Mission: The Heart of Your Organization & Legacy
Your heart is one of the most valuable components of your body. Without your heart, you would cease to live. The heart is the organ that effortlessly transports blood and oxygen, the life-giving force, throughout your body. In addition to the contributions of your heart to your physical body, we also anecdotally attribute our feelings and emotions to the heart. As important as your heart is to your body and your emotions, your nonprofit's organizational mission is just as critical to the health and legacy of your nonprofit and the change that you want to create in the world.
Your mission is the cornerstone of your nonprofit's activities; it is the core reason that your nonprofit exists. A strong mission defines the purpose of the organization and is the lifeblood of your activities and your impact. Merriam-Webster defines mission as "a preestablished and often self-imposed objective or purpose." In this way, a clearly defined mission directs the focus of your leadership, your programming, and ultimately your funding. Your mission articulates for prospective donors why your nonprofit exists and how they can help you make a difference. How you define your organization's mission addresses, for prospective volunteers, board members, clients, and donors, why you feel the cause is important, why it needs to be resolved now, and how you plan to solve the problems. At its best, it is a clear, concise manifesto for your organization that can focus stakeholders and rally them into action.
Yet, creating the mission is not quite as simple as defining what the cause is and how you are going to develop a solution in a single pithy statement. Your organization's mission actually defines the impact that you want to make in the world and is a reflection of both your organization's branding and, even more importantly, your actions. A great mission reflects the values that you want the organization to represent in society and should also demonstrate the personal values of your key leadership staff and board.
When your mission does not match your organizational values and actions, you create mistrust among the public, which discredits both your organization and your leadership and repels funders. Ensuring that your organization's mission is meaningful to you in some way as a result of a personal experience or profound interest in a cause helps establish you as someone who not only cares deeply but also has some expertise related to the cause. This is a distinct feature of nonprofit engagement. In the corporate world, profitability often matters more than values, but for nonprofits mission and value connection is imperative.
A nonprofit mission connects your values and your rationale for action and becomes the heart of your nonprofit's branding and programming. It is what you stand for and what you become known as. In his book Start With Why, Simon Sinek describes how the most successful marketing actually addresses why, not what or how. In creating a strong mission, you are indeed addressing why the cause is important, why people should care and become involved, and why it makes a difference in society. Strong mission statements form the cornerstone of all of your marketing and donor materials and make it easier to define the programs that you will create to achieve meaningful results. Additionally and by default, your organization's mission defines your humanitarian or philanthropic legacy.
In many cases, when creating a nonprofit, our first instinct is to get busy and begin solving the problems as quickly as possible. If we fail to create a clear mission to guide our beliefs and actions, then we risk operating without a clear purpose and direction. Just like our heart, a clear, concise mission drives specific, meaningful results behind the scenes that ultimately results in achieving key accomplishments and outcomes.
Fullanthropy Perspective:
Mission is the cornerstone of CLAIM Your Legacy™. Without a clearly defined mission that inspires action and engagement, you weaken the remaining pillars necessary to build and maintain a healthy, sustainable nonprofit. If you are curious about how your mission impacts your nonprofit, Chart Your Impact™ by taking this simple yes or no quiz.