How to use SVCED

SVCED — the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurial Development — runs charitable programs, publishes impact reports, accepts donations, and teaches a free curriculum called Foundations University. This guide walks through each of those surfaces the way you'd actually use them.

You can browse most of the site without signing in — the homepage, program pages, impact numbers, and the donation flow are all open. Sign in when you want to:

• Enroll in a Foundations University course
• Post in the student forum
• Submit a program application and track its status
• Save your progress and notes across devices

The header is the same on every page. It's intentionally short so nothing competes with the content you came to read.

Everything else — Foundations University, the forum, program applications, this guide — is reachable from the footer. Scroll to the bottom of any page to see the full map.

Programs is the front door for anyone who wants SVCED support: youth, small businesses, and community partners. Each program has a dedicated page with what it does, who it's for, and how to apply.

Every program has its own multi-step application at /apply/<program>. You can start unsigned, but you'll be prompted to sign in before your submission is saved.

1. From a program page, click Apply.
2. Work through the eligibility questions. The form remembers your progress if you leave the page.
3. Fill in contact and organization details.
4. Review the summary and press Submit.
5. You'll see a confirmation screen and receive an email receipt.

The Impact page is where grantmakers, journalists, and partners find our numbers, allocation breakdown, testimonials, and downloadable documents (501(c)(3) letter, latest Form 990, annual impact report). Every card that has a download shows a small document icon; click it to fetch the PDF directly.

Donate is a two-column page. The left side explains what your gift does; the right side is the form.

Foundations University is our free curriculum on how nonprofits actually work — grant writing, board governance, program design, fundraising. Access is by invite code or open enrollment on published courses.

1. Visit /learn (linked in the footer).
2. Sign in, then paste your invite code on the join screen if you have one.
3. Browse the catalog; each card shows the track, the estimated hours, and the instructor.
4. Click Enroll to add it to your dashboard.

The classroom uses a three-column layout: a module rail on the left, the lesson in the middle, and an engagement rail on the right for notes and progress.

Quizzes appear as their own lesson type. Answer every question, then submit. Mastery is scored out of 100 and shown as a ring on the engagement rail. Pass and the lesson gets a 👑 PASSED badge in your timeline. Fail and you can retake immediately — your latest attempt is what counts.

Finish every required lesson in a course and a completion banner appears in your dashboard. Click View certificate to open a printable page with your name, the course title, and the completion date.

Some courses include live office hours or workshops. They appear on the Calendar tab. RSVP with one click; you'll get a reminder email an hour before it starts.

The forum lives at /forum and is only open to enrolled learners and staff. Every published course has its own channel; there's also a shared lounge for general discussion.

• Assume good faith — most classmates are new to this material.
• Ask specific questions; include the lesson name when relevant.
• Keep it professional. The forum is not anonymous to staff.
• No solicitation, no PII, no client-confidential information.

The chat bubble in the bottom-right of every public page is our AI assistant. It can search site content, explain programs, and hand you off to a real person by capturing your name and email at the end of the conversation. It never asks for payment information.

Accessibility notes and our WCAG conformance target live at /accessibility. You can manage cookie preferences at any time from the footer link labeled Cookie preferences.