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The Partner Connection-October 2007
SVP Kicks Off Fall 2007
SVP Kicks Off Fall 2007 with New Website, Blog & eNewsletter
We kick off this Fall Season 2007 with several new and revamped SVP Communication vehicles.
During the Summer, we launched our new and improved SVP Website. We think it has a strong, bold, new look with a variety of helpful features created to answer many of your FAQ’s. Several changes were made in order to streamline the information and help you navigate the site more efficiently.
The SVP Blog is your market place to present innovative ideas; explore provocative topics; generate ongoing discussion; engage in thoughtful debate and insightful blogging. Link onto our website and review the current blog posted by Paul S.: ”Getting Out of the Echo Chamber” - 9/26/07. Give us your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.
The Partner Connection is your new eNewsletter Our long-term vision for this medium is to create a communications forum that informs and motivates you to become more engaged with each other and the community. Many of the stories and featured items will link you back to the SVP website and to useful resources within the non-profit sector and philanthropic community. If you have story ideas or items that you think might be of interest to our Partners or Investees, please let us know.
SVP to Celebrate 10th Anniversary at Seattle Art Museum on November 14
Social Venture Partners (SVP) Seattle celebrates it’s 10th Anniversary with a special celebration at the Seattle Art Museum on Wednesday, November 14 from 6:30 – 8:30pm. Special guests will include Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and some of the original co-founders of SVP. Limited to invitation.
SVPI National Conference Draws 250 Attendees
Social Venture Partners hosted more than 250 conference participants in two action-packed days of workshops and seminars on October 12 and 13. It was a unique opportunity for SVP partners across North America and Japan to join together at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel as we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of SVP! Special events included a conversation with keynote speaker Patty Stonesifer of the Gates Foundation and a luncheon keynote with SVP Founder, Paul Brainerd. For more information on the conference, visit: www.svpi.org
Calling 2007-2008 SVP Kids!
Social Venture Kids (SVK’s) are the bright light in the future world of engaged philanthropists. We encourage Partners to identify promising teens, grades 9-12, who might have the potential to bring character and voice to our new emerging crop of young community leaders. The group meets on Sunday evenings. If a teenager in your family is interested, please contact Partner Susan Sullivan, who chairs this committee, at susan@ramblingclan.com
Tracking Your Volunteer Hours --Essential to SVP
Partner volunteer hours are crucial to SVP and our annual performance summary. Your hours represent a critical investment of human capital to our Investee Portfolio. In 2005-2006, more than 3600 volunteer hours were recorded. Partner hours were spread across a broad range of capacity building areas. Using a generic market-based value of $100 per hour, this represents more than $360,000 dollars in professional expertise. Please help us to keep accurate records by reporting your completed volunteer hours. If you would like to know more about volunteer hours within SVP, please contact Sofia Michelakis: sofiam@svpseattle.org or 206- 374-8757, ext. 5
Volunteer Investment Outcomes
”Our involvement with our amazing SVP volunteer, Anthony [Short], has brought Powerful Voices’ technological capacity forward decades in only nine months.” – Ann Muno, Associate Director, Powerful Voices.
Committee Positions Still Available
Serving on an SVP Grant Committee provides you with valuable hands-on experience in the areas of funding allocation and evaluation of our promising nonprofit organizations. Not only does it give you an opportunity to move into another level of philanthropic development, this volunteer leadership experience enables you to become more engaged within our community. We are currently trying to fill several positions on the new Environment Grant Committee.
The Advocacy and Policy Committee (APC) targets more experienced, long-term partners with previous service on a grant committee, significant nonprofit or philanthropic involvement. Experience on this committee will enable you to move deeper into systems impact. Currently, the Early Learning Advocacy and Policy Committee and the K-12 Advocacy and Policy Committee are looking for committee members. For more information on Partner Development or to volunteer for a committee assignment, contact Sofia Michelakis at sofiam@svpseattle.org or 206- 374-8757, ext. 5, before October 15.
New Events Calendar Promotes Personal Partner Development Opportunities
The new SVP Events Calendar is chock full of interesting workshops and speaker forums designed to enhance your personal philanthropic growth as an SVP Partner. We have a new RSVP system on the website designed to save you time when you register for upcoming events. To register for an event, enter your SVP Username and Password. Email Sofia Michelakis at sofiam@svpseattle.org for assistance.
Events Calendar
10/21/07- SVP Family Service Event -12:00pm–3:00pm – Bring your family to the Mountains to Sound Nursery /Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah and help to replenish our state forests with thousands of seedlings. This is an outdoor event; dress for the weather.
10/30/07- Anxiety-Free “Asks”- Major Gifts-6:30pm – 8:30pm ($30) Learn from expert facilitator Susan Howlett how to raise the most money with the least anxiety.
11/08/07- The Environment, The Economy, and a Clean-Energy Job Strategy- contact Sofia Michelakis at sofiam@svpseattle.org.
11/14/07- SVP Seattle 10th Anniversary Event @ Seattle Art Museum
For more information, www.svpseattle.org Limited to invited guests.
SVP Partner/ Investee Impact: Sharing Personal Stories
After spending a decade at Microsoft, Gideon Rosenblatt was on sabbatical when he and his wife, CJ, joined SVP in 2000. He agreed to sit on the first Environmental Grant Committee. His first assignment was to meet with a variety of local environmental leaders in order to gain perspective on the issues. After reviewing the list of organizations, his eyes quickly landed on “ONE/Northwest.” He jumped at the chance to meet with their team. (He remembers that Valerie Logan also wanted that visit and lost by a hair. She returned two years later to join the ONE/Northwest Board of Directors)
Although he had heard of ONE/Northwest from Paul Brainerd, Ann Krumboltz, and Paul Shoemaker, he never envisioned how his life would change after that first meeting. Halfway through the meeting he realized they had no executive director. Later, he learned that they were searching for a new ED. Those words hit him “like a ton of bricks”---The staff must have had a premonition of the events to follow, because they all agreed: -They knew this man was the next Director. That night he drove back to Microsoft knowing that the next step was to move on to this great nonprofit. In February of 2001, he quit his position at Microsoft and began what he calls,”… the best job of my life…”Gideon Rosenblatt is the Executive Director of One/NW
Partner Biographies
Cathy Jo and Joe Linn both received their PhDs in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University in 1980. After fulfilling careers in academics, government, and industry and raising two children, they retired from Microsoft. Currently they spend their time practicing and performing with a local jazz trio, dancing with Arthur Murray, playing D league soccer, hanging out in the back of the pack at road races and triathlons, and managing a family foundation.
Mary Morris Willis is Executive Director of the Morris Family Foundation, an organization focusing on helping women, children and youth to better their lives in the hopes of creating a more socially and economically just world, primarily focusing on projects that encourage quality early care and education. A graduate of Stanford University, she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, and for 13 years worked as a researcher at U C San Francisco. In 1986, acting on a longtime passion, she returned to school to study early childhood education. She earned a Children’s Center Permit and joined the staff of College of Marin Children’s Center in Kentfield, advancing to become afternoon head teacher. She became Executive Director of the Morris Family Foundation at its inception in July 1998. She served on the Marin County Child Care Commission for six years (Chairperson for two years). She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ring Mountain Day School in Tiburon, the Catalog for Giving of the Bay Area, the New Conservatory Theater Company in San Francisco and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Women Donor’s Network. Mary recently moved from the San Francisco Bay area and resides in Langley, WA.
Nancy McCaughey is Founder of 3D Discovery Group, LLC, a coaching and consulting organization supporting individual and organizational clients in the areas of career and change management, leadership development, and team building. Nancy brings over 25 years of business experience including co-founder and Vice-President of a non-profit educational organization and senior sales and marketing management in the travel and pharmaceutical sales industries. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Human Ecology from Michigan State University, is a certified coach with Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, and qualified facilitator to deliver several workshops including Meyers Briggs Personality Type training, OTJ Managing Your Career Success, Planning for Change and Working on Purpose. Nancy has served as a Hospice Volunteer for Group Health for the past three years and enjoys traveling, cooking and golf. She and her husband,David, have one son, Kris, a graduate of Evergreen and reside on Bainbridge Island.
David McCaughey is the Regional Account Manager for sanofi-aventis’ US Managed Markets in Washington and Alaska. He has responsibility for Insurers, key Medical Groups, including Premera Blue Cross, Group Health Cooperative, Molina Healthcare of Washington, Everett and Virginia Mason Clinics. He also sits on numerous national account teams. Since 1990, David has worked for sanofi-aventis’ legacy companies in Canada and the United States. The first nine years of his career was spent as a Territory Manager in Western Canada. After moving to Oregon in 1996, he became an Area Manager in the Pacific NW responsible for the formation and management of a new sales team. Throughout his career he has worked in the therapeutic fields of Cardiology, Dermatology, Infectious Disease, Endocrine, and Gastrointestinal. David is a graduate of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, with a degree in Pharmacology. His avocation includes alternative energy and building & home renovation. An avid BMW motorcyclist on the side, he recently returned from a tour of Alaska and British Columbia to mark this year’s birthday. He and his wife reside on Bainbridge Island.
Dana and Shane Kim met at Harvard Business School where they both graduated as members of the class of 1990. Dana, who holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho, retired from Microsoft in 1996 after working several years as program manager in the Hardware Group. Currently, she is Vice-President of the Board at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue. Shane received his undergraduate degree in Economics and International Relations from Stanford University and has been with Microsoft since 1990. He is the Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft Game Studios. Dana and Shane are the proud parents of two wonderful children.
Ruben Ortega is a technology pioneer in online search and scaling in e-commerce businesses at Amazon.com. From 1998-2007, Ruben built search and recommendation technologies that have scaled to millions of transactions per day and generated billions of dollars in revenue per year. As Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Amazon.com's A9 search subsidiary, Ruben led the development and launch of the A9.com website. Currently he is the Vice President of Engineering for Trusera.com, a health based web start up in Seattle. Reuben has a B.S. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California at Irvine and an M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington.
Lauren Bricker earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Pre-Medicine from the University of Michigan in 1985 and her PhD from the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 1998. She keeps very busy as a part-time Computer Science teacher at Lakeside High school, a User Experience Engineering consultant, artist, and the Education Committee Chair, technology guru, and newsletter editor for the Secular Jewish Circle of Puget Sound, a non-profit affiliate of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Lauren Bricker and Ruben Ortega have two boys ages 16 and 8 and enjoy biking, running and just enough swimming to complete triathlons.
Lavinia H. Touchton, a native of Tampa, FL, moved to Seattle in 1995. She holds a Bachelors degree in English from the University of Virginia and a Master's of Liberal Arts degree in Psychology from Harvard University. She recently completed two terms on the Board of Trustees of Tampa Preparatory School, her alma mater, and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Program for Early Parent Support (PEPS), where she will also serve as Board President in 2008. Lavinia also serves on the National Selection Committee for the Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia. She has one son, Christopher, who entered kindergarten this fall and who hopefully will join Social Venture Kids someday.
Abbe Sue Rubin is a retired statistician who currently serves as Treasurer for Seattle Biotech Legacy Foundation. She also serves as Treasurer for Music of Remembrance, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to remembering Holocaust musicians. Before retiring in 2004, Abbe spent 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry. She was Vice President of Biometrics at Immunex, responsible for statistical and data management functions related to the design and analysis of clinical trials. She also served as a statistical consultant to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center focusing on AIDS vaccine research. Abbe holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Rochester, MA degrees in statistics and mathematics and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from MIT.
