SVPC Featured in Business Journal

Friday, July 24, 2009

Nonprofit News

Social Venture group lets donors pool funds, expertise

Charlotte Business Journal - by Todd Cohen

Partners for Success, a new program launched by Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, aims to recruit local businesses and faith communities to promote success at high-poverty, low-performing public schools.

Habitat Critical Home Repair, a program of Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte, plans to boost its capacity to work with low-income families to provide major home repairs and protect Charlotte’s stock of affordable housing.

Critical to both programs is support from Social Venture Partners Charlotte. The nonprofit, formed in 2005, is part of national network of 25 local groups of partners that pool their donations and expertise to support causes they care about.

The group this year has 69 members, most of them couples, with each couple donating $5,000 per year.

SVP Charlotte has proved to be “a good place to land for a lot of people in this economic climate,” says Susan Daniel, the group’s executive director.

“It provides an opportunity to have a greater impact collectively than each partner could have alone,” she says. “Despite the economy, or maybe because of it, many people want to do more than just write a check.”

The partners form committees to study needs and select projects to fund.

One example is Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, which teamed with SVP Charlotte to form Partners for Success. Communities in Schools is receiving about $60,000 this year from SVP Charlotte.

The two groups have formed an advisory board of four SVP partners and three staffers at Communities in Schools. That board will provide assistance on expanding the program, assessing its progress and “trying to open doors and help them find significant community partners for these struggling schools,” Daniel says.

Another example is Habitat for Humanity. This year, it has received $35,000 from SVP Charlotte to help hire a site supervisor to manage expansion of its Critical Home Repair initiative.

A key goal for SVP Charlotte, Daniel says, is to continue to enlist new partners so it can better address local needs.

This fall, the organization will host a meeting at which groups it supports can report on their progress to its partners and prospective partners.

Says Daniel: “We’re committed to identifying and supporting programs and services that provide positive, systemic change in the community.”

QUICKINFO

SOCIAL VENTURE PARTNERS CHARLOTTE

•Board chair: Mike Elliott, Noro-Moseley Partners

•Executive director: Susan Daniel

•Phone: (704) 442-7060

•Address: 5901 Sardis Road, Charlotte 28270

•Web: www.svpcharlotte.org