Why did you join SVP Denver?

My husband was an SVP partner in Dallas, so I already knew SVP was a great organization. When we moved to Denver a year ago, I wanted to get plugged into a nonprofit where I could work on social issues as a way to get to know my new city.

I went to the SVP Denver website and sent an email to the SVP info email address. I received a response within an hour inviting me to an informational happy hour the next evening. There, I learned about the philanthropic endeavors of SVP and how to engage with the partnership. A few months later I finally did!

What has been your experience with SVP so far?

I have been part of a team providing extra hands and brainpower to Adoption Options as they leverage their nonprofit vision and experience to create a social enterprise. In September, I facilitated a two-hour branding session attended by both organizations, where we worked through questions of brand identity for this new enterprise. Over the past year, we’ve asked the Adoption Options team to complete customer segmentation work on their own that will be used toward a strategic marketing plan.

Personally, this gave me the opportunity to combine my seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector and my current work in corporate America with my love of branding. Most people think that marketing is all about the stories that we tell the world. But I believe that marketing is also about the stories that we tell ourselves as well as the identity that we create for ourselves within the world, so it has such an important impact on our organizations’ culture and values.

Why give back?

Even before college, I felt a lot of passion for mission-driven organizations and social issues around me. Mission-driven, scrappy organizations have always attracted me. I miss this aspect in the corporate sector, and SVP has given me an opportunity to dive back into the world that I love.