Mapping Your Future outlines narrower mission, ends two large online services and highlights state partnerships

Catherine Mueller, presenter for Mapping Your Future, told the Financial Aid Advisory Committee the nonprofit has refocused its work and services to better match its core mission.

The Washington‑based nonprofit “continues to be a college access organization,” Mueller said, adding the group’s mission “is to help students succeed” by providing college, career, financial aid and financial‑literacy information. She said Mapping Your Future has narrowed its priorities to three areas: college access, communication services and education and training.

Mueller told the committee the organization recently stopped offering two major operational services — its interactive online entrance/exit counseling and a secure document portal called Mapping Express — because the cost and complexity of maintaining them outstripped program revenue. “It was beginning to cost us more than the support that we were receiving for the program,” she said of those services.

The organization now emphasizes free tools and content on its website, including calculators (budget, income‑based repayment and a “debt‑salary wizard”), webinars, newsletters and downloadable guides. Mueller demonstrated the site’s tools during her presentation, showing the budgeting and tracking features and a career‑search module that uses Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Mueller also described two state‑level projects Mapping Your Future operates: a long‑running, statewide college‑access partnership with South Dakota funded by the South Dakota Education Access Foundation, and a platform built to meet a Virginia statutory requirement that students considering private loans complete private‑loan counseling. The Virginia site, virginiastudentloanhelp.org, includes curricula, a course aligned to Virginia economic‑and‑personal‑finance mandates and tools for high school students, college students and borrowers.

Mueller said Mapping Your Future is neutral and nonproprietary: “We are a neutral and non proprietary source of information and services,” she said, noting that neutrality has been important in the organization’s long history of working with states and schools. She invited FAAC members to share Mapping Your Future materials with students and counselors and provided an 800 number and feedback email for follow‑up.

Committee members asked whether Mapping Your Future produces materials suitable for parents with limited literacy or English‑language skills. Mueller said the organization tries to simplify content and that it offers translations and interpreter support for some events, but she would follow up about specific low‑literacy materials.

Mapping Your Future’s presentation included examples of downloadable counselor resources, a “success in college” guide that can be printed as a poster, and state‑specific calendars and flyers for events and scholarships. Mueller encouraged FAAC members to review the group’s newsroom and subscribe to its newsletters.

The presentation closed with questions from committee members about parent FSA ID help and the handling of personal information; Mueller said Mapping Your Future can produce explanatory materials on data use and privacy and would follow up on available resources.

Mueller’s slides and the organization’s links were offered to the committee for later distribution.