Mission Statement
MAVA advances the power of volunteerism to deepen community impact through uplifting community voice , building connections, providing education, and promoting advocacy.
Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
2021 is behind us and we thank our members, volunteers, and stakeholders for building greatness with us. Our name change demonstrates that MAVA’s work has expanded in terms of reach, innovation, and impact. MAVA delivered a record number of trainings and consulting sessions on a range of diversity, equity, and inclusion topics all across the country.
We provided advanced tools to help organizations rebuild volunteerism post-pandemic, and delivered two cutting edge conferences. VISTA and Service Enterprise infrastructure and capacity building programs grew in terms of individuals and organizations served. MAVA brought new anti-racism, older volunteer, and informal volunteerism trainings to the public and to individual groups and organizations. We launched our brand-new Race Equity in Volunteerism (REVA) Program and we conducted groundbreaking research on race equity, older volunteers, pandemic, informal volunteerism, and trends in volunteerism.
Current Goals
MAVA's goals are to propel organizations and volunteer engagement leaders to maximum mission capacity through multiple services and programs. These include:
• Innovative consulting, training and conferences in diversity, equity and inclusion, and best practice training in volunteer engagement
• An AmeriCorps VISTA program focused on volunteer engagement capacity building
• Certification of service enterprise organizations demonstrating solid leveraging of volunteer resources
• Research resulting in cutting edge curriculum in topics that advance organizational effectiveness in solving pressing community problems
• Connection, networking and advocacy for volunteer engagement professionals.
Community or Constituency Served
As a capacity-building organization, MAVA strengthens nonprofits’ capacity to meet community needs through effective volunteerism. Last year we learned more about the devastating effects of the pandemic. The needs increased – people were out of work, vulnerable, sick, isolated, etc. And organizational capacity decreased when volunteers were furloughed or otherwise unable to do their work. Now, organizations are ready to return to pre-pandemic business as usual, but the community needs are still high, and in many cases, the volunteers they used to depend on have not returned. On top of the pandemic, we are seeing changing demographic populations across Minnesota. We see our impact in the upcoming year as equipping organizations and communities to innovate and re-build volunteer systems that are equitable, sustainable and designed to respond to new pandemic related realities.
Geographic Area Served
MAVA is both a State and a National organization.
