Across cities, small towns, and neighborhoods, networks of compassionate, creative, and entrepreneurial individuals have built social service nonprofits to support their neighbors seeking to overcome poverty, addiction, homelessness, illiteracy, marginalization, and more—bringing renewal, empowerment, and hope to their communities.

Every day, thousands of individuals enter retirement, bringing invaluable gifts of time, experience, wisdom, and compassion. With a desire to make a difference, they step into places of need, becoming a force for renewal and strength in their communities.

For 30 years, IVC has animated the talents of older adults to enhance the capacity of agencies serving critical community needs. IVC uniquely supports its members through resources and communities of spiritual reflection and personal connection, empowering them to sustain their service through grace and friendship.

The men and women of IVC are faith in action, powerful agents of change. Recognizing the growing population of individuals entering this stage of life and their profound impact on communities, IVC envisions a bold era of growth. After a thoughtful process of prayerful listening to hundreds of stakeholders, IVC’s leadership has identified strategic priorities to guide its mission for the next 5–10 years.

Focus Areas and Goals

Illuminate

IVC will provide coherent and robust formation in Ignatian Spirituality that inspires and empowers members of the corps to actively engage in service, justice, and reconciliation.

Goals (2025-2030):

1. Coherent Faith Formation: IVC will provide consistent and robust faith formation in Ignatian spirituality for Service Corps Members, staff and the entire IVC community. IVC will encourage and support active engagement in service, justice, and reconciliation in the context of a faith community that champions spirituality and aging with purpose. This will be achieved as IVC seeks to:

• Create a national staff position to oversee the Ignatian spirituality program, ensuring engagement in service, justice, and reconciliation.
• Enhance capacity to provide spiritual formation and support for all core community members, including Regional Councils, National Board, and benefactors.
• Provide resources to foster an IVC community where all members age with purpose.

Invite/Engage

IVC will broaden its national visibility and engagement in its mission of integrating spirituality and community through lifelong service. We will be widely known for the impact experienced adults provide through their service.

2. National Visibility and Impact: IVC will be a leader in the integration of Ignatian spirituality, social justice, and lifelong

This will be achieved as IVC seeks to:

• Develop a comprehensive marketing & communications strategy.
• Engage in mutually beneficial partnerships with Jesuit-affiliated, Catholic, other faith-based and secular organizations that align with IVC’s mission.
• Increase marketing and communication staffing and technology resources.
• Increase collaboration with Jesuit apostolates to heighten awareness of and expand opportunities for the IVC mission.

3. Culture of Philanthropy: IVC will build a culture of philanthropy that fosters an inclusive community of benefactors and strengthens their commitment to the mission of IVC.

This will be achieved as IVC seeks to:

• Invest in advancement staff capacity and support for professional development.
• Optimize fundraising capacity to increase number of donors, gift sizes, and legacy giving participation.
• Implement a comprehensive Planned Giving Program.
• Establish a permanent endowment.

Expand

IVC will emphasize organizational growth in response to the significant number of people seeking a meaningful and purposeful retirement. IVC’s business, financial and administrative framework is tailored to support programs both regionally and virtually, by centralizing functions and ensuring robust resource management and stewardship.

4. Transformative Growth: IVC will develop and implement strategies and standards for robust, sustained and scalable

This will be achieved as IVC seeks to:

• Develop and implement a strategic and measurable model for growth that invests in areas with the most potential for impact across both existing and new potential regions.
• Enhance financial standards, transparency, and policies to ensure accurate and fair allocation of expenses and surpluses between the national organization and regional units.
• Develop a long-term financial plan with revenue targets that support the creation of a six-month cash reserve.
• Increase the number of senior adults serving with nonprofit partners and leverage the growth potential of the Virtual Region.

Thrive

IVC’s mission and its employees thrive through clear standards and programs for performance management, training, career development, and compensation.

5. Organizational Vitality and Leadership Development: IVC will enhance support for its staff to reach individual and organizational goals in support of the agency’s mission.

This will be achieved as IVC seeks to:

• Maintain a person-centered, positive work culture with manageable scope of work and career advancement opportunities.
• Implement a performance management process that helps staff members achieve their annual and career goals.
• Benchmark compensation and benefits against peer organizations and strive for just and competitive levels of compensation for staff.
• Equip program staff to create a safer, more inclusive, and welcoming environment for corps members by identifying and offering targeted training modules in Ignatian spirituality, Catholic Social Teaching, active listening, empathy, cultural competency, and inclusion and belonging.
• Provide training in grant-writing, event planning, and fundraising to empower staff with the skills needed to effectively support the organization’s fundraising efforts and fulfill their related responsibilities.
• Enhance leadership training for regional advisory council and national board members on ways they can most effectively support the mission of IVC.