Our move into new office space in the Sydney CBD and Melbourne’s Southbank was a very symbolic moment for us. It reflects SVA’s maturing into our own space after having been nurtured through the first six years by our founding partners. This increasing maturity was also signified in a substantial review and update of our Constitution and Members’ Charter that reflects and respects our roots while providing a solid platform for expansion. SVA is growing up – but still thinking ahead.

Part of our growth has been the development of an organisational structure that better supports what we do and our dual mission of:
  Improving the knowledge of non-profit sector participants and sharing best practices
  Ensuring that the most innovative, effective ideas and social entrepreneurs flourish.

This structure is grounded in sound infrastructure systems we’ve worked hard to build over the past year and complemented by several external advisory groups.

We extended our professional services offerings to the non-profit sector with the successful launch of SVA Consulting, led by Duncan Peppercorn. SVA Consulting provides highly rated support to SVA venture partners and a broad and growing spread of external clients, utilising the team’s unique expertise and SVA performance reporting tools.

Like all non-profit organisations we stand or fall by the depth and sustainability of our funding base. Despite the challenges of deteriorating financial markets, our corporate and individual funders continue to be both generous and strategic in their support. Our funding support grew from $6.15 million in 2006–2007 to $8.09 million in 2007–2008, which reflects the outstanding work of our funding team (known as Social Investment) headed by Lisa Cotton.

To better support our ongoing fundraising efforts, we have established several special purpose groups including:
  A National Leadership Council comprising thought-leaders and SVA’s most generous funders
  Our Angel Investor Network of pioneering women investors who pool their financial and strategic resources for greater impact
  The Indigenous Investor Circle for leveraging social investment in our Indigenous community building focus area.

Securing a sustainable funding platform for our work is fundamental to our long term plans. And as always, we aim to think ahead. The SVA Capital Fund, which grew to around $1.6 million this year, will help secure our future. Additionally, my colleague Chris Cuffe launched the pioneering Third Link Growth Fund, a professionally managed investment fund that will provide a growing annuity stream to SVA through the ongoing contribution of the Fund’s management fee.

We feel we have made real progress, but there is still much to do. It is a core value of SVA that we provide outstanding, practical support that makes a difference – to SVA venture partners and to the non-profit sector we serve.

We test that proposition seriously and frequently. We recently completed a detailed review of the support we provide to SVA venture partners, which highlighted the value and power of our Venture Support team’s long term engagement with them. It also highlighted that while we have contributed much to the success and performance of these venture partners, there are ways we can work smarter and better.

We listened and we learnt. And from that learning, we are putting in place a support structure that will better meet the specific needs of venture partners with the establishment of a Venture Development team (headed by Chris Boys) to support the needs of more established ‘growth stage’ ventures and a Venture Incubation team (headed by Jan Owen) to foster promising new ideas, promote collaboration and learning amongst and across sectors and assist early stage ventures. Additionally, Jan moved to Melbourne to build SVA’s presence in this important market.

We know we are making a difference with our work. We are committed to continually improving the quality and depth of what we do. The integrity and passion of the social entrepreneurs and community builders, who it is our privilege to support, demand nothing less.

Michael Traill
Chief Executive

 Download the SVA 2007 - 2008 Annual Review  [File size:772kb]