By John T. Moore
Seattle
As two-year-old Social Venture Partners in Seattle gets ready to pick up steam with its successful model of venture philanthropy, two new organizations have entered the ring.
Austin Social Venture Partners, launched in 1998, and Social Venture Partners Arizona, which was launched earlier this year, want to repeat SVP Seattle's success.
Both groups, although independent, sought advice from their older counterpart on the concept of venture philanthropy -- the idea of investing time and money in helping community organizations accomplish their goals.
It started after Paul Brainerd, founder of the software company Aldus and creator of PageMaker software, sold Aldus to Adobe in 1994.
In constant communication with other Seattle tech entrepreneurs, Brainerd, founder of the Brainerd Foundation, eventually concluded that his colleagues needed an outlet for their charity.
So in 1997, SVP Seattle was formed when Brainerd hooked up with Scott Oki, a former Microsoft vice president; Bill Neukom, chief legal counsel for Microsoft; Doug Walker, chief executive of software firm WRQ; and Ida Cole, a former Microsoft vice president.
What developed was a group of 30 initial partners, mostly tech professionals, who pooled their money and expertise to help improve the infrastructure of selected nonprofits in the Seattle/King County area.
That idea was echoed when Austin SVP was launched in 1998 with 20 members, and again with SVP Arizona, which has grown to a partnership base of about 50 members from the Phoenix area since its inception in March 1999.
The Austin and Arizona groups both sought help from the Seattle group, says Paul Shoemaker, executive director of SVP Seattle, which made no concerted effort to franchise its venture philanthropy model.
"There were groups in each city that identified the same set of conditions that got things going in Seattle," says Shoemaker.
Lois Savage is president of the Lodestarr Foundation, the major force behind SVP Arizona. A major mission of Lodestarr, which was formed by philanthropist Jerry Hirsch, is to encourage philanthropy and collaboration among people working in philanthropy.
Savage says that the SVP model of venture philanthropy fell right in the middle of Lodestarr's mission. It was a way for professionals from Phoenix's real estate-rich economy to learn how to be strategic with their philanthropic endeavors.
She said the collective nature of the organization allows philanthropists an opportunity to have a greater impact than by giving money individually.
As a group, Shoemaker says, the partners must evaluate how to make the best investment. They know that by sharing their professional expertise with the nonprofits, partners can add value to each organization.
"We don't just want to write a check and walk away," he says.
Many professionals in Seattle's technology world agree. The number of partners that have joined SVP Seattle has climbed to 177 from 54 in November 1997. Many have a background in technology, but those in other professions, such as marketing, are encouraged to join.
Each promises to donate $5,000 a year for at least two years. The money is pooled and each partner helps to decide which nonprofit will get grants.
About 70 percent of Seattle's partners are able to donate both time and money. Early on, the partners decided grants will be made to nonprofits in the region involving children and education.
Without influence from its older cousin, the partners from the SVP Arizona decided to concentrate on the same fields of interest, although Savage says that SVP Arizona probably will have different qualification guidelines than Seattle. Arizona's guidelines are still being developed by a committee.
The Austin Social Venture Partners focuses on education and human services groups.
Shoemaker says that nonprofit grant recipients value SVP Seattle's attitude of partnership. During the first 12 months, the Seattle group built relationships with their first seven grant recipients, which were announced in April 1998. Three new grant partnerships were announced in February 1999 and another three in May. In April 1999, SVP Seattle re-committed funds and talent to its initial seven groups.
By the second year, Shoemaker says, the relationship becomes more strategic and SVP takes a broader look at the nonprofit and its capacity to accomplish its mission.
"They need a sustained, patient commitment," Shoemaker says, "something to last longer than a year or two."
It's that type of long-term approach that has been adapted by the Arizona and Austin groups.
"The more people share ideas, the better off we all will be," says Savage of the Arizona group.
Seattle serves as the trailblazer and mentor for both the Arizona and Austin groups. Savage says his group also has learned from Seattle's evaluations of itself and its mission.
"There are certain things we've adapted [from Seattle]," he says.
Seattle also has adapted based on its own evaluation. At the end of last year, SVP Seattle's v2.0 initiative, named with a software analogy in mind, analyzed where the organization had been in its first 15 months -- and where it was headed.
At the core of the mission, Shoemaker says, were a few main questions the group needed to examine. First, the group asked itself what it thought of the initial work done with grant recipients, and how could value have been added to the work.
Second, the v2.0 group asked what its first 13 investments meant to SVP as a whole and how the grant recipients worked as a whole.
Finally, the study group asked if the individual partners were fulfilling their individual philanthropic needs.
SVP Seattle ended up with a plan for the next 18 months. Shoemaker says SVP is five months into putting the improvements into effect.
The group is working on better identifying the needs of an organization that works with the groups in which it invests. The partners have been working on defining each partner's skills and matching those resources with the nonprofits.
"Like with any organization, its an evolving organic process," says Shoemaker. "I think we will constantly be changing."
John T. Moore can be reached at
johntm@mindspring.com
