have volunteered and I have donated money, but I haven’t found a place where I really did both together. Nor have I found a lot of places where your volunteer work is using what I think of as higher level business or life experiences, as opposed to what my father might call “grunt work”. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with grunt work and I strangely like some of that too, but I also like the idea of using my Master’s degree and the experiences I have as a consultant and small business owner."

It would be more than an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult year. Globally we’ve experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and the recession that quickly followed. Nationally, and acutely locally, we have seen demonstrations in response to racial injustice and political turmoil. And here at SVP Portland we were blindsided by unimaginable loss when Sarah left us too soon.While it would be easy to dwell on the negative, the holiday season now upon us presents a simple challenge: appreciate and give thanks.

"SVP Portland has invested $2.3 million in direct grants to 34 nonprofits in the Portland metro area since the organization was formed in 2001. That may sound like small change, but SVP has leveraged those funds exponentially through free strategic advice to help those organizations scale and build capacity."