Social Venture Kids

A Fantastic Opportunity

SVKids was designed to get our SVP kids involved in philanthropy at an early age and instill in them a desire to give to their community for the rest of their lives. Partners’ children in grades 9–12 can join this in-depth, hands-on experience to learn about issues facing our area and how to make a grant. SVKids have awarded $10,000 annually to organizations addressing areas such as teen homelessness and domestic violence.

How it Works

The program runs each year from October through May, with the help of a volunteer Partner. The teens discuss community needs in the greater Seattle area to decide which problem they’d like to help alleviate. To learn more about the cause they’ve chosen, they listen to experts in the field who inform the kids about strategies and programs that address their issue.

During the fall and winter, the group raises money by organizing activities and by asking their friends, family and the SVP partnership. In the early spring, the SVKids solicit and review Letters of Inquiry (LOI) from potential Investees. Based on the criteria they develop, they will select organizations to visit in person. At the site visits, the teens get to talk to the directors, see the work being done and meet beneficiaries. This step adds incredible first-hand experience, seeing the problems of our area and what is being done to help.

The teens finish by making the final choices to award the grant money and definitely come away with an in-depth unique experience in philanthropy.

SVKids in Action

“I just wanted to write and thank you for changing my life through SVK. You really instilled a desire in me to help where I could …

You really changed a large part of who I am and taught me something I will in turn teach to my kids and continue to work with throughout the rest of my life. Funny how a few Sundays … can have such a huge effect! 

I could ramble on forever about what I learned from SVK and the memories that I had from it, but it'd be more fun to talk to you one on one about those some day in the future … Thanks for teaching me very important skills/lessons/ideals.

I hope you look back on SVK with pride as nobody could have done it better!”

-From participant Ali Norman