SV2

SV2 is a partnership for giving in which donors (called "Partners") pool annual contributions of $6,000+ and work together to learn about strategic grantmaking and select nonprofits to receive both their pooled grant funds as well as pro bono advising from SV2 Partners. SV2's grants are multi-year (typically $120,000/3 years) and focus on nonprofit capacity building for San Francisco Bay Area organizations that are small but want to scale their reach and impact. This concept of giving not only grant dollars, but also leveraging the intellectual, human and network capital to support Grantees is known as "venture philanthropy." Thus with this model, SV2 aims to build both the "philanthropic capacity" of donors as well as the organizational capacity of grantees. In SV2's 2013 survey of donors (internally conducted perception report), they reported: 84% are more confident in their ability to practice effective philanthropy, 74% are more confident in their ability to engage with nonprofits, 75% believe their giving is more strategic than before they joined SV2, 72% say they donate more now because of involvement in SV2, and 93% of Partners report being satisfied (or very satisfied) with their SV2 experience. In SV2's 2013 survey of grantees (internally conducted perception report), they reported: 100% received helpful advice and 85.7% acted on advice-received, and half of respondents used their grant funds to hire an additional staff member or scale their work to a new population or geography.