Read on for more guidance about how to create simple yet compelling mission and vision statements.
www.wiley.com/go/nonprofitkitfd6e for a list of web resources related to the topics we cover in this chapter.
Honing Your Mission Statement
The mission statement is an organization’s heartbeat (see Figure 4-1). In anatomy, your heart is the engine that fuels your entire body. For your nonprofit, the mission conveys the passion in your existence. Your mission statement impacts every stakeholder and is the reason your staff shows up at work. It’s the reason your board members work hard to support the nonprofit’s work in the community. The mission statement is the driving mantra for your volunteers who show up day after day to roll up their sleeves and carry out their job descriptions. Finally, your mission statement is the living, breathing, actionable reason that other organizations in the community want to be partners and step up, when needed, to fill gaps in services. Most importantly, a succinct and compassion-filled mission statement speaks to the hearts (and wallets) of potential donors.
FIGURE 4-1: A strong mission statement is an organization’s heartbeat.
Memorable: You want to carry the statement around in your mind — at all times. Stakeholders should be able to remember it with ease and help your organization live it in their daily contributions.
Focused: You want the statement to be narrow enough to focus on the reason our organization exists but broad enough to support organizational growth and expansion.
Compelling: You want to communicate the need your organization addresses and the importance of doing something about it. (Bonus points if it also attracts potential board members to want to join your board and be a part of ongoing inspiration and change.)
Easy to read: Your statement should be written in plain language so that folks don’t need a set of footnotes to decipher it. Be sure to limit your use of adjectives, and try to avoid jargon.
After you decide on your organization’s mission statement, you can use it as your go-to reference when making decisions about your nonprofit’s activities. Add your mission statement to your Form 990 tax report to the IRS, in brochures, and in grant proposals. You may even print it on business cards for your board members and staff.
JARGON IS NOT YOUR FRIEND
Jargon is a term for words that have specialized meaning within an industry or profession. When you’re communicating with colleagues, everyone knows the meaning of the specialized words you use. But when you’re writing for the general public — the people who are the target of your mission statement — you should use words that have a common meaning for everyone.
For example, if you’re an educator, you’re probably familiar with the term scaffolding. In education, the word is used as shorthand to describe the process of using the skills that students already have to help them learn new skills. If you’re a housepainter, it means something entirely different.
Think about the words you use to describe your mission and make sure everyone knows what they mean.
Keeping your mission statement short and sweet
Times have changed from when nonprofit organizations had long, drawn-out mission statements that spanned pages and read like a rambling fact sheet. Instead, we suggest keeping your mission statement short and succinct — aim for one or two memorable sentences that speak about the present and can be easily remembered by your board members, staff, volunteers, and community stakeholders. That way, everyone can remember why your nonprofit organization exists, what it does for the community, and how they can help it stay on focus daily. Save your lengthy writing for the vision statement.
Here’s a sample mission statement with the most important words bolded to amplify the nonprofit’s reason for existence, intent, and focus.
The mission of the Grant Writing Training Foundation is to educate, empower, and enlighten nonprofit staff through affordable professional development training.
What do your board members need to remember when they’re out and about in the community? “We educate, empower, and enlighten your staff through affording training programs.” This is short, sweet, and memorable — and it makes sense when the full mission statement is shortened.
Stating your mission — the goal for services
When thinking of your organization’s reason for existing, think of your desired end result. What would you like to see happen? What would the world (or your community) be like if your organization were to succeed?
To say that you have to have a mission to change lives seems almost too basic. Maybe you’re thinking, “Of course I have a reason for forming my nonprofit. Why do you think I bought this book? I want to start a nonprofit to [fill in the blank].” We bring up this point because clarifying the reason for your nonprofit’s existence is basic to creating your mission statement. Why should your nonprofit exist?
For example, you may know that you love cats and dogs and have always wanted to work with them, but that isn’t the same thing as identifying a nonprofit organization’s reason for existing. The mission statement for a fictitious humane society might be written this way:
Friends of Animals provides temporary shelter and medical care for homeless puppies, dogs, kittens, and cats until responsible, loving homes can be found.
This sentence doesn’t describe the shelter’s facilities or how it recruits and trains volunteers, but it does clearly state which animals it serves and that it doesn’t intend to foster them as long as they live but rather to place them in good homes. And if someone visited Friends of Animals with a ferret, a pony, or a tarantula, its staff would know to refer that person to another shelter.