New style of giving coming to Dallas via Seattle, Austin
11/28/99
By Robert Miller / The Dallas Morning News
In baseball lore, the legendary double play combination is Tinkers to Evers to Chance. In the lore of philanthropy, there's a geographic equivalent: Seattle to Austin to Dallas. The beneficiary of the double-play expertise was the Chicago Cubs, and the glory that will accrue to charitable giving in the three cities will be the Social Venture Partners. In fact, Social Venture Partners will probably expand its bases - oh, those puns - of operation to many other cities across the country. The program involves young entrepreneurs who are entering the field of philanthropy and want to apply business principles to nonprofits "in a very personal type of giving."
At a recent reception hosted by the venerable Dallas Foundation, David Lunsford, director of strategic investments for Dell Computer Corp., based in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, espoused the goals of the program. He helped create the SVP program in Austin earlier this year, when he gathered 25 or so like-minded young businessmen and women together in a 501(c)3 (nonprofit) organization in which each partner donated $5,000. Members of the Social Venture Partners of Austin decided which sector of philanthropy - education, health, human resources, etc. - to focus on, then screened a dozen or so such nonprofit agencies in the chosen fields and selected five to receive funding, Mr. Lunsford said. They were helped by the Austin Community Foundation, which relieved the partners of backroom, or housekeeping, functions and thus allowed the organization to run a virtual office while its partners "create a new form of investment 'active investment' is what I call it," said Mr. Lunsford, "where we work with community organizations by contributing specific partner skills."
"These skills can range from management and marketing expertise to financial management and technology development." Mr. Lunsford and the fellow Dell managers he recruited to join SVP are reimbursing the Austin Community Foundation out of pocket, so the recipient agencies receive 100 percent of the allotted dollars. He said the Social Ventures Partner program was first explained to him when he had breakfast with executive director Paul Shoemaker of Social Ventures Partners in Seattle, "who told of how Paul Brainerd, founder of Aldus, had netted $120 million after selling PageMaker software to Adobe in 1994 and established a foundation."
Tapping technology As a result, Mr. Brainerd started Social Venture Partners Seattle, the first nonprofit foundation dedicated to tapping into the new stream of wealth created by the technology industry and using the venture capitalist model for social purposes. Just as Mr. Brainerd had created his own foundation, so had Mr. Lunsford. Back in Austin, Mr. Lunsford said, "we purposely started small and gave our first grant before going public." Early this year, Social Venture Partners gave a total of $117,000 to five nonprofits in Austin. "We plan to have 100 partners by springtime and 200 by end of next year and are targeting $1 million a year" in grants, Mr. Lunsford said.
Mr. Lunsford says the agencies screened by Austin SVP must show they have effective financial controls in place. "If they won't measure themselves, we won't finance them." And, he said, "while we encourage partners to participate, some just contribute. There's a little bit for everyone to do. We don't have any hard- and-fast rules, no rigid requirements. "Our mission is to increase the number of people involved in solutions in the community."
Mr. Lunsford is happy that word of SVP is rapidly spreading. He has, of course, heard from Dallas, more specifically The Dallas Foundation, where executive director Mary Jalonick and Karen Rodman, associate director, shared the excitement generated by the program. Mr. Lunsford has also heard from St. Louis and Phoenix and other points about Social Venture Partners' new approach to philanthropy. Meanwhile, Ms. Jalonick set about finding a person to head the Dallas SVP. She mentioned it to Ruth Miller Fitzgibbons of the public relations/advertising firm The Richards Group. One of the firm's clients is Bob Wright, founder of a small software firm called boldDeputy Inc.
Since The Dallas Foundation uses Richards/Gravelle, a division of The Richards Group, the contact with Ms. Fitzgibbons came naturally. After Ms. Jalonick and Ms. Rodman set up a luncheon with Mr. Wright, all three agreed he was the right choice to head the local SVP. "I was pleased that they had chosen me," Mr. Wright said. "They explained the concept and backgrounded me on Seattle and Austin and asked me to look at the Web site of the two groups. I did so and got back with them. I'm a lawyer by training and may not know the right people today, but [in time] I shall, like any network.
"We had our kickoff and sent out invitations, and about 60 ... [responded] that they would attend. Forty to 50 did attend, and 10 of those said they'd like to participate. We prepared follow-up letters and we had 10 partners at our first meeting, which was pretty significant. "We're not above challenging other groups," Mr. Wright said. "We spotted Austin a seven-month lead, and we plan to catch up. There is no requirement that the partners be high tech." Up and running Mr. Wright said his group will probably be fully organized and incorporated by the end of the first quarter. He would like a two-year commitment from the partners. "The idea is not to contribute money and then walk away, but to stick around and see that money is well spent."
And, he acknowledges, "I've never done anything like this in my life, and that's why it appeals to me." He invites interested parties to call him at 214-695-3747 or The Dallas Foundation at 214-741-9898. Ms. Jalonick says her organization will provide the same services here that the Austin Community Foundation does for the Austin SVP. "We'll be the back office for them. We'll help them in any way we can. I'm excited that the younger generations are enthusiastic about philanthropy. They have skills and want to give business advice. They don't just want to write a check. "But it's their organization, it's not our organization. We'll do everything we can to make it happen, to help them be successful."
Seattle to Austin to Dallas. Now that's a combination.
Staff columnist Robert Miller writes about people and events of interest to the business community for The Dallas Morning News.
For more information contact: communications@asvp.org
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