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2021 Shifting Environment Survey: We need to hear from you

Polly Roach | Published on 9/8/2021
Help MAVA map the changing landscape of volunteerism 

MAVA is counting on our members and friends to help us understand how changes we’ve experienced in the past 18 months have affected today’s volunteerism and the work of volunteer engagement leaders. Please complete the 2021 Shifting Environment Survey to share YOUR experiences in this emerging landscape – what you are seeing in your communities, your organizations, and your volunteers as we all adjust to altered expectations and new realities. 

In the last year, surveys of nonprofits have evaluated the impact of many issues - the COVID-19 pandemic, economic upheavals, reckoning with racial injustice - on our sector; you may have even responded to a few. MAVA’s periodic Shifting Environment surveys assess the volunteer environment across our state and beyond to help us map the evolution of previously identified trends, track the emergence of new developments, and capture innovations in volunteer engagement. Your voices from the field have helped MAVA tailor our training services, in-depth research and resource development to provide timely, relevant tools to the field. Through past survey responses, MAVA was able to:

  • Assess the impact of demographic changes on volunteer response, and recommend ways to target messaging and opportunities to appeal to different generational cohorts

  • Identify rising interest in short-term volunteer options and help volunteer programs reengineer positions to take advantage of that trend

  • Uncover the effect of fluctuating organizational priorities on the experience of volunteer engagement leaders and undertake a large-scale study on job equity for our field 

  • Crowd-source wisdom from the field and share members’ strategies for harnessing change so that others benefited from innovative ideas for keeping volunteers engaged

Now more than ever, your voice is critically needed to help MAVA address the impact of changes that have shaped our environment, and our field, over the last few years. The survey should take you about 20 minutes to complete – a investment of your time that we greatly appreciate. To show our gratitude, survey respondents who share their contact information will be entered into a drawing for a $25 discount on a 2021 MAVA training or event. Drawings will take place weekly until the survey closes on October 1st – the earlier you complete the survey, the more chances you will have to win!

Preliminary survey results will be available to MAVA members by the end of the year; a full report, including recommendations for responding to trends discovered through survey results, will be published in early 2022. You can help MAVA produce its most informative, useful and timely survey findings yet by sharing this survey link - 2021 Shifting Environment Survey - with others in the field - and by filling out the 2021 survey today.

Thank you in advance for sharing your voice with us!

Polly Roach
Service Enterprise Program Manager