Mid July 2008

 
Membership Update
SVCN membership campaign has begun. Please renew your membership with SVCN. We thank the 91 agencies that have renewed thus far.  For those renewing in the FY 08-09 renewal invoices will be mailed next week or you can contact Amanda Baker at office@svcn.org Thanks to all of our agencies and partners in foundations and government for responding to our client satisfaction survey. Here is what we learned

• SVCN is viewed as being very important in convening and representing the nonprofit sector
• We create value for the organizations in our membership and those that we partner with
• We are interacting, communicating and emailing with our agencies and partners  
• In our core services such as influencing the county, city  and state budget our members and partners feel that our work is critical to ensure the nonprofit voice
• Our newsletter is read by both members and our partner groups for news and information
• We are very pleased that 77% of members responding participated in SVCN ‘s lead advocacy either in attendance, meetings, calls or letters

New Executive Directors or Executive Team and New Members Meeting
If you are new to the SVCN network or want to learn more connecting with nonprofit resources in Santa Clara County join us on September 11th from 9-10:30 at 1922 The Alameda for this meeting. Joining us will be representatives from CEN, CompassPoint and Greatnonprofits. RSVP to patriciag@svcn.org  

SVCN BE OUR GUEST-Celebrity Waiter Event
Mark your calendars for October 30th for the BE OUR GUEST-Celebrity Waiter event for SVCN and the work with do with our network. We have early responses from Assemblyman Jim Beall, Supervisor Ken Yeager, Council members Cortese, Chu, Constant, Williams, City Manger Deb Figone, Public Defender Mary Greenwood, District Attorney Delores Carr, Emmett Carson, and many more to be the servers for the luncheon event at the 4th street Summit from 11:30-1pm. Tickets are $65 each or a table for $585.00. If you purchase a table early you can choose your Celebrity Server! Contact Amanda at SVCN.

Juvenile Justice Resource Fair- September 18th.
Please come join us and participate in this year’s Probation Resource Fair held on Thursday, September 20, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This event is a collaboration with the Probation Department , Juvenile Justice Partners and our wider network of Community Organizations. Agencies are welcome to reserve tables in order to provide information to probation officers about their resources. Please contact Amanda Baker at office@svcn.org for further information and to reserve a table.

Ethnic Specific Service Providers Leadership Group Information
SVCN wants to alert our members to a  report just published by the Regional Foundation Grantmakers is also available at http://ncg.org/ Embracing Diversity: Foundation Giving Benefiting California's Communities of Color.

10 California foundations announced by the end of 2008, they will develop a comprehensive set of grantmaking activities, which they expect to be overall in the multi-million dollar range and over several years, to begin in 2009 that will lead to increased funding for:

• Capacity building support and technical assistance targeted to minority-led and grassroots, community-based organizations that primarily serve minority and low-income communities in California; and
• Support for leadership development activities that will bolster and train a diverse pipeline of executives, staff and board members for the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

For more information go to http://greenlining.org/stories/view/142

The SVCN ethnic specific leadership group continues to meet to advocate and participate in impacting diversity in philanthropy and government grantmaking

News and Information
GreatNonprofits is a new website where volunteers, donors and clients can talk about great and not yet great nonprofits. Like a Yelp about nonprofits, it allows nonprofits to be discovered and gain greater visibility. http://www.greatnonprofits.org/Nonprofits can encourage their clients and volunteers to post a review.  Simply send out the URL to your clients or volunteers and ask them to post a review about you.  Go to www.greatnonprofits.org look up your current profile and reviews. SVCN has already signed up and we hope you will write review of us as well. GreatNonprofits has partnered with Guidestar so that reviews will also appear on your organization's page on your Guidestar page. For SVCN members GreatNonprofits has a limited number of Stanford interns available to come to you and help you collect the stories of your volunteers and clients.   If you want, they can come to your events and collect reviews, or take photos or videos.  Email Shari at shari.ilsen@greatnonprofits.org before July 20 to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Workshops of interest
CEN brings Bill Somerville from Philanthropic Ventures Foundation to the South Bay.
Thursday, August 7th, from 9 to 11:30 am. 
Registration, networking and continental breakfast from 9 to 9:30 am, Program begins at 9:30 am 1922 The Alameda, San José, Room 103
Cost: $35 for CEN members, $55 for non- CEN members

Bill will be talking about his “Expectations from Philanthropy” and his new book "Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker". He will also share ideas on how nonprofit leaders should approach foundations and develop partnerships with foundation staff. Registrants of this event will receive a copy of his book which is a guide to decisive, hands-on grantmaking, to energize and motivate individual donors, foundation grantmakers and nonprofit leaders alike. 
For more information or to register, visit us today at www.cen.org

This newsletter is written by Patricia Gardner Executive Director of SVCN
The newsletter is sponsored by

For information and updates you can always check our website at www.svcn.org

Executives on the Move

Victoria Emmons is the new ED for Community Health Partnership. Congrats to Design Response for winning the ASID excellence in office design for the  Role Model Program. SVCN staff member Narges Sayid will begin Golden Gate University to study law in the fall.

SVCN Systems of Influence

 Santa Clara County Budget
The Santa Clara county Board of Supervisors will be holding budget hearings in October. County Executive Pete Kutras estimates that the state budget deficit will impact the county budget with a deficit of $72 million with an additional $4 million of current year expenditures. This additional annualized budget deficit of $76 million is on top of the current $172 millions deficit that was resolved with severe reductions in June. The Board of Supervisors will have to make an additional $76 million cut that may put many general fund programs and services at risk.

Juvenile Justice

We have had series of meetings this month including the presiding judge of juvenile court and probation staff. SVCN advocated and received an appointment on the Juvenile Justice Systems Collaborative The Probation Department and the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits are excited to announce the formation of a joint committee to focus on critical issues, develop action plans and strengthen the continuum of care of probation services. Our focus will be community based residential placement options, ranch alternatives and utilizing the overall array of non-custodial community based options for youth in the juvenile justice system. SVCN juvenile justice group meets monthly normally the 2nd Tuesday of each month but  check your emails for August as we need to move that meeting date.

City of San Jose

Community Center ReUse
The City of San José seeks qualified Santa Clara County-based nonprofit agencies, neighborhood associations, school districts, and other government agencies or community service providers to use selected, older Community Center Reuse facilities at below the City’s standard fees in exchange for providing a minimum of needed free, low-cost, fee-for-service, sliding scale, or cost reimbursement community serving programs, services, and activities that primarily benefit San José residents.   Service Providers shall provide at their own costs, personal property such as furniture, fixtures and equipment and all cost associated with operating the programs at the facilities.  If you are interested contact Rudy Navarro at rudy.navarro@sanjoseca.gov and the information is posted on rfp depot.

HNVF
SVCN staff is working with the city on the new reporting requirements for this years contracts for senior services. We are also reviewing the proposed new changes to the HNVF Committee, bylaws

CDBG
SVCN has meet with City of San Jose CDBG to discuss with them the application and process for the next years funding.  There will be a meeting to discuss priorities later this summer. The biggest challenge will be there will less funding allocated next year than was awarded this year so some agencies may experience cuts from CDBG.