Social Ventures Partners first grant: $25,000 for Green Learning Station

Social Ventures Partners is a new social philanthropy in Cincinnati that includes accomplished professionals who have pooled some money and their professional and personal talents to causes they care about. Their first focus, they agreed, would be the environment, broadly defined as water, air and land issues, along with conservation, recycling, the outdoors and quality-of-life concerns. Their first grant will go to Cincinnati’s Civic Garden Center. The group will donate $25,000, along with a team of experts, to help build and operate a “Green Learning Station” on the site of an old gas station. The learning station is meant to teach and inspire builders, developers, home owners and officials to incorporate green technology into homes, businesses and public spaces. The project, says investment committee chair Glenn Bitzenhofer, is “one that we felt, ultimately, had the best chance of making an immediate impact on our community and the environment.” SVP Cincinnati is one of 26 cities affiliated with SVP International, based in Seattle.

Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Lisa Davis-Roberts, SVP Cincinnati