When Associations Fade: Navigating Changes for Leaders of Volunteers

In September 2024, TAVA’s Leadership Committee made the difficult decision to shut down the unincorporated Toronto Association for Volunteer Administration (TAVA). The committee members quickly discovered that this wasn’t an isolated incident but one in a series of closures that affected Volunteer Leadership professional associations across Canada, in the U.S. and in other parts of the globe.

It is difficult to determine what exactly led to the demise of the Association that had served leaders of volunteers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and beyond for more than 40 years. In this Engage feature, authors and Volunteer Engagement professionals Jessica Pank-Parks and Saskia Rinkoff look back at what once made TAVA strong in order to understand its ending.