Social Venture Partners: How Collective Philanthropy Supports Impactful Giving.

Have you ever wondered how your individual skills and resources could make a profound difference in your community? Join me as I talk with Brad Squires, CEO of Social Venture Partners (SVP). He'll explain venture philanthropy, a model where engagement goes far beyond writing checks. In a candid conversation, Brad illustrates how SVP Sacramento harnesses the power of the 5Ts—time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties—to empower local nonprofits. We discuss innovative programs like Fast Pitch and the Accelerator, designed to enhance the strategic storytelling and growth of nonprofits, ensuring that their work doesn't just make noise but truly sings with impact.

Venture philanthropy isn't just about the allocation of funds; it's about building a community of accountable, strategic partners committed to fostering change. This episode offers a glimpse into the rigor of nonprofit management, akin to that of a thriving business, and the indelible value of collaboration between organizations. Get ready to be inspired by stories of mentorship, involvement, and the collective strength of a community united in purpose, where every individual's contribution paves the way to a more transformative future supporting nonprofit businesses.

To learn more about Social Venture Partners visit: https://www.svpsacramento.org/

CHAPTERS
(00:00) Venture Philanthropy and Social Impact

Venture philanthropy, 5Ts, and SVP's programs support Sacramento nonprofits through resources, storytelling, and growth.

(11:11) Building Capacity and Collaboration in Philanthropy

Accountability in philanthropy, nonprofit management, SVP Kids program, community collaboration, funding partners' engagement and collective giving.

(24:22) Nonprofit Collaboration for Community Impact

Mentorship and engagement in the nonprofit sector lead to powerful outcomes, with collaboration and gratitude for volunteers and organizations.

Highlight Timestamps
(02:44 - 03:40) Social Venture Partnership and Generosity
(07:56 - 08:48) Success Stories of Nonprofit Organizations
(13:07 - 15:41) Building Nonprofit Ecosystem and Relationships
(19:46 - 21:00) Nonprofit Capacity Building Programs in Sacramento

Thank you so much for listening to this nonprofit story! We appreciate you. Please visit the website to sign up for our email updates and newsletter. https://www.nonprofpod.com/ And if you like, leave me a voicemail to comment on the program, leave a question for us to ask in the future or a message for me, Jeff Holden. I may even use your voice mail message in a future episode of one of our incredible local nonprofit organizations. https://www.nonprofpod.com/voicemail. Thanks again for your support in listening, commenting and sharing the great work our local nonprofits are accomplishing.

Transcript

0:00:00 - Jeff
Brad Squires, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Thanks for having me so social venture partners the next generation of venture philanthropy. Before we get into the organization, can you explain a little bit what is venture philanthropy? 

0:00:17 - Brad
Yeah, I'd say what distinguishes venture philanthropy from just traditional philanthropy is kind of a little bit more engagement from the donor. Philanthropy is kind of a little bit more engagement from the donor where, you know, typical philanthropy is just, you know, giving money, investing resources into a nonprofit, a social cause, with venture philanthropy I think it couples more time and engagement, you know, maybe serving on a board, being a professional resource, advisor, support and also sharing connections. So it goes beyond, I think, just traditional donations. 

0:00:47 - Jeff
Yeah, just a contribution of a dollar and I'm out. 

0:00:49 - Brad
Yeah, which is great too, yes, but if you can get engaged in your philanthropy, I think it's really meaningful. 

0:00:59 - Jeff
I agree. I think the individual that gets engaged tends to have a better understanding of whatever it is they're interested in supporting yeah, absolutely. You know, with that understanding, walk us through a higher level overview of social venture partners, if you would. 

0:01:12 - Brad
Yeah. So we say we're a venture approach to philanthropy, so social venture partners Sacramento. So we're one of many affiliates all over the country. We're the Sacramento affiliate and so we're looking at Sacramento-based nonprofits and how can we build capacity, how can we help connect them to donors and connections that will help them advance their mission? So we bring together a network of generosity. We call it a network of those that want to do good and give time and money. We call them partners and they're part of our group called Social Venture Partners, and then we collectively invest in a variety of nonprofits each year. 

0:01:47 - Jeff
And you mentioned time and money. I know you've got this 5T thing time, talent, treasure. Yeah, there's two others I'm missing Testimony and ties, yeah. 

0:01:56 - Brad
So we talk about what does it mean to be a social venture partner? We kind of define that by just living generously with 5Ts. And we talk about the time, talent treasure, testimony and ties. And so we've all heard time talent treasure, which is engaging, just being present and listening to and hearing and understanding nonprofits, but also, of course, engaging professionally with skills, skills-based volunteering. A lot of times we think about volunteering and it's maybe sorting cans at the food bank or pushing a broom or doing something that's more manual labor. But I think if you can leverage your skills and invest that via your talents, that's really meaningful. And then, of course, treasures is your finances. All nonprofits need money and funding to kind of make things work. Kind of added to that the testimony and Ty's testimony being you know, when I hear a great story or a great impact that an organization is making, I want to make sure I'm telling people in my circles about that and spreading the good word. So it's just really kind of being an advocate for good causes and great organizations. 

And then one of my favorites, and probably the most meaningful potentially, is Ty's like the idea of how can I share my network and my connections and the people that are in my circle? How can I share that with a nonprofit that may need to know certain people? So just being generous with all those is what it means to be a social venture partner. 

0:03:15 - Jeff
And the ties is an expectation of most board members. Anyhow, that nobody's codified it that way and put it into the T's, which I really like. 

0:03:23 - Brad
Yeah, it just creates a nice little acronym, just to help explain what it is. 

0:03:26 - Jeff
Seek sequence of alliteration. Right yeah, exactly Five T's. 

0:03:30 - Brad
Helps you remember what they are. 

0:03:31 - Jeff
My wife's name is Teresa and we call her T Okay. So I've got lots of T's in my house right and she is one T and that is all there is in the household, is that? 

0:03:39 - Brad
one T, that's great. 

0:03:41 - Jeff
You know you're a very multifaceted operation organization and you facilitate a lot for a lot of different organizations as well, so you feed nonprofits. Tell us about that direct connection you have to the nonprofit organizations because you have two resources. You have the partners, which we'll talk about in a minute, but then you have the recipients, which are the nonprofits. How does that connection work? 

0:04:12 - Brad
I like to think of all of them as partners. One is maybe a fund partner and the other being a nonprofit partner, but we're all partnering together for good and trying to do good in the region. So we work with a variety of nonprofits, mostly through, initially, our Fast Pitch program. So we have a program that is helping nonprofits tell their story. It's a four-month program and we'll talk more, I'm sure, about that specifically, but that's kind of our on-ramp for nonprofits and once they go through that program then they're sort of part of the SVP family. We do other things throughout the year to engage our partners with their work family. 

0:04:45 - Jeff
We do other things throughout the year to engage our partners with their work. What are some of the ways funding from SVP gets into the hands of the nonprofits? Yeah, I'm sure there's the direct source, but that's not the only way, is it? 

0:04:56 - Brad
No, I mean it's the programs we have when we talk about some of our programs, fast Pitch being kind of our main and bigger program, and that's again helping nonprofits tell their story. It's a four-month program where nonprofits work with two partners and really work on a three-minute concise, compelling pitch to tell the story about what they do. And then there's an event at the end, the Fast Pitch Showcase, where we've got a whole pool of awards and grants and opportunities for them to build funding that way. But we're also doing an accelerator program which is each year selecting one organization that we can really go big behind and really rally our whole network and some funding behind to help propel them in their impact, trying to take some specific metrics and advance them forward. 

0:05:44 - Jeff
How do you identify the person or the organization that's going to be the recipient of the Accelerator program? 

0:05:50 - Brad
We have an application process and a lot of it's just relationship. It's trust-based and we talk a lot about trust-based philanthropy and the idea of just being again kind of along the lines of the five Ts. Just being in relationship and conversation with leaders of these organizations helps to understand why they do what they do, the mechanics of their business and how can we best support them. So it really starts with just building that relationship. 

0:06:17 - Jeff
Does the accelerator recipient have to be somebody that's gone through the fast pitch program the way we? 

0:06:23 - Brad
kind of design it is. All of our programs start with Fast Pitch and then other things come out of that and that's kind of the start of the relationship. 

0:06:30 - Jeff
Sort of the incubator, of sorts. 

0:06:31 - Brad
Yeah, and for us it's a way to really build. I mean, through that four-month process we build a deep connection and we really dive into why they do what they do, how they do it and, again, help them tell their story. So, it's a great foundational program. 

0:06:44 - Jeff
And I've seen examples of that on the website from Fast Pitch. Yeah, is that held at ARCO, or, I'm sorry, we do the Golden One At the Sophia. So this will be our 10th. 

0:06:56 - Brad
So there have been a variety of venues over the years, but the Sophia is where we have the event, and so last year we did it. We sold it out. It was an amazing experience. We had 15 nonprofits go through the program, we had eight on stage at the showcase and it ended up being a great night of celebrating the work that they put in. 

0:07:14 - Jeff
And eight made it to the finalists. Right, how many do you get in origination? How many? 

0:07:19 - Brad
Fifteen? Okay, yeah, we start with 15. So we have an application process which is coming up in May. It'll be open through June. We'll have an application coming out. 

0:07:27 - Jeff
Is that the normal time? So every May, every June. Okay, so we don't date the episode. It's every May, every June, every May, june. 

0:07:35 - Brad
And then our partners get a chance to review all the applications in July, which gives them an opportunity to learn about all these organizations and pick our 15, the class of the year, and then from there we go through some coaching in the fall and in November we have a big showcase event for Fast Pitch. 

0:07:52 - Jeff
How many applications do you get in total? 

0:07:55 - Brad
Last year we had over 40. 

0:07:56 - Jeff
Wonderful. 

0:07:57 - Brad
Yeah, so a lot of interest in the program and it's interesting, we just recently did a Fast Pitch. Where Are they Now? Video recording with KJ2 Productions? And they did an amazing job for us, recording five interviews of organizations that have been through the program and just to hear the success stories and the impact beyond just the event itself. You know they're still using their pitch years and years beyond the process they went through. 

0:08:24 - Jeff
Yeah, well, based on what I saw, it was a quick little Shark Tank presentation. Yeah, you know, for people to really understand what that is in a very condensed way, right. 

0:08:34 - Brad
Yeah, it's kind of like a Shark Tank TED Talk for nonprofits. Abbreviated yeah, abbreviated, but really it's all about developing those connections and capacity, and for the partners, it's all about them finding ways to invest their 5Ts into these organizations in some way. 

0:08:49 - Jeff
So I'm an organization that gets some sort of reciprocity from FastPitch. How am I held accountable? How do you know I did what I'm supposed to do? Or what are the criteria once you get an award? 

0:09:04 - Brad
So it really, like you said, it boils down to relationship. You know it's a. We keep in touch with all these organizations on a regular basis. So the funding that they receive from fast pitch usually it's it's not life changing, game changing type funding in that setting. But the whole idea is, now that they have that pitch defined, can they then use that in future opportunities with donors, with volunteers, with larger groups, if they go to a Rotary Club and they can just kind of share a three-minute concise, compelling explanation of what they do, why they do it. It helps move people to action. So it's really that follow-on funding where the big value comes into play. But as far as accountability for us, we just kind of keep in touch with them and have a relationship on a regular basis. 

0:09:47 - Jeff
You know, what I really like about this is that that organization makes the commitment. You said it's over four months right. So they've got a four-month commitment to really polishing and refining that presentation so that they can be more professional, tell a better story in a shorter period of time to different people. That parlays really nicely with what we do, because we give them the expanded version of it, right? 

yes, and I think I'll have to watch a little bit closer where we're overlapping. And in some cases those organizations that take the time and the commitment to go through fast pitch, whether they win or not, are certainly a little bit more dedicated, a little bit more committed, a little bit more willing to do the work than some others, and we know that they'll take those stories and perpetuate them the way we want them to. 

0:10:34 - Brad
Right, yeah, no, it's great. I was at a big day of giving networking event a few weeks ago and Elaine from the Folsom-Kodorma Community Partnership she walked in and she had a big smile on her face. She saw me and she sought me out. She's like hey, I used my pitch this morning and I got a $5,000 donation. 

0:10:50 - Jeff
Awesome. 

0:10:51 - Brad
And I was standing there with Tara Taylor from Single Mom Strong, who went through Fast Pitch a couple of years ago, and she's like, yeah, I use my pitch all the time. She said I'm at least in the $70,000, $80,000 range in in terms of how much value I've produced from just that one pitch. 

0:11:05 - Jeff
Aren't those great stories to hear. 

0:11:06 - Brad
Amazing. 

0:11:06 - Jeff
Yeah, that means it actually worked. It's tangible and it worked. So, on that accountability, what are some of the things that you look for in their follow-up after they get their gift award? 

0:11:18 - Brad
Yeah, like I said, it's just we don't dig into specific financial things or anything like that we do on the front end we'll make sure that the organization's well run, that they have a budget, that their you know leadership is intact, they have a board, you know, they've got a defined marketing plan, mission statement, just some of the basics of a business. Yes, that's on the front end of Fast Pitch. Beyond that, like I said, it's really more about trust and we don't we don't require audits or anything like that beyond just the initial process. 

0:11:46 - Jeff
Well, I like the fact that you said a business. 

0:11:49 - Brad
Yep Nonprofits are a business, exactly right. 

0:11:51 - Jeff
So many people forget this is a business. The fact that it's got a different tax status is no different than the fact that somebody else is running a business and a different revenue model, of course. 

0:12:01 - Brad
But I mean you've got to run a nonprofit like a business with all the same principles. 

0:12:06 - Jeff
Totally, totally agreed. Speaking of nonprofits and perceptions, a lot of our youth don't really get it, but you've got a youth program. 

0:12:18 - Brad
Yeah. 

0:12:18 - Jeff
That I found really, really interesting. 

0:12:20 - Brad
Can you? 

0:12:21 - Jeff
tell us a little bit about that. 

0:12:22 - Brad
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Our SVP Kids program has really ramped up the last few years. We've got 10 or 15 kids that are involved and they are doing the same thing that the big partners are doing. The adult partners are doing right. They're raising money, they're doing volunteer service. So they're also engaging with our Fast Pitch alumni as part of our nonprofit partners. So they're trying to do something every month. 

0:12:46 - Jeff
Is there an age range on that? 

0:12:49 - Brad
Yeah, most of the SVP kids are in high school. 

0:12:51 - Jeff
Okay. 

0:12:52 - Brad
So I think that's the main focus, okay. 

0:12:56 - Jeff
When somebody's engaged with the organization and by somebody I mean the nonprofit partner, not the funding partner. It's not just fast pitch and it's not just going for money. You do a variety of other things that support nonprofits. What are some of those activities? 

0:13:14 - Brad
Well I like to think about. We're a part of the nonprofit ecosystem and we're helping to bridge gaps, build relationships, and even building relationships between partners is valuable. So we do once a quarter we'll get our partners together for dinner and we'll bring in some of our nonprofit partners to share about what's happening. But that's partly social, but it's also about sharing best practices, ideas, with other generous folks in the community that want to do good and do better but just maybe aren't exposed to all the things going on. So I feel like we're a bit of an ecosystem builder in that sense. 

0:13:50 - Jeff
And you're connected. This is the part that I like about organizations like yourself. The collaborative effort is in so many different spaces. So you collaborate with other multi-nonprofit organizations not unlike the Impact Foundry or the Community Foundation but you're also seeking to connect the nonprofits themselves. Sure, it's amazing In a continuum, it never stops. You come across a food situation well, I've got another organization that's food-related or you come across a homeless and or a families and youth, whatever they may be. You can connect those dots. 

0:14:29 - Brad
I love it. It's amazing, even just among our class last year with Fast Pitch, they made such great connections and they started doing some collaborative things together. 

0:14:38 - Jeff
On their own. On their own. 

0:14:39 - Brad
Love it. But just because they had this platform, this opportunity, kind of a shared experience that they can then build from. But there's so much potential for collaborative opportunities for nonprofits working together. A lot of times they're working with the same populations, you know, same end users, and maybe providing just complementary or different services, and so to be able to share resources, ideas, best practices is just so rich, and that's another way to do capacity building by helping them become more operationally efficient. 

0:15:08 - Jeff
I know we see the same thing with organizations, and let's say they're in Placer County or Sacramento County, whatever it may be, and I always ask well, are you familiar with Right? 

0:15:16 - Brad
It's amazing how many times they aren't, I know. 

0:15:18 - Jeff
They don't know. It's like, well, you will now, because we're going to connect you to. 

0:15:22 - Brad
Right that exposure is so critical. 

0:15:24 - Jeff
Isn't it? 

0:15:25 - Brad
And so we're trying to create more platforms like that, like just doing, because we do a Coffee Connect mixer once a quarter and we usually have 25 to 30 nonprofits just come together and we invite our partners and it's just a real simple connection point. But just the relationships that are built in that setting is really, really meaningful. 

0:15:43 - Jeff
Let's shift from the nonprofit side of things to the actual funding partner side. How does one become involved as one of the funding partners? 

0:15:53 - Brad
So we have at this point we have about 55 partners that have each decided to contribute to our annual impact fund. So that's kind of how we think about it. It's kind of like a venture approach to philanthropy. So there are investors, funders, if you will, so we're pooling their resources into a fund and then deploying those into the community, and so that's kind of a collective giving strategy here. So partners are giving. You know, we say, just give a meaningful gift. It's a minimum $2,000 a year. But we have partners that are giving $5,000, $10,000, just whatever is meaningful to them. The whole idea is it's not an arm twist, it's like we're here to be generous and so just make a donation that feels generous to you, and all of those funds then get invested into the ecosystem. 

0:16:37 - Jeff
From the partner side of things. Getting back on the funding side, what are the expectations besides your money, because I know you want more than your money's? 

0:16:47 - Brad
nice, but Sure, there's a concept of a silent partner, which is somebody that just wants to be generous, likes the mission, likes the idea of the leverage they're getting on their gift right If you're giving $2,000, that turns into $100,000 collectively invested. 

That's sort of meaningful to give together. But you know we love our partners to get engaged. We do site tours so we'll pick a nonprofit partner and we'll just do a visit and learn about them firsthand. That's kind of one of those five Ts the time right, just spending the time to learn about. So there's not a lot of expectation, there's no requirement, but like anything, we encourage and want to have them involved. We try to do one thing a month for our partners. 

0:17:24 - Jeff
I was just going to ask how often is there something that? 

0:17:26 - Brad
Whether it's a dinner, whether it's a networking event, we do these things called think tankathons, which is kind of cool. It's a one night strategic advisory board where we get 20 to 25 of our partners to nonprofits presenting a big problem or big opportunity and we just come together and try to help where we can. Again, whether it's advice and thoughts and questions, or hey, I know this person that you should connect with and we make some connections right there, real time. It's really powerful. 

0:17:53 - Jeff
I was going to say that to have 25 or 20, even 15, is really significant because even if you're at the SBA and you're asking questions for the SBA mentor program. It's one or two people. 

0:18:03 - Brad
Sure. But to get that intellectual equity of that many people is huge, yeah, and it's meaningful for the partners to have a chance to really engage their skill sets. Whether they're finance or marketing or HR, whatever their kind of focus is, they can bring that lens to whatever problem we're trying to solve. 

0:18:22 - Jeff
I can just see the poor nonprofit walking away with their hands spinning like how much of this do I have to do? Do I really have to do all of that? 

0:18:29 - Brad
Yeah, lots of ideas. 

0:18:31 - Jeff
Right. 

0:18:31 - Brad
Yeah, so that's one of our programs that we really really enjoy. Yeah, I like that. 

0:18:36 - Jeff
You have a lot of similarity in operation and style to a community foundation whichever it may be, El. Dorado Hills or Sacramento. What are the real differences if you kind of separate yourself out? 

0:18:52 - Brad
Yeah, well, I think community foundations operate more like a bank, where they're housing funding, right, but we're all about building capacity. I think there's a lot of similarities in that sense. But we're trying to do more in the programmatic sense maybe, than just the funding. So we have a lot more engagement with our partners to have opportunity to be with nonprofits. The thing is there's thousands of nonprofits in Sacramento, so there's so much room, 13,000 to be exact Right. 

There's so much room for capacity building efforts, where it's engaging whether it's funding or time or money or whatever the resources are engaging that for the purpose of growing impact. So I think there's a lot of room for all these things to exist. 

0:19:35 - Jeff
I would agree with that many and, of course, maybe cut it in half. 

0:19:39 - Brad
It's still 6,000, 7,000, 6,500. 

0:19:41 - Jeff
It's a lot of nonprofits, yeah exactly. I think second only to Washington DC. And per capita. Right, you know nonprofits, and there's some great programs like community foundations. 

0:19:49 - Brad
I know they have their own programs which are great, like the Big Day of Giving. 

0:19:53 - Jeff
Right. 

0:19:53 - Brad
At one point they had a program called the Lab, which was a really good training program. There's other things in the region like Impact 100. Amazing what they're doing. Amazing what they're doing. 

0:20:02 - Jeff
Evelyn Johnson's doing a great job. 

0:20:03 - Brad
A similar collective giving effort. There's a program called Barnabas Group that I'm also part of is similar, but you know again, each one of them are working with, you know, a handful of organizations to really grow their capacity and you've got thousands. 

0:20:16 - Jeff
Well, and then we see things too that are specializing, in particular linear segments, like foster youth. 

0:20:21 - Brad
the Alliance, the Alliance. Amazing, when it just stays in a vertical that is specific to its purpose. 

0:20:27 - Jeff
So it is. It's great to see that we have that in Sacramento, and I would guess that maybe that's a little unique to our community. 

0:20:33 - Brad
It may be Like I think you know it's really difficult actually to fundraise for these capacity building programs like the Alliance and some of these like SVP and Impact 100. They're sort of meta in nature, they're just building support for nonprofits. They're not perhaps meeting the direct need right. They're not the food bank or the women's shelter or whatever that might be, and so to be able to create more of these is really meaningful, because they do grow the overall capacity of our region. 

0:21:01 - Jeff
If you had a greatest need for social venture partners at this point in time, we've got a captive audience. People are listening, they're engaging with the conversation. What would the ask be? What would you say is your greatest need to fuel and continue? To do what you do. 

0:21:22 - Brad
It's like anything, it's people power, you know. It's just there's a lot of folks that have a lot to offer, you know. I think our target is someone who's you know, perhaps like near retirement, retired that's the ideal SVP candidate that's got, you know, some money to give and also time where they can invest that time and really come alongside some of these programs like running our think tank-a-thons or being a fast pitch coach really a great opportunity to engage. So people power, like anything, is always the key. So new partners would be great, trying to ramp that up, and then partners that want to be engaged with their time. 

0:21:58 - Jeff
Yeah, I like that because it's not just oh, we need more money. Money isn't the essence of it all in this particular situation. 

0:22:06 - Brad
Yeah, and it's rich and meaningful To be able to come alongside an organization that's doing good work and making the world better, and to be able to use my skill set and my networks and my talents for good is just I mean, that's what life's about. 

0:22:21 - Jeff
That changes the perspective too. I think a lot of people get into a situation where, whether they're a board member or they're on an you know, involved in a community, organization it's like, oh, I got to go raise money. But when you think about what you're doing and just connecting, if the story's told appropriately or properly, it really is. It's just about helping others in a situation and you find like-minded people. 

0:22:45 - Brad
it's easy to get their involvement and it's a joy to give. I mean I think it's almost giving people an opportunity to experience the joy of giving right. I love being generous. 

0:22:55 - Jeff
I love. 

0:22:56 - Brad
Being able to give, whether it's money, is great, but to be able to give my time, advice, network, all the things is just rich. So I just encourage anybody who's sitting on the sideline in that sense. Find a way to give somewhere and you know, ultimately you're making the world better. 

0:23:11 - Jeff
Well and to the point of giving you know grateful gratitude it's a visceral experience. It's great you know you change a neural pathway every time you do something good. Right. So the more good, the more good, the better we all are for it. 

0:23:26 - Brad
Yeah, I'm a. I'm a fan of that sentiment, you know you you aligned a couple of stories. 

0:23:30 - Jeff
Is there anybody that you saw in the process over the last couple of years? Maybe they came into you know, fast pitch or something. Maybe they were a train wreck coming in and here they they are today and you're so proud of what they've done and what they've accomplished and what they look like without. I want to be careful to respect whomever the organization is, but where you can comfortably share something. 

0:23:51 - Brad
Totally. I have a couple of those, but one I know. I was backstage at Fast Pitch for our showcase and it's a fairly high-intensity environment, right. You're having to go on stage, big lay of lights and cameras and lots of people in the audience, and one of the guys that was participating last year he's backstage. It's like literally his palms are sweating. He's like I'm like are you okay? Everything good. 

He went out and just nailed it, you know, and I just saw the confidence that that built in him as just some personal growth even right. So that was cool. And then the other thing that was fun is watching our, from my vantage point, just getting to orchestrate this program and watching the connections happen, like watching some of our coaches. Like I know one of them, andy Beal. He's one of our coaches and he's a recently retired tech guy and he was coaching Opening Doors and just fell in love with their organization and he has now since joined their board and he's helping to organize some of their capital campaigns and really engaging beyond just the coaching experience. So that happened because that platform, the relationship, formed and he just found a new passion. 

0:24:56 - Jeff
That's a great experience and that's the kind of guy you love to have on your board. 

0:24:59 - Brad
He's a great experience and that's the kind of guy you love to have on your board. 

0:25:01 - Jeff
He's a great guy. You have somebody like that who's coaching you through and sees all the opportunity and then engages with the organization's mission. What a nice slide in. 

0:25:10 - Brad
No, it's amazing, I mean, for me, what I get to experience. I get to hang out with the most generous people in the community, because they're naturally drawn to this mission that we're on, and so it's just really rewarding to be able to, you know, kind of hang out with people that want to make the world better. 

0:25:26 - Jeff
Well, brad, thank you for what you're doing with you know with the programs, with our nonprofits, by engaging additional funders who are exposed to things that maybe they wouldn't have been exposed to before. You know the way the organization operates in its collaboration. It's a big word, I know it's overused in the nonprofit space, so so often Overused, underutilized. 

0:25:46 - Brad
I was just going to say but not exercised properly. 

0:25:50 - Jeff
And the new one is impact. 

0:25:51 - Brad
Totally. 

0:25:52 - Jeff
But the expected output of that collaboration is impact and it's something that we can gauge and measure and see. But Social Venture Partners is contributing to that and along with those other collaborative groups that exist in the community, I think the more the better, because we have plenty of nonprofits that can use the support. So thank you for what you're doing. We appreciate it and I appreciate you being on the program today. 

0:26:16 - Brad
Thanks for having me. I love what you're doing here. Keep it up. 

0:26:19 - Jeff
Thanks, Brad. Oh, I am Thank you.