Mavin Foundation is a community organization which seeks to build "healthy communities that celebrate and empower mixed heritage people and families."Archived 2012-03-09 at the Wayback Machine Located in Seattle, WA, Mavin has been recognized nationally for its work toward a society inclusive of those in the mixed heritage community. Mavin’s current projects include Mavin Magazine, The Generation MIX National Awareness Tour, and The MatchMaker Bone Marrow Donor Project.
MAVIN initially began in 1998 as a "national magazine dedicated to the mixed race experience." The magazine was named MAVIN (Yiddish for one who understands) by then Wesleyan University freshman Matt Kelley. In 2000, the magazine became a 501(c)3 nonprofit, intent on expanding their programming to further impact the social and political state of the mixed heritage community.
Timeline
4/28/1998: Matt Kelley announces, Mavin, a magazine for mixed race young people.
1/29/1999: Mavin magazine publishes its first issue.
2/14/2000: The magazine transitions into the 501(c)3 nonprofit Mavin Foundation.
4/4-6/2003: The Mavin Foundation National Conference on the Mixed Race Experience in Seattle, WA draws over 500 attendees.
7/1/2003: Mavin publishes the 288-page, Multiracial Child Resource Book.
10/1/2003: With money from the City of Seattle's Race Relations and Social Justice Fund, Mavin launches the pilot phase of its Community Mixed race Action Plan (MAP).
5/1/2004: Mavin partners with the Level Playing Field Institute to launch the Campus Awareness and Compliance Initiative (CACI).
4/26/2005: Mavin founder Matt Kelley provides testimony to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress on the health needs of mixed heritage Americans.
7/25/2005: Mavin launches Adoptee Empowerment Project (AEP) with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
11/14/2005: As part of Mavin's CACI project, students hand deliver 3,200 comment cards to the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., urging them to provide guidance to U.S. schools to adopt a "mark one or more races" format on forms that request racial/ethnic data. The initiative is a partnership with the Association of MultiEthnic Americans and the Hapa Issues Forum (HIF).
Full text of State of California Senate Bill SB 26 SB 26 would have required State of California agencies that directly collect demographic information to allow respondents the option of selecting more than one racial or ethnic designation. The bill was drafted and lobbied for with Mavin Foundation support (Hearing Date: April 17, 2007)