The Service Enterprise team has had a busy spring; Minnesota’s SE Initiative continues to grow and so does its impact on our communities. As we work with organizations beginning the process, achieving Service Enterprise certification, and reaching new milestones on their journeys, we are also looking ahead to new developments and markers of our own.
New Cohort Members
The Spring/Summer Service Enterprise cohort is now underway in the Twin Cities; incoming organizations are gearing up to assess their organizations and practices related to volunteer engagement, and getting ready for specialized training, sandwiched around the 2018 MAVA Annual Conference, in May through July. MAVA and HandsOn Twin Cities are excited to offer the 12th cohort since Service Enterprise was introduced to Minnesota, and welcome the organizations making up this cohort:
Appetite for Change, Friends for a Non-Violent World, Community Thread, Family Means and the
YWCA of Minneapolis. We’re thrilled to be starting this journey with you!
New Service Enterprise
MAVA congratulates Minnesota’s newest Service Enterprise:
Ronald McDonald House Charities, Upper Midwest. Their Service Enterprise team’s road to achieving certification is especially notable, as they kept their momentum going even in the midst of staff and program changes. RMHC-UM joins 45 other certified Service Enterprises in taking volunteer engagement to the next level and increasing their impact on the clients, constituents and communities they serve.
New “Veteran” Service Enterprise
When organizations complete training and meet the required of Service Enterprise standards, they are certified as a Service Enterprise and that certification is in place for three years. After that time, organizations are invited to maintain their certification by undergoing a reassessment and review process, and demonstrating their commitment to continuous improvement. Since the first Minnesota Service Enterprises were certified in 2014, the number of organizations eligible for this status is small – but growing! MAVA congratulates the
Minnesota Children's Museum on joining this group and meeting the rigorous standards required to maintain certification.
New Developments
MAVA and HandsOn Twin are pleased to offer a new training in our Leadership Accelerator series,
“Creating Buy-In And Equipping Staff To Successfully Engage Volunteers,” for volunteer engagement leaders in Northern Minnesota. This training,
taking place in Duluth on May 11th, from 1 – 3 pm, offers an opportunity to learn how to secure buy-in from staff and leadership for investing in volunteer engagement at your organization and gain tools you can use to train staff to effectively lead and supervise volunteers. Best of all, it will be led by two highly experienced volunteer managers,
Haley Nelson, Divisional Volunteer Relations Director at The Salvation Army Northern Division, and
Ann Fosco, Community Impact Director at Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly, who are uniquely qualified to address the topic through a Service Enterprise lens – both have led two organizations in achieving Service Enterprise certification! The training is open to everyone and organizations currently enrolled in the Service Enterprise Initiative which have not completed their 10 hours of consulting may send up to 5 staff members free of charge in exchange for three consultation hours. Email
proach@mavanetwork.org to register for this Service Enterprise offer.
Upcoming Service Enterprise Cohort
Dates for the next cohort have not been set, but now is the time to explore whether your organization is ready to move its volunteer engagement to the next level through Service Enterprise. To learn more about the SEI model and explore opportunities to gain a greater return on your volunteer investment, visit the
Service Enterprise page of the MAVA website. There you can find more information on the initiative, other Minnesota organizations that have gone through the Service Enterprise process and a link to the Service Enterprise application. Have questions or want to talk through how Service Enterprise might work for your organization? Contact Polly Roach, Volunteer Generation Fund Program Manager at
proach@mavanetwork.org.
Looking Ahead
With the growth of Service Enterprise, MAVA and HandsOn are anticipating the certification of Minnesota’s 50th Service Enterprise sometime in the next few months. Watch this space for updates on that milestone and how we plan to celebrate this achievement!