Joining SVP Chicago as an individual partner is your chance to connect with a community of like-minded philanthropists and work alongside dynamic leaders driving change on Chicago's South and West Sides. Your financial contributions and pro-bono skills power both our community partners and our overall growth.

What You Get & How to Participate:

• Active Skill-Based Coaching: Lend your professional expertise—from strategic planning to pitch coaching—to help nonprofit executive directors build long-term capacity.

• Flexible Partner Options: We ask for a minimum annual commitment of $6,500 to SVP Chicago, a 501(c)(3) organization. If you are short on time, you can join as a Financial Partner Only, trusting fellow SVP Partners to deploy your dollars effectively on the ground.

• Peer Community & Growth: Build your philanthropic muscle alongside dedicated peers while learning trust-based giving principles directly from community experts.

Stepping into family foundation leadership brings real questions: How do we move past traditional galas and pet projects? Where can unrestricted grants actually make a transformational difference? How do we find and trust community leaders outside our existing networks?

As your trusted intermediary, SVP Chicago bridges the gap between family philanthropy and community partners. We turn traditional giving into flexible, high-impact partnership—giving you a trusted channel to deploy capital effectively, with as much or as little hands-on involvement as your foundation desires.

What You Get & How to Participate:

• Relational, High-Impact Partnerships: We don't waste time on bureaucratic hoops. Instead, we leverage deep, trusted relationships with Community Partners who point us directly to high-performing South and West Side non-profits, ensuring your funding backs proven local impact.

• Targeted Community Investment: Your grant isn't lost in a massive operating budget; it provides direct capital to help scale proven, community-based organizations.

• Direct Neighborhood Access: Step out of insular donor circles. Gain transparent line-of-sight and access to South and West Side community partners creating local change.

• Optional Time, Talent & Treasure: For family members seeking deeper involvement, step into strategic roles. Serve as a steady sounding board or executive coach while learning equity-centered grantmaking alongside peer funders.

Guiding next-generation family members or newly exited business founders takes time and specialized local infrastructure. How do you offer authentic, neighborhood-level grantmaking without adding administrative overhead or internal staff?

SVP Chicago functions as a trusted intermediary and an extension of your advising team on the ground. Whether you’re helping clients manage a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or build a strategic giving plan, we hold the deep-rooted trust, community networks, and operational framework needed to find, vet, and support hyper-local and BIPOC-led community partners.

What You Get & How to Participate:

• Zero-Overhead Infrastructure: Leverage our community-led referral pipeline, relational vetting, and Fast Pitch cohort selection instead of building a program from scratch.

• Philanthropist Development Platform: Give rising family members a hands-on environment to practice strategic giving, learn board governance, and navigate intergenerational dynamics.

• Relational Vetting: We source community partners through recommendations from trusted local leaders, adding 10 high-impact non-profits annually for multi-year support.

• Flexible Engagement: Offer clients options that fit their goals—whether they want hands-on pro bono involvement as SVP Partners or direct co-investment into our pre-vetted cohort.

In philanthropy, one size doesn't fit all. SVP Chicago intentionally focuses on smaller, community-based nonprofits making outsized impacts in their neighborhoods—yet all too often overlooked by traditional corporate funding. By sponsoring SVP Chicago, corporate partners help bridge the gap between systemic obstacles and real opportunity on Chicago's South and West Sides.

What You Get & How to Participate:

• Targeted CSR Alignment: Build a tailored sponsorship approach that fits your company’s unique philanthropic strategy while advancing measurable neighborhood equity.

• Employee Engagement: Provide your executive talent with meaningful, high-impact skills-based volunteering opportunities that directly support local nonprofit growth.

• Direct Neighborhood Impact: Ensure your corporate giving reaches hyper-local, mostly BIPOC-led initiatives that deliver authentic street-level outcomes.