Social Venture Partners (SVP) Arizona is a group of successful professionals who invest their time, expertise and resources to help the local nonprofit community. It’s all about applying business skills to charitable concerns in order to make them more socially productive and financially independent.

In 2010, SVP focused their investments on creating a more successful learning environment for the students and staff of Camelback High School. With that first school year now behind them, they needed an annual report that celebrated the progress made, the lessons learned and the devoted volunteers who helped raise the bar for an urban high school on the rise.

When we sat down to brainstorm, we began to reflect on our own high school days. And as we looked back, a natural artistic direction began to emerge. Old report cards, yearbooks and ASB cards were soon recruited to create a scholastic theme throughout the piece. Actual high school photos of SVP partners were included to add a personal touch of nostalgia, and the partners themselves wrote short articles detailing their involvement with Camelback students, faculty and facilities. These stories reveal how the experience of going back to high school was an extremely rewarding education for everyone.

The resulting piece is entitled Voices, a nod to the old-school yearbooks it draws from and the variety of perspectives it brings to the work of improving education. And yes, it still has the requisite financials and figures called for in every annual report. But what an inspiring story it surrounds them with.

View Voices, Social Venture Partners’ 2010 Annual Report.