Our Story

Oregon’s Legacy: A Brief History

Oregon is a jewel of the West Coast, but let's be honest: it has its blemishes.

Today, Oregon is often perceived as being quirky and progressive, but it has a history of exclusion. When it joined the union in 1859, it was then the only state with laws specifically prohibiting certain races from legally living, working, or owning property within its borders. Oregon’s subsequent history includes white nationalism and violence against minority groups.

Dramatic racial inequities that stem from this history have created barriers to opportunity for communities of color. As a stark example, far too many children still don’t have access to quality early learning, leaving many to fail because of the color of their skin or zip code where they were born. 

We at SVP Portland know that there are enough resources, talent, and goodwill to disrupt these systems. Together, we can transform philanthropy and help achieve better outcomes for our communities. 

With such transformation, our brightest days are still ahead and our region can continue to shine.

Our Current Strategic Focus: Access to Early Learning

In 2013, we began thorough, multi-year research to educate ourselves on where we could make the biggest difference in Portland. We learned that addressing inequities in preschool education is critical for creating a prosperous future for all Portlandians.

Approximately 14,000 children in Multnomah County do not have access to quality pre-K education. These kids predominantly come from communities of color, communities of immigrants, and communities in poverty—the very communities that face the greatest number of barriers, and, left to social trends, would be the ones our systems fail.

Since setting our sights on this goal, and through meaningful partnerships, we have:

  • Philanthropy doesn’t often commit long-term, practice-shared decision-making, or help organizations go beyond direct service to advocate for public policy and funding. But, that’s exactly what we’ve done throughout the pursuit of our preschool readiness goal. SVP Portland helped build relationships between key stakeholders and collaborated with cross-sector allies to design the Multnomah County Preschool for All framework and drive the campaign.

    When the measure passed in 2020, it was a victory for the children and families, and for grassroots policymaking and parent accountability. During the process, we developed deeper and broader trust, as well as relationships that will serve us well in the next stage of Preschool for All, in Washington County and beyond.

  • What SVP’s capacity building looks like in practice is illustrated through our work with the Latino Network, which has grown tenfold in both its budget and number of children served during our partnership.

    We began our work together in 2013, helping to strengthen the organization’s capacity in the areas of human resources and management infrastructure, strategic and operational planning, and program evaluation — all foundational work to scale its early childhood program, Juntos Aprendemos. Nine years later, Latino Network has replicated Juntos across Oregon. And now they are building their first early childhood center!

  • We are proud seed investors in and long-time champions of the Early Childhood Equity Collaborative, a group of nonprofits that build awareness of the need for culturally-specific services and mobilize coordinated advocacy for communities of color. Collaborative advocacy efforts by communities of color can result in significant shifts toward greater equity in policy and access to resources. The Collaborative formed in 2018 to engage voices who were not being heard in critical discussions about funding and policies related to their families.

    In 2019, SVP stepped up to serve as fiscal coordinator, lead fundraiser, and capacity builder for the effort. Since children of color are a priority population for SVP, this engagement aligned with our commitment to advancing racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. That same year, Oregon’s legislature passed the Early Childhood Equity Fund as part of the Student Success Act, providing 20 million in funding for culturally-specific early learning, early childhood, and parent support programs over the biennium.

Addressing Systemic Racism and Inequity Head-On

The more we dove into how we could make the biggest difference, the more we discovered that we could not do so if we didn't directly address systemic racism and inequity. 

Since then, we have committed to being an organization that champions social justice, anti-racism, and multiculturalism. We recognize that the long arc for change demands humility, deep partnership, along with the urgency to learn and act.

As a catalyst for positive change, SVP embraces these challenges. We accept that this may require a reckoning with our personal past and beliefs. Only through mitigating our ignorance and biases, and actively working to dismantle the racism embedded in current systems, can we contribute to achieving more equitable outcomes and avoid being complicit in perpetuating existing problems. We will persistently pursue equity and social justice as we work to transform philanthropy on the journey to our goal.

Our Approach

SVP Portland acts as a talent steward, resource investor, and capacity-builder for nonprofit organizations and collaborations that are advancing the goal of equitable access to preschool. 

By 'resources,' we don't just mean money, though that is a part of what we do. We include the talent of our partners, connections to the community, organization-building experience, and our unique ability to pull together cross-sector players to advance our community's goals. When SVP partners with other nonprofits, we are responsive and collaborative, building and nurturing trusting relationships.

In our model, everyone has something to offer. But also inherent in our model is listening to our community partners to ensure that we’re addressing their needs in a way that best serves them.

If you believe that Portland’s brightest days are yet to come and that we all have some work to do to create that future:

“SVP helped us to codify our model, imagine scaling scenarios, establish our non-negotiables, write a business plan, build a financial model for scaling, develop and conduct a feasibility study and report the findings, develop legal agreements, provide project management, wrangle graduate students, review literature, conduct policy and benchmarking analysis, advocate for funding, and gave generously of their time, their expertise, and their hearts.”

-Sadie Feibel, Deputy Director of Programs at Latino Network