SVP Joins International Network

Social Venture Partners Melbourne has been formally accepted into the Social Venture Partners International Network.

Social Venture Partners (SVP) is a partnership of philanthropically-minded individuals wanting to make a significant impact on the lives of the Australian community. So far there are ten founding partners in Melbourne led by US-based Marg Olsen from SVP in Boston.

“We are in the process of setting up officially in Melbourne and hope to bring together a vibrant committed group of engaged philanthropists to support effective Not for Profits by funding, skills transfer and capacity building,” lawyer and SVP Melbourne founding partner,” Catherina Toh said.

“We take a venture-capital-like investment approach to funding innovative Not for Profits.

“The collective application of our dollars together with volunteering our time, expertise, and network connections has a much greater impact than as individuals,” Toh said.

“SVP people believe they can have a positive and meaningful impact on our communities facing society’s toughest challenges. We provide support through financial commitments and capacity building to strengthen local Not for Profits that exist to improve peoples lives.
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“SVP ??invests Pooled Capital and Resources and partners commit $5,000 per year and then aggregate their resources, multiplying the impact of supporting local Not for Profits.”

Toh says the SVP investment committee will review and recommend Not for Profit organisations through a selection process that ensures wise investment of partners’ capital while creating learning opportunities for the partners.

She says SVP Melbourne has an ambitious target of finding investment opportunities by August/September this year and after due diligence is carried out, identify their first investment by December.
“Our aim would be to have between 20 and 30 partners by the end of the year,” she said.
Founded in Seattle in 1995, SVP has grown into a global network of 30 affiliated chapters.

To date, more than 2,600 partners participating in SVP have contributed over US$46 million in grants and countless hours of strategic volunteering to more than 550 NFP organisations around the world.

There are SVP Chapters in the USA, Canada, India and Japan.
SVP Melbourne is the first Australian Chapter.