MFOA's 2025–2029 Strategic Plan
As we entered our fourth decade, buoyed by indicators of organizational, programmatic, and financial stability, we asked ourselves and our community: how can we increase our impact?
MFOA's 2025–2029 strategic plan is the culmination of a two-year process of reflection, research, and synthesis, and will be our operational guide through the remainder of the 2020s. It sets five distinct but interconnected goals for the organization to achieve in this time period, all of which will support the strengthening of the organization itself and the establishment of a second site of Mathcamp!
What's Next
We're very excited about our next steps. Just as it takes a village to make Mathcamp happen each summer, so too will it take our whole (wonderful) village to put this theory into practice! Here are some opportunities right away to get involved:
- For everybody: Support Mathcamp’s Future - our big dreams will require some big investments!
- For Alumni + Veterans: Update your information in our database! We'd love to know where you are now.
- For Alumni: Volunteer to participate in focus groups. As we design how a second site of Mathcamp will work, we will want to ask questions of our alumni (that we haven’t even thought of yet), and we'd love to get lots of perspectives in the mix.
- For Veterans: Volunteer to participate in design discussion groups. Mathcamp always has been and always will be committed to centering our Veteran community in consequential decisions about the core design of Mathcamp.
Keep an eye out by email for opportunities to learn more about the Strategic Plan and to stay involved!
About the Plan
We began the planning process by assessing the current state of MFOA, and then examining the ecosystem around us and determining what role we should play. At each step, indicators pointed to the national need for more access to math enrichment. This is consistent with our experience: in just two years, from 2022 to 2024, new student applications for Mathcamp doubled.
We’ve identified five interconnected goals which speak to this need, capitalize on our organization’s capacity and stability, and create an opportunity for us to substantially increase our impact.
Just as each word in the mission statement had to earn its place: in this plan, each tactic, strategy, and goal directly serves our mission to create and expand access to joyous communities built around a shared curiosity of deep mathematics.
Goal 1: Double the number of students served at Mathcamp every year (+)
Our first goal is to expand Mathcamp’s impact by doubling the number of students served per year.
Interest in Mathcamp has exploded in recent years, with hundreds of highly qualified young people vying for just 65 new student spots per year.
Over the course of this plan, we will open a second site, running two Mathcamp sessions in parallel each summer. Our strategic plan provides a framework for growing intentionally in a way that maintains the transformative nature of the Mathcamp experience: our unparalleled academic offerings, the central function of Mathcamp's community, and the welcoming power of Mathcamp's culture.
Goal 2: Evolve and grow our organizational structure (+)
Our second goal is to evolve MFOA’s organizational structure so that Mathcamp can grow successfully while continuing to foster a high level of trust and empowerment.
We are at a natural inflection point on our journey as an organization, and in the next five years, we will refine and update the systems that make Mathcamp work: decision-making processes, roles at camp and behind the scenes, and communication systems.
Mathcamp’s distinctive structure aims to prioritize consensus and to balance individual autonomy with collective responsibility; we will honor this vision while adapting to serve our needs for growth and nimbleness, both now and in the future.
Goal 3: Strengthen the deep sense of belonging for all (+)
Our third goal is to strengthen the deep sense of belonging for all of Mathcamp’s students and staff, at each site and across sites.
Mathcamp's culture is central to the magic of Mathcamp. It has grown organically and spontaneously, and each year, it reflects the partial sum of the accumulated experiences of camps to date. As our community grows over the next five years, we will build more intentionality into our mathematical and social structures so that everyone who interacts with Mathcamp feels proactively welcomed and that their additions to the culture are needed. Our vision is that all of our community members—both those who have been with us for decades, and those who will join us in the years to come—experience a welcoming and inclusive environment at Mathcamp.
Goal 4: Define and build Mathcamp’s profile as a catalyst (+)
Our fourth goal is to define and build Mathcamp’s profile as a catalyst for career, education, and personal development in order to strengthen the organization’s sustainability.
Those in the know might describe Mathcamp as a "best-kept secret" among summer opportunities for curious students and passionate leaders. In the next five years, we will build relationships to open new doors, both into Mathcamp and along the myriad pathways that our students and staff follow after camp. We will illustrate what it means to have had a Mathcamp experience, the lasting impact that has on students and staff, and the enduring value that brings to their future life, studies, and professional pursuits.
Goal 5: Serve as a driving force in math enrichment (+)
Our fifth goal is to serve as a driving force and thought leader in the math enrichment ecosystem.
MFOA’s mission is to create and increase access to joyous student communities built around shared curiosity for deep mathematics. Through our 30+ years of running Mathcamp, we have developed deep expertise in pedagogy, community-building, and systems. In the next five years, we will seek out, identify, and pursue opportunities to leverage our expertise to benefit the math enrichment field at large and further our mission.
Thank you to the many, many voices and helping hands who contributed to building our first-ever strategic plan. And thank you to the 30+ generations of Mathcamp students and staff: your magic is what makes Mathcamp home, for all of us and for many generations to follow.
