From Our President - Megan Leftwich

(From the March 2006 Newsletter)

After serving for five years on the SVPP board, half of them as president, I'll be stepping down when my term expires in May. I can't help but reflect on how much SVPP has accomplished in these five brief years. Here is a brief summary of how it all started:
In the fall of 2000, a group of us with little to no experience in the nonprofit sector heard an inspirational lecture by Paul Brainerd, the founder and creative spirit behind the Social Venture Partners movement. We were energized, and after working with SVP Seattle and spending many months meeting in a partner's living room, we incorporated SVP Portland in December 2000 and were off and rolling. We borrowed heavily from Seattle, from our organizational structure to our investment processes to our marketing materials, adapting along the way to fit our local market. We had no office and no executive director for the first year and a half --- just a lot of very dedicated and committed partners who worked out of their homes and gave generously to this new organization. The biggest thrill that first year was distributing grants to our first two investees, Morrison Child & Family Services and Children's Relief Nursery.

Fast forward to today. We have grown to close to 100 partners and are on our fifth investment cycle. We have granted more than $700,000 and with each cycle our investments have become more strategic with broader impact. Our first four investees have "graduated" after successful completion of their programs. We have been designated a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and can now take contributions directly from partners. A redesigned website is in the works and will be rolled out later this month. We have an executive director who works tirelessly and arranges thought-provoking events with well-known speakers. We continue to attract committed and engaged new partners and have new members to introduce you to in this newsletter. And our most recent investees, CASH and PEP, are already making a measurable impact and receiving recognition from community leaders. You'll read more about them below.

Come October, I'll start my term representing Portland as a member of the SVP International board, so I will continue to stay active and involved. We are now the fifth largest affiliate out of the 21 across the US and Canada and I look forward to sharing our successes and challenges with the rest of the network. I hope you share my excitement about SVPP's progress and strong forward momentum. Thank you for continuing to be a part of the SVP Portland community.