PHILADELPHIA — The Mayor’s Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service (MOCEVS) today announced the launch of its first Service Enterprise cohort. Service Enterprise is a national change management program led by Points of Light that helps organizations function more efficiently and increase their societal impact by engaging skilled volunteers across all levels of the organization.
Through funding from the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, MOCEVS will train and certify a cohort of six local organizations. The organizations who comprise the 2021 cohort work to address impact areas such as food insecurity, poverty, literacy, and health and wellness. Over the past year, they engaged nearly 5,000 volunteers. The participating organizations are:
- Achieve Now
- ACHIEVEability
- Campaign for Working Families, Inc.
- Feast of Justice
- Mazzoni Center
- Philly Reading Coaches
“I’m excited for the Mayor’s Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service to work closely with this first Service Enterprise cohort to deeply expand their programs and further embed volunteerism within their organizational culture,” said Amanda Gamble, Chief Service Officer to the City of Philadelphia. “While we work with this small group of organizations on change management around volunteerism and continue to grow the number of Service Enterprises in Philadelphia in future years, we also want to extend a broader reach of support to organizations across the city. To this end, we designed a new Volunteer Support Program to offer free virtual trainings on best practices for volunteer recruitment, management, and retention. This ties back into our mission of meeting people where they are and increasing access to impactful service opportunities.”
MOCEVS will lead the 2021 cohort using an evidence-based curriculum focused on change management and volunteer engagement strategies and best practices. Organizations will complete an evaluation of their current volunteer engagement practices, and the Mayor’s Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service will provide individualized coaching to guide them through the change model and towards certification.
Organizations that complete the Service Enterprise program and achieve certification will join the top 11 percent of nonprofits nationwide in volunteer management and organizational performance. Nonprofits that operate as Service Enterprises are equally as effective as their peers, but at almost half the median budget.
More information about the Service Enterprise benefits and resources for community-based organizations (CBOs) can be found here.