History

The original Social Venture Partners was founded in Seattle, WA in 1997 and was the inspiration of former Aldus Corporation president Paul Brainard. The vision of the founders, mostly technology industry leaders, was to build a philanthropic organization using a venture capital model, where Partners invest in innovation, and then actively nurture their financial investments with guidance and resources. As interest in this new approach to philanthropy grew, SVP organizations began developing throughout North America. By 2001, a loose network had formed, and SVP International (SVPI) was created to support and advance this network. As of the summer of 2007, there exist 23 SVP organizations and over 1,600 partner households across North America and internationally, in places such as Vancouver, Portland, Tuscon, Tokyo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, St Louis, New Mexico, Calgary, Des Moines, Boulder, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Boston, Providence, and Delaware.  

The vision of the founders was to build a philanthropic community using a model that paralleled venture capital practices. This model became known as venture philanthropy as popularized in the 1997 article “Virtuous Capital.”   Key tenets of this approach to philanthropy include long-term, highly engaged investments of money, resources and business expertise to develop the capacity and sustainability of local nonprofits (Investees).

In 2006 alone, the Social Venture Partner network of 23 affiliates, invested more than $21.6 million into 236 nonprofits.  In the same year, we added more than 250 new partners.

The San Diego Social Venture Partners chapter was organized in 2001 by local like minded philanthropists led by Darcy Bingham and Carrie Stone.  With an initial group of 15, we are now 140 partners strong and growing, dedicated to achieving long term social change.