For a Calendar of all VRL Events scheduled so far, click here.

Register today for the series in the Metro starting in May, 2008

Register today for the series in New Ulm starting in May, 2008

Register today for the re-scheduled series in Winona starting in March 2008

Volunteer Resources Leadership:  Capacity Building in Minnesota (VRL) is a three-year capacity building initiative to expand and strengthen volunteer leadership across the state through strategies that create widespread systemic change. With a special emphasis on targeting diverse and grassroots communities, the initiative will build infrastructure, tools, and capacity for successful volunteer leadership. VRL will build healthy communities by strengthening organizational ability to maximize the quality and quantity of voluntary effort.

MAVA and a number of community partners began implementing VRL in November 2005 to address barriers to successful volunteer capacity building.  Key strategies include:

The Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series is a peer-to-peer initiative in which MAVA members train their colleagues on the essential elements of leading volunteers.  Based on curriculum from Betty Stallings and adapted by MAVA, the training series will provide organizations of all kinds with the information they need to initiate, improve or re-energize their volunteer programs.  Working with the Volunteer Centers of Minnesota, Serve Minnesota, Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota, Girl Scouts-Land of Lakes Council, and the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, MAVA is providing eight distinct training modules that can be offered individually, or combined for half-day or full-day trainings in your community or in your organization.

Here are the topics the series will cover:

Read more about the Volunteer Resources Leadership Training Series

If you complete all eight modules of the Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series, you will receive a Certificate in Volunteer Leadership from the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration.

Use your Certificate to demonstrate to your employer that you have completed training in key components of volunteer leadership.  The more knowledgeable you are about how to manage a volunteer program and how to lead volunteers, the more your organization will maximize volunteer resources to address critical community concerns. Read more

MAVA is committed to providing affordable, accessible training by partnering with community organizations across the state.  We will work with you to offer the trainings in your community or customize the Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series or a portion of the series to meet the needs of your community or your organization.

For further information on how to partner with MAVA to present the series in your organization or community, contact the MAVA Office at 651-255-0469 or email office@mavanetwork.org.

Volunteer Impact is a peer-to-peer initiative in which volunteer leaders train their colleagues on the essential elements of leading volunteers.  As a trainer, you will join many MAVA colleagues across the state in an exciting training partnership and you will be part of an initiative that has gained national attention.  Your effort will build the quality and quantity of volunteerism in Minnesota by helping organizations and communities maximize volunteer impact. 

Volunteer Impact  Leadership Training Series is composed of eight key elements of effective volunteer resources leadership. 

Contact office@mavanetwork.org  to learn when and where the next Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series Train-the-Trainer session will be held.

It is critical that the state’s decision makers and policy makers understand the value of investing in volunteer resources leadership.  MAVA and the VRL initiative are crafting strategies to reach decision makers through a number of avenues to educate these leaders on approaches they can take to maximize the impact of volunteerism within their organizations and their communities.

Organizations can significantly increase their ability to deliver on mission by successfully engaging and supporting volunteers.  The end result is that a myriad of community concerns are addressed and Minnesota communities benefit.

Click here to download MAVA’s Mission imPossible brochure to understand the many ways volunteers benefit organizations and the steps your organization can take to strengthen its volunteer program.

To receive a free supply of the Mission imPossible brochures to distribute in your organization or to your community, contact the MAVA office at office@mavanetwork.org.

Peer to peer networking is an important part of professional development for leaders of volunteers.  Minnesota possesses a number of volunteer resources networks across the state, designed to support and foster learning among those who lead volunteers.  If you would like to locate a network in your community or if you would like to help to launch a network in your community, please contact office@mavanetwork.org.

VRL’s importance to Minnesota:  This timely initiative is critical to Minnesota in light of strained financial resources for the state’s nonprofits and other organizations that address a myriad of pressing community concerns.   Volunteers are playing an increasingly important role in Minnesota and across the country ~ from providing support to areas hit by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, to helping provide basic services to the young, impoverished, disabled and elderly in communities every day. 

Rate of volunteerism in Minnesota:  Minnesota possesses vast volunteer resources; in fact, it has one of the highest rates of volunteerism in the nation.  In Minnesota alone, approximately 67 percent, or 2.4 million Minnesotans over the age of 18, volunteered their time in 2004 -- with an estimated dollar value of almost $8 billion.

How well are organizations doing in maximizing the quality and quantity and volunteerism in their communities:  In spite of the enormity of this important resource, many organizations do not sufficiently support -- or even understand -- their volunteer efforts.  A landmark study released in 2004 known as Volunteer Management Capacity in America’s Charities and Congregations: A Briefing Report, revealed significant barriers to the effective leadership of volunteer resources.  For example, three out of five charities and only one out of three congregations with social service outreach activities reported having a paid staff person who worked on volunteer coordination; among these paid volunteer coordinators, one in three have not received any training in volunteer management, and half spend less than 30% of their time on volunteer coordination.  A subsequent report entitled From Research to Action delineated strategies to address these barriers and the VRL initiative is based upon these strategies.

To read the studies referred to above as well as companion studies, click on the following links:

The Urban Institute, February 2004

The Urban Institute, June 2004

Corporation for National and Community Service, June 2004

The Urban Institute, December 2004

MAVA was one of two organizations in the nation to be awarded $50,000 in 2005 by IMPACT: A Fund for Change through Volunteerism (Volunteer IMPACT Fund) to launch the Volunteer Resources Leadership:  Capacity Building in Minnesota initiative.  This pooled fund was established in late 2004 with a $1 million, three-year grant from The UPS Foundation. Additional funding partners include AT&T Foundation, Capital One Financial and The Home Depot. The Washington, D.C.-based National Human Services Assembly provides staff and management support. 

In addition to the Volunteer IMPACT Fund, MAVA wishes to acknowledge the generous contributions of several Minnesota funders:

MAVA is implementing the Volunteer Resources Leadership initiative in formal collaboration with:

Throughout the next several years, MAVA will continue to seek additional collaborating partners to build capacity in Minnesota’s voluntary sector.

If you would like to volunteer to be part of this timely initiative, please contact the MAVA office today at office@mavanetwork.org and ask about serving on the on the VRL Oversight Committee.

Telephone:  651-255-0469