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April 27, 2001/Iyar 4, 5761, Vol. 53, No.30
Winning formula for doing good
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Erika Feinberg, left, interacts with students at Tempe High School as part of Peer Solutions, a project of SVPAZ.
Photo courtesy of Social Venture Partners Arizona |
Take a group of professionals.
Tap their business acumen and philanthropic capacity.
Match resulting resources with unmet communal needs.
The formula is stunning in its simplicity, yet striking in its potential to effect meaningful change. It defines the mission of 2-year-old Social Venture Partners Arizona, founded by former attorney turned real estate developer turned philanthropist I. Jerome Hirsch.
Hirsch, who has a long history of giving and doing in the Valley, explains that SVPAZ was spawned from his frustration with more traditional charitable endeavors.
"Too few nonprofits really applied business practices to the way they operated," says Hirsch.
Looking for a "positive solution," he became intrigued with a program initiated in the Pacific Northwest that sought to inspire sound business management in the nonprofit sector.
"It seemed to be a solution," he says of the Seattle program, started in 1998 by desktop publishing mogul Paul Brainerd.
Hirsch contacted the Seattle organizers, a series of meetings ensued, and in 1999, SVPAZ was formed.
SVPAZ is a "pooled philanthropic fund." It's modeled after venture capital funds that invest in emerging businesses; but rather than corporate ventures, its investment focus is in the nonprofit sector. There are 20 such groups nationwide and a newly formed national organization.
Currently, SVPAZ has 90 partners, each contributing a minimum of $5,000 per year for two years. Couples may make a joint contribution, and some partners' contributions are either funded or matched by corporate donations.
In addition, members are encouraged to take an active role on one of SVPAZ's four committees providing human as well as financial resources.
"Forty percent of our members are active at any given time," says Hirsch.
The entire partnership votes annually on its focus for that year (this year it is children and education) and then the investment committee meets intensively over a two-month period to assess communal needs and narrow parameters for programmatic initiatives.
Hirsch, who believes that more business people would engage in philanthropic activity if both asked and educated, explains that investment committee members attend a seminar on strategic grant making and meet with communal leaders to identify pressing needs.
Once the priorities are narrowed, SVPAZ sends out requests for proposals to its roster of some 1,000 nonprofits. Typically, the group receives some 40-50 proposals in return and then winnows down the applicants to the top five before making a final selection.
Hirsch emphasizes that SVPAZ looks for emerging nonprofits with at least a one-year to two-year track record. It usually only partially funds programs, hoping to encourage self-sufficiency. Typically, grants are for one year, but may be renewed. To date, 11 projects have been funded with grants ranging from $20,000 to $57,000.
Volunteer teams work hand in hand with each new venture, developing a business plan and offering guidance and support.
Retired physician Sandy Hoffman and his wife, Beth, an attorney, are active SVPAZ members. Hoffman worked with the Downtown Neighborhood Learning Centers (Arizona Neighborhood Network Project) to set up a computer center in a north Phoenix low-income apartment complex. He says he helped the group with board development, financing and hiring.
"It was very rewarding," says Hoffman, who relocated to the Valley two and a half years ago from Buffalo, N.Y. "It's given me the ability to use my talents and be able to give back to the community."
Beth Hoffman has been involved with the Family Habitat Garden (Children's Advocacy Center), a school-based program that uses a garden to provide therapy for child violence and abuse victims. The garden is located in the Creighton School District in Phoenix.
"The project was started by Linda Gray who had a wonderful idea but needed help in structuring the concept," she explains.
Hoffman serves on a volunteer team that provides business, legal, and organizational help and currently serves on the garden's board of directors.
Erika Feinberg, another SVPAZ partner, has offered her business expertise to Peer Solutions, Inc., a group that provides violence and abuse prevention education in area schools.
"This is philanthropy at its best," says Feinberg of SVPAZ. "There's nothing more satisfying than helping non-profits make changes."
Hirsch, whose private Lodestar Foundation funds a variety of philanthropic projects, including providing the seed money for SVPAZ, says that making money usually doesn't lead to happiness, so successful individuals have to find other ways to achieve it.
"The only way to find true happiness in life is by helping others," he says.
Hirsch says he has come to that philosophy through life experience and study.
His Jewish background is integral to his quest to do good, he says.
"The process of acting, of giving yourself, of working with others, is a very meaningful thing," he says. "You are judged by what you do, not by what you think or say."
For more information on SVPAZ contact SVPAZ Executive Director Thomas Fraker, 602-224-0041 or e-mail, Tfraker@svpaz.org.
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