Corporate Giving

Some of them measure their time in minutes and bill accordingly. Some of them obtain loans that rival the budgets of foreign countries. Some of them employ enough people to form a small army. And some of them have always lived large.

What these businessmen and businesswomen of Phoenix have in common is a commitment to give their money, their time and their talents so that poor children can live better and healthier lives.

In short, these “head-based” executives – whose working lives are generally consumed with monitoring profits and bottom lines – have joined forces to help “heart-based” nonprofits do a better job. They’ve been working quietly, behind the scenes, for the last six years in what’s called Social Venture Partners. And their mission is simple and brilliant. Not only do they provide financial grants to nonprofit organizations, but they also volunteer their business talents and skills to help those groups improve their management and finances, spend their money more effectively, and “grow.”

Virtually every other grant-giving foundation or organization purposely stays out of the operation of the nonprofits that they help. This one, however, doesn’t fund a program unless it’s involved in its management. It’s one way of saying that they’re in this for the long haul.

The idea wasn’t born here – although Phoenix is now the second-largest chapter in the nation – but was the 1997 brainchild of Seattle’s Paul Brainerd, whose successful high-tech company created PageMaker, a graphic-design program. He and his friends decided to try and come up with a new concept of “giving,” and they did. As Business Week magazine described it, this was “an idea born in the late 1990s, when New Economy do-gooders sought to put their tech riches to philanthropic use….”

I’m sure the magazine meant “do-gooder” in the nicest possible way, because you couldn’t have any heart at all if you didn’t appreciate this smart approach to giving.

The idea impressed Phoenix businessman and developer Jerry Hirsch of Jaren Corporation, and in 1999 he pulled together about 35 of his friends to start a local program. Each wrote a check to provide a pool of funds and then invited nonprofits working with children to apply for grants. It has been growing ever since, and today, there are 125 Phoenix partners, each writing annual checks for $5,000.

But that’s just the beginning. Partners also volunteer their time and talents to help their nonprofits with operations and business plans. “We can take a good program and can build a strong nonprofit,” explains John Couleur, who runs Social Venture Partners here in Phoenix. He points with pride at how they once helped save a program called Aid to Adoption of Special Kids, best known for its “Wednesday’s Child” television feature spotlighting individual children awaiting adoption.

“Several years ago, it was on the verge of collapse,” Couleur says, but today, it’s not only thriving, but it’s growing, and recently opened a family resource center.

In the last six years, Phoenix Partners have awarded approximately $2 million in grants to 21 different agencies, and have volunteered thousands of hours. And the Partners come from all points of the business world – they’re attorneys, developers, builders, consultants, software designers, venture capitalists, bankers, commercial mortgage brokers and communicators.

You can tell where their hearts lie by looking at some of the programs they’re currently supporting:

• Greater Phoenix Youth at Risk works with high-risk teenagers to build self-esteem and help break the cycle of violence.
• Scottsdale Prevention Institute works with girls from 5 to 17 to promote positive development.
• Teen Lifeline provides peer mentoring to the suicide and crisis hotline in a state with one of the nation’s highest teen suicide rates.
• Stepping Stones Program of the Mental Health Association of Arizona trains volunteer adults to provide mentors for children living in homeless shelters or transitional homes.
• Unlimited Potential works with poor Hispanic families in South Phoenix. Preschool children there receive early childhood development classes, while right next door, their mothers are getting help learning English and working toward a GED diploma.

The Partners get approximately 30 applications for every grant they give, and invest in agencies that not only need their money, but also their help. “A lot of agencies have good programs, but don’t know how to grow,” Couleur says. “We can help them decide where they’re going and how to get there. A lot of people like to fund programs, but nobody likes to fund capacity building and the infrastructure.”

Although it doesn’t happen often, there have been situations in which the Partners ended up not fitting with an agency – and ultimately walked away. “We’re not a traditional funder – we feel our nonfinancial contribution is more important than our financial help,” Couleur says. “A big reason we walk away is because they’re more interested in our money than our advice.”

And while they’re working with deserving agencies, the Partners are also learning the satisfaction of giving – one of the side benefits of this program is promoting the concept of philanthropy. “Sixty percent of the Partners increase their charitable giving and increase their volunteerism,” Couleur says proudly.

All of this is part of an impressive network. There are 23 Partner programs in the United States and Canada, with 1,600 members that have donated more than $14 million in grants. That’s why Fast Company magazine gave this charitable network the Social Capitalist of the Year Award. As Couleur puts it, “If you’re thinking, ‘I can’t make a difference,’ you’d be amazed at the difference you can make.”

“We wanted to do more than just write a check,” explains Claude Case of the Case Tire Company, who’s an active Partner with his wife, Susan. If you know Claude and Susan, you know that Social Venture Partners was a perfect program for them.

Claude volunteered for the Peace Corps as a young man, and the couple met in the South when both were working on a civil rights education program. After that, they were teachers, before taking over the family tire business upon the death of Claude’s father, Charlie.
“We were looking for something to do, something where we could be actively involved,” Claude says. “We were interested in getting our hands dirty.”

They joined Social Ventures in 2002 and found that getting their hands dirty in the needs of children took them to some interesting places. For example, Claude found himself immersed in AZ Quest for Kids, while Susan is one of the dynamos in Creciendo Unidos, which translates to “growing together.”

I’d never heard of either program before I started talking with Claude – in fact, I hadn’t heard of most of the 13 programs that currently are receiving grants. But after learning about them, I am glad they’re out there, and I’m glad that people like Claude and Susan are volunteering their time and their money.

AZ Quest, a Social Venture investment since 2002, is trying to improve high-school graduation rates. It identifies fifth-graders from poor families in eight different schools who are struggling with their class work, providing them with mentors, enrichment programs, family support services and, eventually, scholarships to colleges or universities around the country.

“If the kids are successful, they’re assured of college funds,” Claude says with pride. “They had 130 kids in the program when we got involved. Now we’ve got 450 kids!”

And the ambitions do not stop there. According to Claude, AZ Quest hopes to eventually offer these services and scholarships statewide to 1,000 children within the next five years.

Not only is Claude proud of what the program is doing for the kids, but also what it’s doing to assure that it remains healthy and solvent. He says there’s been a “gallant effort” to cut overhead costs “and deliver more bang for the buck.”

Along the way, AZ Quest has helped cut its costs by collaborating with other nonprofits, and now shares office space and administrative overhead costs with Creciendo Unidos – the other program that is getting help from the Case family.

The “growing together” program, which has been a Social Venture investment since 2000, is based at Maie Bartlett Heard Elementary School at Thomas and 23rd Avenue. For the most part, the school is made up of low-income and highly transient students coming from 14 countries and speaking 11 different languages.

This program identifies children whose school performance hints at problems at home. It then approaches the entire family and asks them to voluntarily enroll in a nine-month program – parents, grandparents, siblings or anyone living in the home is asked to meet weekly and deal with the issues that are causing problems. Sometimes it is drugs or alcohol, sometimes physical abuse, sometimes a language barrier, sometimes a communication issue, sometimes a helpless feeling of being unable to overcome poverty.

According to Social Ventures Partners: “Evaluation data shows that this program helps participants drastically reduce reliance on violence and drugs, cigarette and alcohol use, and increases their positive social behaviors, such as apologizing, communicating, trusting, and sharing family decision making.”

In addition, the data showed that the families’ involvement in the community has “sky-rocketed.” What’s more, Creciendo Unidos has become so popular that there is always a waiting list. Social Venture says that more than half of the participants return the following years to volunteer.

“I’m blown away by the impact this program has on the families it serves,” Susan says. As the chief partner in this project, Susan is working with the program’s founder, Guille Sastre, to plan for organizational growth. Susan has helped create a realistic program budget, build collaborative relationships with other programs, and get additional grants so the program can expand into other schools.

“We get a lot of personal satisfaction in terms of helping,” Claude says. “And I enjoy the social aspects of mixing with the other Partners – I’ve made a lot of new friends.”

For more information on Social Venture Partners, visit svpaz.org.