December 2002

As we prepare to turn the page on another year—our first complete year of making philanthropic investments in social change—I want to share with you my growing confidence that VPP has become an organization that is making a demonstrable difference for community-based organizations serving the needs of children. Those of you who know me well are fully aware that I do not arrive at optimism by default—and I am acutely aware that we’ve made our share of missteps and that there is much yet to learn and accomplish. But I want to be sure to express my strong feeling that we are on the right track and looking to 2003 with high expectations.

Our most important measure of success is the progress of our investment partners, which this year grew to include the See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter School, Asian American LEAD, and the Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center. We’ve seen the leaders of our first three investment partners—Heads Up, the Center for Multicultural Human Services, and the Child and Family Network Centers—drive significant, tangible growth and improvement in their organizations, even in the relatively early stages of these multi-year investment partnerships.

We’ve seen Heads Up put its strategic plan into action, improve its curriculum, expand to two new schools, aggressively pursue new funding streams, add three new experienced managers, and significantly strengthen its board. We’ve seen CMHS successfully complete its strategic plan and a detailed 18-month implementation plan, add three new experienced managers, begin to reorganize and strengthen its board, and pursue ambitious plans to expand into the District and Alexandria (potentially partnering and co-locating with some of our other investment partners). And we’ve seen CFNC begin to formulate its strategic outline for growth, add one new experienced manager, begin to enhance its board, and move into a modern 6,500-square-foot facility.

In November we attended the grand opening of this wonderful new facility in Alexandria. This was a great opportunity to witness the kind of support Executive Director Barbara Fox Mason has cultivated and to see the facility at work with children and families. Two weeks later we learned that CFNC had been named one of only eight family-resource organizations in the country to receive an unrestricted $500,000 award from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. VPP board member Ralph Smith, senior vice president of the Foundation, introduced CFNC to his colleagues after learning about the organization through VPP.

Of course we have a lot of hard work ahead. As I’ve said before, our aspiration is to help bring about fundamental social change, because the status quo for children in our country is at best woefully inadequate and at worst a disgrace to those of us who believe that every child must have an opportunity to live up to his or her full potential as a member of our society. Despite the enormity of the challenges, we’ve got a real chance to make a difference—thanks to the outstanding work of our investment partners and so many of you. On behalf of the entire VPP team, I wish all of you a safe and warm holiday season filled with joy, family, and friends.

—Mario Morino