The Mission Continues

In every community and every program, our primary goal is developing veteran community leaders. Whatever the program, The Mission Continues experience forges veterans into civic leaders who are ready, willing and empowered to serve again—as local change makers and leaders. We harness this desire to serve, building veterans’ critical skills through training and by creating meaningful service opportunities nationwide.

For more than a decade, we have honed in on what makes The Mission Continues experience so special and transformative for veterans—the chance to connect with fellow veterans and communities to become leaders through service opportunities and targeted skills training. All of our programs employ this distinctive formula.

We have deep experience delivering on the critical issue of translating military skills to civilian skills. Ninety-four percent of veterans who serve in our programs report that they feel they have the skills and ability to make a difference in their community—and more than half feel more equipped to work in the civilian world.

Our Unique Approach: Veteran-led Collective Action
The experience of serving in the military forges deep bonds that endure for life. Ask any veteran what they miss about serving in the military and you are likely to hear about the camaraderie and feeling of a shared purpose. The Mission Continues taps into this unique dynamic and empowers veterans with a new mission and the chance to build new bonds—with veterans as well as community members—as they continue their service, together. It works. In 2018, nearly 65 percent of veterans joined our program to serve others, and 57 percent joined to connect with veterans specifically. Participants describe the relationships they developed with The Mission Continues members as unique compared to other relationships in their life. In fact, 90 percent say they would help a fellow volunteer in need under most circumstances—proof of the strength of these new bonds.

The principle of working as a team is central to military service—making veterans particularly well suited to leading collective efforts and inspiring a local corps of civilians and veterans to rally together. With operations in 56 cities, we deploy veteran volunteers alongside nonprofit partners and community leaders to tackle tough problems in under-resourced communities nationwide. Once again, veterans can come together to do what drew them to military service in the first place: making a difference and helping others. Through this unique model, veterans become leaders and build new skills and networks that help them successfully reintegrate to life after the military—while making long-term, visible transformations in communities. We also offer intensive and targeted programming for leadership training and open up pathways that connect veterans to new life and career opportunities that match their skills. Over ten years, we have activated more than 30,000 volunteers who have completed more than 1.2 million hours of service.

Community and veteran side by side, fixing up a neighborhood or refurbishing a school—this is the special power of The Mission Continues. By inspiring collective, community action, our service projects have helped break down barriers between veterans and civilians. These connections are profoundly meaningful to both parties.

With both national reach and a strong local presence in more than 40 cities from Los Angeles to New York, The Mission Continues is especially well positioned to reach thousands of veterans, while having meaningful impact in communities. We have developed strong relationships with local organizations and understand each area’s specific challenges. Working closely with these partners, we can be the boots on the ground. We are invested in these communities—and able to respond immediately during a crisis, or help with long-term community change.

For more than a decade, we have honed in on what makes The Mission Continues experience so special and transformative for veterans—the chance to connect with fellow veterans and communities to become leaders through service opportunities and targeted skills training.

Since 2007, as an organization, we have completed 1,250,580 hours of service, contribution over $30M in community investments. Starting with just five platoons in 2013, we now operate in more than 40 cities. Since our founding, we have engaged more than 80,000 volunteers in service and executed more than 7000 service events and supported more than 3800 nonprofit community organizations.
Throughout challenging conditions in 2020 due to COVID, The Mission Continues activated more than 5000 veterans and volunteers in service. In 2020, we held 274 projects and engaged 1891 veterans and volunteers through Operation Nourish--our response to growing food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our veterans consistently rate their experiences with The Mission Continues as very positive and report a significantly higher sense of purpose, resilience and positive relations with others compared to non-Mission Continues program participants.

In our 2020 annual survey of participants:
-91% of veterans who volunteer with our Service Platoon would recommend The Mission Continues to other veterans.
- We have a Net Promoter Score of 84 with veterans who have engaged with The Mission Continues over the past 2 years.

This positive feedback is proof that our model works in helping veterans find a meaningful outlet that fulfills their desire to keep serving. We are dedicated to continuing to fill this national need and reach more veterans and communities through our veteran-led community change movement. We are currently investing in our Regional Operations and Program Strategy teams and in our infrastructure to prepare The Mission Continues for our next era of impact and sustained growth nationwide.