I attended a partner’s dinner in late August of 2017, and have been involved ever since. I joined Social Venture Partners Melbourne because I was keen to meet and work with like minded philanthropists to increase my impact in the local community. I’d been donating as an effective altruists for several years, and thought it would be nice to complement this more ‘passive’ form of philanthropy with a more active version.
Throughout my time with SVPM I’ve worked with Youthworx, to help them gain a clearer picture of which of their media offerings were most financially sustainable for the organisation, and helped them to build an automated quote generator to standardise their prices and streamline the process. I have been a member of the investment committee who did a deep dive into Live4Life, who are now one of our Investees. I have supported the promotion of both Youthworx and 100 Story Building through the Education Research Reading Room podcast, and more recently I’ve been enjoying working with Kids Like Us to improve their online store to increase their financial stability. Throughout my time I’ve also enjoyed participating in discussions about the strategic direction of SVPM, how we operate, and how we can continue to build a thriving community.
I hope that my work with Youthworx helped them to better target their services to options that were of high value to both Youthworx and their customers. I also feel that the auto quote generator saved considerable time of staff manually calculating quotes and allowed the team to spend more time on their important creative work. The benefits to our investees are always wide and varied, because we target our support to the specific needs and desires of the organisations with which we work.
Although the support that I’ve seen Social Venture Partners Melbourne give investees has always been different, there is one common reaction that I’ve seen from all investees at one time or another. And that’s relief! The founders, employees, and volunteers of not-for profits work tirelessly to serve their communities, and one of the most powerful things that SVPM can do is to come in with fresh eyes and help to lighten the load for these committed change makers. Whether it be through: suggesting technology that will save time; refining systems; supporting with HR issues; helping to find additional funding; or anything else of the myriad ways that we help our investees, a collective sigh of relief is often shared, as time and space are freed up for investees to step back, reassess, regroup, and be reinvigorated.
I have learnt how hard the founders, employees, and volunteers of not for profits work. I’ve been in awe of their passion and drive, and I’ve been inspired to reach deeper, and aim higher, in order to increase my own impact. I love being part of a community of people who are all pushing in the same direction. A group of people who all believe that education is a powerful tool that can, and should, be used to empower young people to achieve their dreams in both work and life.
