What We Do
Leadership Development
Capacity Building
Volunteer Expertise
Leadership Development
SVPSA provides workshops, online resources and an annual Fellowship to nonprofit boards, executive leaders and staff.
Our largest program is our annual Fellowship, offered to up to 18 nonprofit leaders desiring to broaden their skillsets. Each September, a new class is selected and provide six days of intense workshops on nonprofit essentials including leadership, financial management, HR, fundraising, and marketing and communications. They are introduced to the SVP network and provided one on one consulting support from our partners.
Capacity Building
We help nonprofits develop core skills, in leadership, strategy, board management, and operations so they can strengthen their effectiveness, sustainability and ability to fulfill their mission.
Volunteer Expertise
Our model of giving back includes sharing expertise. Our volunteering isn't just as board members - it means providing one on one help to nonprofits in the area our partners have worked. It might be financial management, human resources, as executive leaders, marketing and PR specialists, grant writers, attorneys, professors, and so on.
In 2020 when the pandemic hit, we discovered an online volunteer tool that fit our volunteer style. SVPSA raised funding to sponsor more than 100 nonprofit through a skilled volunteer tool called Catchafire. This meant that nonprofits across San Antonio could engage with professionals around the world with this virtual portal to find highly skilled professionals who wanted to work with them at no cost.
The nonprofits find that they are saving thousands of dollars a year in their budget because they can outsource marketing, web design, writing, coaching, HR consulting with this valuable resource. Click here to see how the SVPSA Catchafire portal works.
Our Approach
Offer Resources. Social Venture Partners San Antonio builds organizational capacity by providing general operating funds, skilled volunteers, professional consultants, and leadership development/management training opportunities.
Listen. We recognize that nonprofit practitioners are the program experts, and we aim to complement that expertise by working in partnership with those organizations. Therefore, the first step is listening to what they need.
Provide Tools. Our Investees use assessment tools that best suit them as the first step in mapping out a plan. These assessments help the investee identify and prioritize the capacity building areas where they want to focus their efforts. Then SVPSA provides a Lead Partner to work with that nonprofit to develop a strategy and plan for growing their capacity based on their capabilities, at their pace. We are able to provide skilled professional help in many areas, including:
Mission, Vision, Strategy and Planning
Board Leadership and Governance
Leadership Development
Financial Management
Information Technology
Marketing and Communications
Program Outcomes and Evaluation
Human Resources
Legal Affairs
Fund Development
Government Relations