Program areas at SDSVP
SDSVP ensures that nonprofits have the organizational capacity to achieve their goals.We rely on a one-of-a-kind model for volunteering that leverages the extraordinary talents of business professionals that, without SDSVP, are left on the sideline. We serve as a bridge between passionate, experienced individuals seeking purposeful experience and nonprofit organizations in need of strategic guidance and expertise. SDSVP provides customized, hands-on, pro-bono consulting to San Diego nonprofits with teams of our volunteer consultants, called Partners. We recruit, train, inspire and support teams of these talented professionals who volunteer their time to come alongside nonprofit leaders to empower nonprofits to strengthen their organizations and expand their impact on issues across our community. Anyone that has run a business knows that to be successful your team needs strong HR, effective marketing, clear-eyed strategy, careful financial planning, comprehensive technology, etc.; and nonprofits face many of the same needs as any business. However, despite the profound impact nonprofits have on our communities, they often struggle to sustainably expand and improve their services without strong organizational infrastructure. Indeed, nonprofits often struggle to invest in their own capacity, and therefore dont reach their full potential for impact.Unfortunately, in San Diego, there are few places for nonprofits to turn to for this type of capacity building support. Our organization meets this need. Our teams are comprised of top-level executives who have exceptional skills in the areas that nonprofits struggle to resource strategic planning, HR, finance and budget planning, marketing and communications, etc. We train our volunteer consultants to translate their skills, and our project management staff supports them to provide highly customized, hands-on consulting to resolve problems that are keeping our nonprofit leaders up at night. These are substantive consulting projects, typically lasting 5-7 months. On average, nonprofits would have to pay $160K for the services we provide them for free. This transfer of knowledge and skills not only strengthens the nonprofit sector but also redefines the role of professionals in our community's ongoing narrative of positive change. As a result of the profound experience of giving their skills, our consultants become activated for their community. They see themselves as agents for positive change, sometimes for the first time. As a result of SDSVP, our consultants are more likely to give financially in general, and specifically to the nonprofits we support. The results are powerful for the 35+ nonprofits we engage annually as well. The nonprofits SDSVP supported just in the last fiscal year alone serve more than 760,000 community members and since its inception, SDSVP has accelerated positive change within San Diego County by consulting to more than 125 nonprofits with results that are powerful, durable, and impactful.