A New Kind of Giving
Social Venture Partners Arizona gathers together successful professionals to leverage time, expertise and resources to make a strategic investment in the local community. Building a dynamic connection between entrepreneurial energy and grassroots innovation, SVP Arizona links professionals with nonprofit organizations to make a hands-on difference.

The concept of Social Venture Partners was the inspiration of former Aldus Corporation President Paul Brainerd in Seattle. Brought to Arizona in 1999 by Jerry Hirsch, a local philanthropist, SVP Arizona got off the ground with 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, where Partners invest in innovative nonprofits, and then actively nurture their financial investments with guidance and resources. SVP Arizona gives professionals a way to engage in a new style of philanthropy that allows Partners to take an active role, as their schedules permit, in the recipients of their financial commitment.

Each Partner commits to a minimum tax deductible commitment of $5,500 annually for two years. Partners join an exciting network of professionals who decide together how to leverage their pool of expertise and money to support collaborative solutions to social challenges.

Our growing partnership now has over 115 Partners (over 160 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 areas.

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 5 years, SVPAZ has applied our investment model to over a dozen investment and review cycles, replicated the model to a teen philanthropy program, and has granted over $2 Million in funding to Maricopa County nonprofits.  To learn more about how our investments are improving the community see our investments page.