I’ve meant to post this sometime ago, but things slipped by (like and election). This is a great piece by Michael Seltzer a contributor to PhilanTopic.
Happy Reading
A to Z Survival Guide for Uncertain Times
John Denny
Chair
Check this out now — this is the best marketing message I’ve seen.
Hi all,
Here are some interesting posts that I thought you might find worth reading:
1. Questions about Social Enterprise
2. The Stock Market and Charitable Giving
Happy Reading
What an amazing PSVP afternoon and night I had today! First I joined a group of partners for a “Site Visit” with one of our three finalist organizations — Strong Girls Strong Women. These “Site Visits” are more like informal, get-to-know-you conversations, where I think we partners get a better understanding of PSVP and what we have to offer than about the strength of the nonprofit organization. Let me explain.
We had a wonderful discussion with Lynn Garfinkle, the E.D. of Strong Girls Strong Women. Our partners (three of the four who attended have less than one year experience as a partner) asked very good questions about the girls, the mentors, the current and future plans of the organization, its financial situation, board participation — all the things you would expect from “seasoned”, professional grant-makers — not first time, and part time grant-makers!
But at the end of the discussion, when the executive director left the room so we partners could talk, we didn’t talk much about or critique Strong Girls Strong Women. Oh we asked some clarifying questions among ourselves — but here is the real kicker — we were more concerned about whether we, PSVP as a funder, were strong enough and had the resources (mainly human capital talent) to really help this organization. How cool is that — as funders we are more concerned about our end of the deal rather than the applicant living up to their end of the deal! A total reversal in philanthropy.
The second awesome event started with me picking up my 10 year old daughter,Kelsey, from swim team practice and rushing to meet 25 other kids between the ages of 8 and 11 and their parents for the launching of PSVP KIDS. We met at an amazing place in Squirrel Hill — The Children’s Institute.
PSVP partners and really great moms Carrie Barman and Tesse Nicholson worked all summer long in planning and launching an eight month long program for partner’s kids and a few friends of PSVP to learn about giving back in the community, the needs of the community, and their role in helping our community. Carrie and Tesse were really smart in enlisting the help and coordination of Dan Horgan, Executive Director of Pittsburgh Cares. Dan, Carrie, and Tesse lead the kids through some fun team building exercises that taught them about team work, inclusion, and thinking outside the box.
Over the next eight months our PSVP Kids will go on site visits and do volunteer work with senior centers, foster care kids, environmental groups, and homeless families. At the end of their work after raising $200 per kid in the program, our PSVP Kids will decide among themselves which of the organizations they visited will receive the $2,500 in grant money.
But that’s not all! PSVP Kids will learn about leverage — after making the grant they will go pitch some companies and foundations to match their $2,500 grant by making a formal presentation. Stay tuned!
John Denny
Chair
A couple of us Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners just got back from the 10th Annual Conference of the Social Venture Partners International Network in Cleveland. Along with Terry Beggy and me, fellow partners Jeff and Andrea Fitting, Greg and Susan Kaminski and Erica Brusselars represented Pittsburgh.
The biggest take aways for me:
How it Works
Giving partners time, talent and money toward strengthening the operational infrastructure of nonprofits over a long period of time, with clear measurable and agreed upon objectives in a very transparent fashion works. Our investees scored the work of SVP Partners 4.5 out of 5 and reported that the partners time was far more valuable than our money.
Measuring the Impact
In the 2007 SVPI report entitled, “Demonstrating Social Vetnure Partners’ Impact”, 72% of partners increased their annual giving because of SVP; 78% indicated that SVP has changed their giving strategies; and 69% credit SVP for increasing their community awareness.
Growth Continues
SVPI now has over 2,000 partners with consistent growth over the last several years. In fact, 2007 saw a 14% increase in partnership. Since 1997, SVPI network has contribute close to $27 million and has worked with more than 300 nonprofit organizations.
Lessons Learned
Here are some key lessons learned:
All in all, great time with some high spirited, inspirational people committed to changing the world, one investment at a time!
John Denny
Chair
PSVP is embarking on the second of a series of learning opportunities that include experiential learning sessions for our partners and guests. This time we are partnering with Dr. Joe Lagana and the Homeless Childrens Education Fund (HCEF)(www.homelessfund.org) to provide our partners with a basic understanding of what homelessness is, in relation to children, and what programs and services are available to they young children. See first hand one of the Learning Centers that HCEF has provided to regional shelters that help women and their children. There will be several learning opportunities over the next 6 months, so below I’ve highlighted those that have been firmed up:
Local Investor Group Works to Strengthen Ties With Japan
In the latest edition of Global Pittsburgh News, the enewsletter of Global Pittsburgh, there is a great article on PSVP’s recent “Coffee Talk” with SVP Tokyo’s founding partner Hideyuki Inoue.
PSVP partner Erin Queen put together a fabulous meeting and discussion with some of our partners and Hideyuki who was in Pittsburgh as part of his travels across the country. During his visit, he also met with Bill Strickland at the Bidwell Training Center.
During the Coffee Talk held at Panera Bread on the Blvd. of the Allies, we talked about issues related to at-risk kids in Tokyo and Pittsburgh. Teen suicide seems to be an increasing issue in Tokyo.
Philanthropy and SVP is new in Tokyo. As Hideyuki said, “For many generations, there has been nothing else outside of work. Today, young people in Japan want more. In recent years, there has been a big shift among the younger generation in Japan to care more about society.”
John Denny
Chair
Dr. Jerry Vockley was the featured speaker at our first “Coffee Talk” on Tuesday, July 1st. The Coffee Talks are a new concept for PSVP. Our goal is to provide opportunities across the county where our partners are clustered, to connect and have an informal discussion on a topic that relates to our work — directly or indirectly. Jerry and John Denny just spent a week together at boy scout camp with their sons and talked about Jerry sharing a bit about the work he and his team do right here in Pittsburgh.
Jerry is a very interesting person who grew up in the region, left for school, then residency, then genetic research work in other cities. He was actively recruited to Pittsburgh by Children’s Hospital to start a pediatric/genetic research center. Eventually, Jerry and his team will be housed in the new Children’s Hospital building in Lawrenceville. Genetics research is associated with pediatrics because genetic problems/defects typically manifest themselves at or near birth. If it is a non-lethal defect, you typically don’t see it in an adult until it manifests itself in the child. No way to detect genetic defects unless you know what you’re looking for.
Some of the most common: PKU, no enzyme to use amino acid. Led to newborn screenings – heel swipe. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh serves a catchment area of roughly 5M people and only 130 people have PKU in this area. The health systems in general are good at getting services for kids, not adults. Seeing more and more children getting into early adult hood that wasn’t possible just a few years ago. You tend to stay with your geneticist as you grow older; not to an internist (adult).
New development of national collaborations to develop tests for specific disorders. Jerry is leading one of the collaborations. Can’t cure; typically treat the symptoms. Many can be addressed by dietary manipulation, which is not covered by insurance. Can run between hundreds and thousands of dollars per month.
Recognition of these disorders is becoming higher; there hasn’t been an increase in genetic mutations. You hear more about these diseases because of the increasing ability to diagnose. Diagnosis is the sorting out of the mistakes at the gene level. Most of the diagnoses weren’t even possible 10 years ago. Computers are accelerating everything in biology. Stem cell research is one option. If the defect can be isolated to one type of cell, then maybe there’s a way to cleanse the blood of the toxin – liver transplant. Some disorders appear in every cell — eventually will need to develop drugs to counter the effects of the defects.
Where does Pittsburgh fit into the genetic disorder field? In some areas we are among the leaders: Gene therapy, stem cell research, multi-factorial disorders. It’s a great place for bio-engineering with Pitt & CMU collaborations. Gene therapy is tougher than anyone every guessed.
Prior to Jerry’s arrival in Pittsburgh, there was no interest in clinical genetic disease — it’s a money loser. It’s all about the dollars for research. If you have a high profile advocate that helps raise money for research. The biggest way to have an impact is parent advocacy. Example, Oregon. A bill to support MCAD research was log-jammed in the state legislator. A parent gave testimony, bill passed.
Some cities have tremendous resources to bear on research — faculty who have research interests. Leaders in the field are typically Children’s of Boston, Children’s of Philadelphia, Washington University (St. Louis), UCLA.
Coffee Talk – Light
Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners
July 15, 2008
Our Guests: Hideyuki Inoue, Founder SVP Tokyo and Yuki Okuda research at Keio University
We were extremely fortunate to receive a visit from Hide Inoue, the founder of Social Venture Partners Tokyo. Hide and his colleague Yuki Okuda are crossing the US doing research on Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship (think David Bornstein and Gramman Bank). We were also pleased to have with us Wendy Bennett, executive director of Japan-American Society of PA and Wendy’s colleague Kazuko Macher. Andy Ai joined us and Andy works for PNC and has been leading several significant regional initiatives, the most high profile is probably the annual Silkscreen Festival. Interesting PSVP/Japan connections that we didn’t know about: Bethany Davidson taught English in Tokyo for 4 years and is a member of the Japan-American Society. Erin Queen has worked in Japan and Southeast Asia for many years before getting married and having children.
We began the discussion with trying to learn about the most pressing social issues in Japan. Hide said that there’s almost an epidemic among young professional that they lose their personal goals when they go to work because there’s not time left for anything else. He related his experience with Anderson Consulting — he’d travel into the city, work a minimum of a 12 hour day and take a cab home because no trains ran that late. There was nothing else and young people want more. They know that employment isn’t guaranteed – much as the employment picture has changed in the US.
In 1998 a law was past that established nonprofit status. Before that, a lot of work got done, it was just done at a grass roots level. There’s been a big shift among younger generation to care more about society.
SVP Tokyo grew out of Hide’s work finding sustainable education for young social entrepreneurs — connecting potential social investors who may act as judges/mentors for a business plan competition. In Japan, there are not so many private foundations; however there are quite a lot of high net worth individuals who do make personal donations/contributions. Before WWII private philanthropists were socially minded. After WWII, the government took care of social needs. The SVP Tokyo group started with a small core of people, and they hosted monthly networking meetings that featured a speaker, typically on social enterprise and then networking and looking for ways to match up investors with young business entrepreneurs. This developed into an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs and supporters.
SVP Tokyo started in 2003. They made their first investment in 2005. They have 72 partners, each donating $1,000 per year. They have 5 Investees, they expect to bring on 3 new ones this year and they’ve graduated 2 Investees so far. They have more female partners than male partners, and large corporations are well represented.
John Denny asked us to think about a way to partner between Pittsburgh and Tokyo and use the support of the Japan-America Society. We’d focus around a common social problem, and see how we might get some sort of competition going between nonprofits in our two cities – in the vein of changemakers.net.