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Founding Story

ServeNext was founded by Aaron Marquez, Zach Maurin, Patrick Schmitt, and Matt Wilhelm. With five years of AmeriCorps service and a variety of activism experience, they were struck by a problem and an opportunity:

  • The Problem: Inconsistent support for service from elected leaders in Washington, DC.
  • The Opportunity: The millions of people passionate about service.

Aaron and Zach had been involved in the 2003 Save AmeriCorps Campaign when a handful of leaders targeted the program for major cuts. While the campaign was successful and a tremendous victory for the country, federal service programs were cut the following five years not because they lacked need or impact. They were cut because they lacked public and political will.

There are several organizations doing critical work for service policy in Washington, DC. They convene leaders from service organizations, foundations, businesses and the media, develop policy, and engage members of Congress in Washington, DC. They organized the Save AmeriCorps Campaign, prevented worse cuts during the following years, and led the recent campaign for the Serve America Act.

However, there was not an organization focused on uniting and mobilizing the millions of constituents who are passionate about service at the grassroots level to be advocates.

The four founders felt a sense of obligation to act. So they took the obvious next step: spend three weeks phone banking friends and family non-stop for start-up donations. With modest resources followed by a few seed funders, things moved forward.


2008 Elections

In early 2007, the presidential election was heating up and this was a perfect time to pilot the grassroots approach. A few months later with support from many leaders of the service field, ServeNext launched its first campaign during the New Hampshire primary season to proactively and repeatedly mobilize constituents to urge the next president to expand opportunities for people of all ages to serve.*

The campaign was a tremendous success:

  • We engaged the candidates and campaigns over 300 times.
  • Nine candidates from both parties (including then-Senator Obama) signed the ServeNext Pledge to expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 175,000 annual positions, as well as expand Learn & Serve America, Senior Corps, and the Peace Corps.
  • Our campaign earned coverage in a TIME Magazine cover story and The Boston Globe, and played a key role in what eventually became the Serve America Act – the historic service legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in April of 2009.

To build on this success, we then engaged Congressional candidates around the country to educate them about the power of service, survey them on their views about the issue, and ask for their support.*


National Service Express Tour

To promote service and start building the grassroots constituency, ServeNext led a 30-city, 60-day bus tour. Incredibly, Matt and, field organizer, Sean Edwin, traveled the entire journey on Greyhound buses. In each city, they held meetings with groups of service supporters to talk about the potential of scaling the national service movement and how we’re trying to build the constituency to help make that happen.

The Tour earned a feature article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.


Serve America Act

ServeNext then helped mobilize around the Serve America Act – urging the House and the Senate to pass this historic legislation to bring more human capital to vulnerable people and communities in a time of rising need. ServeNext joined the rest of the service field to unite our collective voices that led to the bipartisan passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in April of 2009.


*Please note: all expenses for work during the presidential and congress campaigns were paid for by our sister organization, ServeNext Citizen Action.