Why It Matters
We believe everyone has potential to do more
In 2017, when SVP San Antonio began our investment with Youth Code Jam (YCJ), we provided its leadership with a strategic planning process targeting several areas where we could plug in experts to help them grow their capacity and reach more students.
SVPSA Grants provided:
- Creation of data-gathering processes/reporting for impact measurements (2018)
- Salary for part-time executive assistant (2018-2019)
- Donor management software (2019 - 2020)
- Paid sponsorships of Catchafire skilled volunteer tool (2020-2023)
Expert volunteers provided:
- Executive Director coaching
- Website user experience updates
- Board training
- Government grant writing strategy
Youth Code Jam has great leadership and with extra help, they grew exponentially.
Impressive Growth in 2 years:
- Grew its operating budget from $127,000 in 2017 to over $500,000 in 2019
- Expanded beyond weekend events to statewide training and coding programs throughout Texas in 2020
- Went beyond Texas to a new nationwide online coding program
In 2 Years of active involvement, Youth Code Jam's Operations Budget Grew from $127,000 to more than $500,000
![Image](https://svpsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/62348C69-142B-4D72-B0C3-36C30B2D7522_4_5005_c.jpeg)
"Youth Code Jam could never have grown and become nationwide so quickly if it weren't for the emotional support and help provided by SVPSA, especially our lead partner, Billy Cox."
- Debi Pfitzenmaier, Retired Executive Director, Youth Code Jam
Skill Based Volunteers
Many of us want to give our skills to help - marketing executives, CEOs, Human Resources managers, and so on. Catchafire is an online matching system for this type of volunteer - and it is all no cost to San Antonio nonprofits. We fund their annual subscription to use it.
The return is mind-blowing.
In the 3 years of SVPSA's skills based virtual volunteer sponsorship, we collaborated with 8 additional local funders to provide this capacity building tool to 150 nonprofits in and around San Antonio. Together, we invested $365,000 in sponsorships and at the end of the 3rd year, nonprofits utilizing skilled volunteers have received $1,927,000 in value from pro-bono expert support. This is money they could put back into operations, keeping their staff and recovering from the pandemic.