Environmental Accelerator Fund - Our Strategy

The Environment Accelerator Fund is designed to achieve sustainable solutions to San Diego County’s environmental challenges:

• Preserving habitat and nature, and controlling urban sprawl
• Protecting San Diego’s water supply and controlling pollution
• Conserving energy and limiting climate change
• Protecting human health
• Reducing the impact of population and city/suburban growth
• Driving a robust economy and strengthening communities across the region 

Three specific strategies are the focus of the Accelerator:

1. Fund Development 

The initial funding goal for the Accelerator is to raise $1 million for the first round of grantmaking. Launched November 28, 2006, more than $500,000 had been already been committed to the effort. EAF grants will be funneled directly to qualifying non-profit organizations, utilizing a competitive screening process honed through more than 10 years of successful application by SVP. Non-profits organizations receiving these multi-year grants will be expected to focus the resources on research, staff development, financial system deployment, strategic planning and community organizing.

2. Leverage Skills & Experience

Funding is only part of the story. It is through the twin strategies of funding and SVP Partner involvement – as benchmarked through 6 years of success in San Diego – that truly dramatic results are achieved. Building sustainable solutions – and organizations with the infrastructure to manage and deliver these solutions – requires a unique convergence of passion, resources, and business skillsets. That’s where SVP Partner involvement comes in. Partners and investees (non-profit groups) work together to create a plan that outlines measurable goals. Partners then help Investees fulfill these outcomes by providing hands-on management support learned through like-experiences in business and other professional pursuits.

3. Collaboration

It’s apparent that our environmental challenges can not be met by a single-threaded approach; instead, multiple organizations need to work in concert with one another to make real and consistent impact. The Accelerator will bridge these efforts. By bringing funding and leadership together, strategies can be coordinated; best practices driven through multiple organizations simultaneously; and leadership developed and sustained.

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