Social
Venture Partners
Greater Tucson
2250 E. Broadway Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85719
520-622-8476 voice
520-770-1500 fax
Through a competitive grant process, Social Venture Partners Greater Tucson forms new capacity building partnerships with select nonprofits each year. These nonprofits join the portfolio of Investees with whom SVPGT currently works.
New Investees are chosen by a one-time committee made up of SVPGT Partners, while refunding decisions about current Investees are made by the Portfolio Review Committee.
Read our Frequently Asked Questions about the investment process.
2008 Letter of Inquiry Data Sheet
Literacy: the road to economic self-sufficiency
The Partners of SVPGT initially will focus their investments on community capacity-building to enhance family, neighborhood and community literacy.
Arizona is the fastest growing state in the country, and Pima County has surpassed the 1,000,000 mark ahead of predictions. We currently rank near the bottom in median family income, the number of 3-to 5- year-olds enrolled in pre-primary education, the number of 16-to 19- year-olds neither working nor in school, and high school graduation rates. We are dead last in per-pupil expenditure in public education. We rank at the top in the percent of children who are poor, the number of primary-students performing below grade level in math and reading, and the percent of children living in households where the head of the household did not graduate from high school.
Nearly one in 5 adults in Arizona is functionally illiterate. In Pima County, nearly 20% of the population over 5 years old cannot speak English. In Tucson, 27% of the population age 5 and older cannot speak English. 85% of Arizona prison inmates have not completed high school. Illiteracy is a root cause of other social problems. It impacts public health and safety, economic development and human rights. Literacy is the path to economic self-sufficiency for Southern Arizona's people and the prescription for growing our economy at the rate we are growing our population.
Social Venture Partners
Greater Tucson is committed to investing in building the capacity of innovative
nonprofits in Pima County to meet the unmet needs of families, neighborhoods
and the community as a whole to increase the literacy skills necessary
to weaving the economic, cultural and social fabric of our community now
and in the future.
Grant Guidelines