Helping new nonprofits build a better world for all

Chairman, Board of Directors

Jeffrey H. Schwartz, President and Founder

Highlights:  Before starting The Social Venture Capital Foundation in January 2000, Mr. Schwartz was a successful entrepreneur, marketer, business line manager, management consultant, recruiter and mentor; co-founder, President and chief spokesman for a nonprofit public interest group tax exempt foundation; congressional committee counsel and legislative draftsman; attorney; and activist.  Mr. Schwartz has a proven track record of success in three key areas that are particularly important to the success of The Social Venture Capital Foundation. 

• IN BUSINESS: He started, helped build and manage, and sold to a publicly traded company his business: a respected international multi-disciplinary environmental science, policy, and management consulting firm. In April 2005, he launched a new consulting company, Kela Associates, aimed at enhancing the organizational effectiveness of Kela's clients. ("Kela is the Hawaiian word meaning "to excel.")

• IN THE NON-PROFIT AND FOUNDATION WORLD: He co-founded, and helped build and led to self-sufficiency, an effective national non-profit public foundation dedicated to protecting children’s health through education and improved vaccine safety.   For three years, from April 2002 -2005, he was a program officer with Fannie Mae Foundation, starting as Director, Nonprofit Organizational Development, and in 2003 being promoted to Senior Director, National Initiatives, Organizational Effectiveness.  He also serves as a member of the Board of the John E. Moss Foundation. 

• IN PUBLIC POLICY: He played a major role in the enactment of such landmark legislation as the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, and the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

Entrepreneur/Marketer/Business Line Manager/ Consultant. Co-founder, principal, member of the Board and executive committee of Jellinek, Schwartz, & Connolly, Inc (JSC), 1979-2001.  JSC was a Washington, DC based environmental consulting firm that during its over 20 years of operation became the pre-eminent firm in its field.  At JSC, Mr. Schwartz had Profit and Loss responsibility for the Environmental Management Practice and led the firm's marketing practice.. 

In January 1998, Mr. Schwartz, along with the other two founders, arranged for JSC to be sold to a publicly traded corporation, the IT Group (ITX).   The IT Group grew too fast and went into bankruptcy in 2002.  The assets of the IT Group, including JSC were eventually sold to Shaw Environmental, which integrated JSC's remaining staff into its other environmental consulting operations. 

During his service at JSC, Mr. Schwartz consulted to a wide variety of companies and trade associations, including the American Petroleum Institute, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, Asarco, Hallmark, L. L. Bean, S. C. Johnson’s Wax, Lockheed Martin, Unocal, and General Mills Corporation. Mr. Schwartz’s consulting practice included providing strategic advice, counsel, and advocacy support on a number of subjects, including legislative and regulatory issues; foresight, compliance, and strategic environmental management and planning; product support; corporate philanthropy and social responsibility benchmarking and program development; and multidisciplinary collaborative approaches to problem solving. 

Public Interest Group Founder/Leader/Advocate. Co-founder, board member, chief legislative strategist, and for almost 10 years leader of Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT).  In this capacity, Mr. Schwartz was one of the principal designers, draftsmen, negotiators, and spokesman for enactment of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.  DPT, now known as the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), is a national organization of parents dedicated to several goals: 

• development and commercialization of safer childhood vaccines,

• providing better information and research on the risks of vaccines as well as the risks of infectious disease,

• ensuring a fair and effective vaccine compensation program for children injured by mandated vaccines, and

• encouraging greater flexibility in the vaccine administration system to recognize the needs of children at high risk for severe reactions to vaccines and the right of parents to choose the medications most appropriate for their children.

Following Mr. Schwartz’s active service for DPT/NVIC, the organization continued for over 15 years to be self-sustaining and has been widely recognized as the leading vaccine safety organization in the country.

Congressional Staff Member/Legislative Draftsman, Strategist & Counsel. Counsel for Environmental Legislation for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce for over 5 years. In this capacity, Mr. Schwartz was one of the leading House staff responsible for enactment of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977.  In addition, Mr. Schwartz was a key staff member of the House team that drafted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

Attorney.  For over 30 years, Mr. Schwartz was a member of the Bar in Ohio and District of Columbia. In addition to his service as congressional committee counsel, he has also served as attorney-advisor in the Office of General Counsel in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and legislative attorney in the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Activist.  Mr. Schwartz has been a participant-leader in many organizations dedicated to promoting peace, civil and human rights and civil liberties. These activities include: voter registration volunteer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Louisiana in Freedom Summer (1964); leader and chief spokesman for the Ohio State University Free Speech Front, a student organization that successfully challenged the University’s Speakers’ rule empowering the President of the University to exercising prior screening and approval on the basis of content of all off-campus speakers (1965); one of the principal organizers of HEW Lawyers Against the War, a group of attorneys in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Health and Human Services Department), who protested the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Bombing in particular (1970); and winner of the United Packinghouse Workers’ Russell Bull Scholarship for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. 

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