December eNews | SV2 Announces New CEO, The Power of Asset-based Language, Environment Lightning Grant Round, Supporting our Community Partners

Environment issues are now at the forefront of challenges facing the world, with many implications for the Bay Area and our local communities. Regardless of your particular issue interest area, climate will affect it. It’s all interconnected. Climate and environmental justice are foundational to our ability to thrive as individuals and communities. We’re delighted to have these inspiring and impactful organizations participate in this LGR: Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Building Decarbonization Coalition, Dream Corps, MenloSpark, and Save the Bay. The Lightning Grant Round (LGR) will take place on Tue. Jan. 26th (RSVP here) and Tue. Feb. 9th (RSVP here). This LGR is co-led by SV2 Partners Jennifer McFarlane and Zweli Mfundisi, and SV2 staff Amy Badiani.

SV2 Partners provide pro bono support to our Community Partners (SV2 Grantees) to help them achieve their goals. This is referred across SV2 as "Beyond-the-Dollars" (BT$).
Helping is difficult when you don't know what is needed and possible. SV2 Partners: you can help solve this issue by doing two important and simple things:
1. Complete the Partner BT$ Survey by Friday, Dec. 11th

2. Attend a Partner Open House on Dec. 16th or Dec. 18th to share your voice, ideas, and learn.
Your feedback and activity elevate SV2 value and impact for our Community Partners, and we'll go farther together.

For the last 18 years, Jennifer Min has served as a mathematics and economics teacher and a school administrator, most recently at The Nueva School where she helped to found Nueva's Upper School. Prior to that, she worked at San Francisco University High School. Jennifer started her professional career in finance and strategy consulting after earning an MBA from Harvard Business School. Jennifer volunteers as a tutor for students in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park and serves as a mentor to new and beginning teachers. She enjoys playing board games with her husband and two sons, walking around the neighborhood, and experimenting with new recipes.

Sneha Challa is a technology professional with over 5 years of experience in software engineering, insights and analytics. She currently works for a tech company based in San Francisco, CA, enabling their product innovation. She is also a volunteer instructor with International Association of Human Values and serves as a Chief Marketing Officer for her alumni non-profit board BITSAA Silicon Valley Chapter. Sneha supports fundraising and Corporate Social Responsibilities at her current company, in education, career development for youth and COVID relief.

SUN. DEC. 6 | 1:30PM - 2:30PM

Calling all Teen Changemakers! SV2 Teens Information Session

SV2 Teens is a youth-led changemaking initiative. During the program, Teens learn about and go deeper with their social impact interests, practice active listening, take a community-asset based approach, further develop leadership and teamwork skills, and grow as changemakers. Teens gain exposure to pressing local social issues, learn about nonprofit organizations and thoughtfully allocate small unrestricted grants to three organizations. At this session, current SV2 Teens, alumni, and their parents will share their first-hand experiences with the program and the impact the experience has had on them. We'll share an overview of the 2021 program. Join us!

MON. DEC. 7 | 5:00PM - 1:30PM

Environment Partner Interest Circle (EPIC): Seasonal Flooding Plus Climate Change Affects Everyone

Winter storm surge, king tides, and crested rain creeks bring flooding. It all comes down to location. For the unlucky, a flood is a mess. And it's going to get worse all around the Bay Area - just skim the new report Adapting to Rising Tides (ART). EPIC’s Flooding session on December 7, from 5 PM to 6:30 PM, dives into what is heading our way. Engaged local leaders speak for 10 minutes about the imperative of addressing rising waters, the inequities and ways in which citizens can be active. Breakouts into 20-minute discussions follow, ending with report outs and new insights.

WED. DEC. 9 | 11:30AM - 1:30PM

Impact Investing Working Group

The SV2 Impact Investing Working Group discusses prospective impact investment opportunities, hears pitches from social entrepreneurs, and performs due diligence in order to make informed investment recommendations on behalf of SV2. The Working Group is comprised of Partners who are committed to actively participating in all aspects of impact investing, including the due diligence process. All Partners are welcome to begin regularly attending IIWG meetings at any point in the year or are welcome to audit meetings on a drop-in basis.

WED. DEC. 16 | 5:30PM - 6:45PM

SV2 Partner Open House: Supporting Grantees Beyond-the-Dollars [note: same agenda as December 18]

SV2 Partners provide pro bono support to our Grantees to help them achieve their goals. We call this pro bono support "Beyond-the-Dollars" (BT$) at SV2. During the Open House, the SV2 BT$ Working Group will share more about our inspiring and impactful current Grantees, our current BT$ offering, insights and feedback from Grantees and Partners, and some ideas to evolve our BT$ offering. We'd love to have a generative discussion with SV2 Partners to understand interest, skillsets, and capacity to support our Grantees as well as ideas to pilot.

FRI. DEC. 18 | 10:00AM - 11:15AM

SV2 Partner Open House: Supporting Grantees Beyond-the-Dollars [note: same agenda as December 16]

SV2 Partners provide pro bono support to our Grantees to help them achieve their goals. We call this pro bono support "Beyond-the-Dollars" (BT$) at SV2. During the Open House, the SV2 BT$ Working Group will share more about our inspiring and impactful current Grantees, our current BT$ offering, insights and feedback from Grantees and Partners, and some ideas to evolve our BT$ offering. We'd love to have a generative discussion with SV2 Partners to understand interest, skillsets, and capacity to support our Grantees as well as ideas to pilot.

WED. JAN. 13 | 11:30AM - 1:30PM

Impact Investing Working Group

The SV2 Impact Investing Working Group discusses prospective impact investment opportunities, hears pitches from social entrepreneurs, and performs due diligence in order to make informed investment recommendations on behalf of SV2. The Working Group is comprised of Partners who are committed to actively participating in all aspects of impact investing, including the due diligence process. All Partners are welcome to begin regularly attending IIWG meetings at any point in the year or are welcome to audit meetings on a drop-in basis.

FRI. JAN. 15 | [note: donations must be completed by January 15th]

SV2 Kids with Family Giving Tree

SV2 Kids has a longstanding partnership with Family Giving Tree and our families look forward to working in the warehouse each year to support their holiday gift drive. While we had hoped to volunteer in the Family Giving Tree warehouse again this year, in an abundance of caution in light of the revised Santa Clara County guidelines implemented on November 30, we have made the difficult decision to pivot our support to be online only. Instead of volunteering in person with SV2, we invite Partners to support Family Giving Tree by purchasing a gift from their Virtual Giving Tree donation platform, which can be found here. Purchasing a gift on the Virtual Giving Tree fulfills a holiday wish for a child, teen, or senior citizen and will be delivered directly to Family Giving Tree. Virtual Giving Tree donations must be completed by January 15, 2021. Feel free to direct any questions about the pivot in plans or the SV2 Kids program to Lucinda Brommersma.