From Our President - Dave Smith

(From the December 2006 Newsletter)

‘Tis the Season -- Transition Time at SVPP

December is a time to celebrate the holidays and spend time with friends and family. It is also a transition time for Social Venture Partners Portland. An all too familiar challenge for many non-profits is managing turnover of the Executive Director position. According to a number of recent national studies, the average nonprofit ED tenure is approximately three years. SVPP is not immune to this average as last month Jean Hart, our Executive Director, resigned after two-and-a-half years in the role.

Jean graciously stepped into the SVPP Executive Director role in 2004 after an extensive local search failed to find the right candidate. Jean has done a remarkable job of representing SVPP in the local community and in expanding our organization's profile. She has performed tirelessly in her recruiting of new partners to join us in our noble efforts. We are very grateful to Jean for her commitment to SVPP and will miss her incredible drive and her engaging wit! Although we are losing Jean as our Executive Director, she will remain an active partner. Jean has accepted a position with MercyCorps and we wish her good luck in her new role.

We are in the process of advertising for our open ED position. We would like to enlist your help in finding Jean's replacement. If you know of anyone that you believe would be interested in this position, please forward the link above. We are advertising this position in a number of places looking for qualified candidates. We will be accepting resumes until the end of December.

In the interim, we are very fortunate to have Deborah Lockwood, a former partner, helping us out until we find a new Executive Director. Thank you Deborah!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the partners and friends of Social Venture Partners Portland!