The Power of Possibility:
Putting A Year of National Service on the Map
Shirley Sagawa, CEO, Service Year“Three years ago, there were three small national organizations struggling to advance the same mission. By putting together our capabilities and creating one strong organization, we’re poised to achieve our goal of making a year of service a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans.”
The Moment
In 2014, three small nonprofits were working in parallel to expand national service in America. All respected each other, as they were all working hard and shared a commitment to one mission. But each was also asking itself a tough question: What would it really take to go beyond incremental growth and achieve real scale?
The Power of Possibility
To answer this question, they looked to each other, working together to develop a new vision and goals for their collective work, as well as a strategy to achieve it. But they also realized that even this new collaboration wasn’t enough. To really achieve scale, they needed to become one organization, and in 2016, the Service Year Alliance was formed.
The Results
Service Year Alliance has put the term “service year” on the map and now has a state-of-the-art online marketplace and resource hub to match young people interested in service with service year opportunities, with the vision to see one million young people doing a service year in a generation’s time.