Our First ‘Series B’ Game-Changing Giving Investment: RISE Next Generation AI at LDS

Game-Changing Giving is an exciting new granting approach for SVP Vancouver. With Game-Changing Giving, we will help high-impact non-profits reach more kids, try new groundbreaking ideas, and collaborate on cutting-edge initiatives, all while helping improve how the non-profit sector operates. Read more about it here! 

At SVP we FIND, FUND, and STRENGTHEN organizations through our venture philanthropy model, forming close, trusting relationships with them. We’ve excelled at this for 23 years, finding organizations that make a profound difference in the lives of children and youth, granting them multi-year operational support, and providing tailored capacity building support that go beyond the dollar to help them stabilize, evolve, and grow. Now we want to help organizations go even further; to level up and do even more. We want to change the game for the non-profits we work with, the kids they support, and the non-profit sector as a whole.  

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the first ‘Series B’ investment of Game-Changing Giving to the RISE Next Generation AI initiative at LDS – Learn. Develop. Succeed. Made possible with generous support from Greg and Elese Sullivan, SVP Vancouver will provide LDS with a two-year investment of $250,000 to help them significantly scale their impact through the use of cutting-edge AI technology. 

One of SVP’s core values is Innovation. It’s in the DNA of who we are as an organization. SVP Vancouver’s origin story is rooted in creativity, ingenuity, and ground-breaking inventions in technology—many of our founding partners were visionaries in the tech industry. (Did you know SVP Vancouver’s original name back in 2001 was the BC Technology Foundation–Social Venture Partners?) That’s why it feels so incredibly fitting to launch our Game-Changing Giving Initiative with LDS RISE Next Generation AI—a program that has the potential to change the game for children and youth through leading-edge technology. 

LDS and SVP Vancouver to date

LDS is one of SVP Vancouver’s success stories. Of course, we can’t take credit for their incredible work or their amazing growth. But we are so proud to have walked alongside them, offering our Four Ts—TIME, TALENT, TIES, and TREASURE—to support them in their work. With growth in funding and partner support, LDS has achieved the following:

• expanded its programs and support services from 2 core programs in 2017 to 17 comprehensive programs in 2024
• grown from
  • supporting 190 students in 2017 to supporting over 700 students in 2024
  • offering 792 service experiences to 2,350
• grown from a budget of $700k in 2017 to $2.14m in 2023
• launched their Early RISErs Initiative: an early childhood education and intervention program

ABOUT LDS – Learn. Develop. Succeed.
LDS’s mission is to empower all children, youth, and adults with learning differences to recognize their unique strengths and develop the tools to achieve lifelong confidence and success. Through early intervention, their goal is to make a transformative difference in the learning and life outcomes of children and youth. 

At least 1 in 10 individuals are challenged with a learning disability such as dyslexia (reading), dyscalculia (math), and those that relate to executive functioning, language and auditory processing and attention disorders. There are currently insufficient resources to identify and support children and youth with learning disabilities in the public school system. For 60% of students in BC, it takes 5 or more years before they even receive the special needs designation that identifies their need for additional support. 

And to seek support privately outside of the classroom can have an exorbitant price tag. Typical costs for support range from $2,500 to $4,000+ for an assessment, $65 to $125+/hour for specialized instruction, and $18,000 to $25,000+/year for specialized private-school instruction. 

For many, including the 43% of the population with learning disabilities that live at or below the poverty line, private services are not financially accessible. Without critically important intervention, children and youth with learning disabilities are at significant risk: 

• 41% do not graduate high school 
• 63% are unemployed
• 70% of those in BC correctional facilities have a learning disability
• 50% of adolescent suicides had previously diagnosed learning disabilities

Interventions that mitigate these risks are critical not only for each individual, but also for the health, safety, and sustainability of families and communities.

LDS exists to provide accessible, inclusive, essential support to all vulnerable children and youth with learning disabilities. Their results show that with LDS multi-year supportive intervention most LDS students with learning disabilities are able to work independently in school and go on to live happy and productive lives.

But there is more demand for their services than LDS can currently provide.  

In the 2022–2023 school year, B.C. had more than 663,225 K–12 students. Around 66,332 (a conservative estimate of 10%) had learning differences. However, only 24,993 students were diagnosed with learning differences and received some school support. This left approximately 41,329 students without support. Minimally, 6.4% of students across B.C. are not receiving support for a learning difference.

With growth in funding and partner support, LDS has significantly expanded its programs and support services. They continue to grow and work towards their mission to empower all children, youth, and adults with learning differences across BC to recognize their unique strengths and develop the tools to achieve lifelong independence, confidence, and success.

LDS RISE Next Generation AI 

Over the next four years, LDS aims to develop and implement a robust, flexible RISE-AI system platform that provides an individualized rich and effective student learning experience and will have the potential to materially increase the scalability of LDS to reach thousands of vulnerable students each year. 

AI-based systems have the potential to positively impact all facets of LDS, including the following:

• Learner outcomes
• Operational efficiencies 
• Intervention costs
• Global scaling potential

The RISE Next Generation AI program will enhance their current RISE program effectiveness and enable the acceleration of LDS growth to provide proven learning support to multiple thousands of students. The potential positive outcomes for this vulnerable population is life changing. On an individual basis, benefits include the following:

• increased high school graduation rates and post-secondary education and training
• dramatic improvement in employment opportunities
• significant improvements in health and well-being

On a societal level, benefits include:

• reductions in social and medical service provision requirements
• reductions in incarceration rates
• reductions in poverty and homelessness

The potential implications and importance of this cutting-edge project are monumental, and SVP Vancouver is thrilled to be supporting LDS with such a visionary undertaking, and kicking off SVP Vancouver’s Game-Changing Giving Initiative.

SVP IMPACT: LDS –  Learn. Develop. Succeed. 

• Lead Partner: Greg Sullivan
• Lead Partners (2008-2010): Praveen Varshney and Nick Bedford
• Capacity-Building programming support to date:
  • Talent and Time: 
    • Fund Development
      • Strategy and systems for grant applications
      • Strategy for donor appeals
      • Build case for support targeting institutions
    • Technology
      • Systems integration & data management
      • Assistive technology project
      • CRM selection and implementation (with SVP IT Committee)
    • Strategy
      •  5 Year Strategic Plan
    • Marketing and Communications
      • Rebranding project + awareness campaign
  • Ties:
    • SVP Vancouver Partners Board engagement and Advisory Committee 
    • SVP Vancouver Partners volunteer with LDS 
  • Treasure:
    • 2008-2010: Partner Pooled Grant: $90,000
    • 2018: Three-year Capacity Building Grant: $170,000
    • 2020: Covid-19 Response Fund: $10,000
    • 2020: IT Shared Services: $5,000
    • 2021: Early Years Innovation Fund: $120,000
    • 2022: Flex Fund: $5,000
    • SVP Partner Co-Investment: $95,150