Junior Achievement

The goal of Junior Achievement of San Diego (JA) is to help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. During the SDSVP partnership, JA’s focus was to create an Enterprise Village called BizTown. BizTown teaches 12,000 fifth graders annually about personal finance, business, entrepreneurship, and work force skills. The facility would be the first of its kind in California and would cost about $7.8 million including acquisition of a building and construction of the village, scholarships for low-income kids and the beginning of an endowment.

With the help of SDSVP, JA developed a capacity building plan to launch BizTown. The purpose was to increase the ability of JA staff to develop the business plan, manage a capital campaign, purchase a building, design the facility and construct it. SDSVP Partners contributed $3M of the capital campaign allowing Junior Achievement to serve an additional 12,000 children a year. The ultimate outcome was positive, and the return on investment for JA was significant.

“SDSVP brought an energy and enthusiasm to the project that was contagious. The dedication of the Partners was an inspiration to our entire staff. The guidance that SDSVP provided at strategic junctures was irreplaceable. It was clear the Partners were doing what they do best: being entrepreneurs and launching new projects.”
-Marion Paul, Executive Vice President (former)

4756 Mission Gorge Place
San Diego, CA 92120
(619) 682-5155
http://www.jasandiego.org