A New Kind of Giving
Social Venture Partners Arizona gathers successful professionals to leverage time, expertise and resources to make strategic investments in the local community. SVP Arizona builds a dynamic connection between entrepreneurial energy and grassroots innovation, and links professionals with nonprofit organizations to make a hands-on difference.
Social Venture Partners was the inspiration of Paul Brainerd, former Aldus Corporation President, in Seattle, Washington. Jerry Hirsch, a local philanthropist, brought SVP to Arizona in 1999 with the help of additional founding members from the real estate and financial industries, service providers and Valley entrepreneurs.
Connecting Business with Community
The vision of the founders was to build a philanthropic community using a venture capital model. Partners invest in innovative nonprofits, and then actively nurture their financial investments with guidance and resources. SVP Arizona provides professionals with a way to engage in a new style of philanthropy, enabling Partners to take an active role in the investment of their financial contributions.
Each Partner makes a minimum tax-deductible commitment of $5,500 each year, for two years. Partners gather together to leverage their time, expertise and resources to create sustainable nonprofits.
Our partnership has grown to over 100 individual Partners (more than 130 including active spouses & significant others) with backgrounds in law, technology, marketing, real estate, management, travel, finance, strategic planning, software development, project management, design, and other fields.
Strategic Investments in Children’s Issues & Education
The Partners of SVP Arizona focus their investments in two areas of great need in our community: children and education. Over the course of the past 10 years, SVP Arizona has applied our investment model to more than a dozen investment and review cycles and granted over $3 million in funding to Maricopa County nonprofits. In addition, the organization has replicated the model to a teen philanthropy program that encourages teens to build a lifelong commitment to philanthropy. To learn more about how our investments are improving the community visit our investments page.
