Is it time to revisit your mission statement?

Does your favorite nonprofit’s mission statement still accurately reflect the true purpose of the organization? Oftentimes, organizations change or expand the services they provide and the ways they provide them to accommodate the changing needs of the communities they serve. However, the leadership rarely takes the time to step back and assess if that mission statement on the organization’s letterhead and website is still up-to-date. Or does your organization have a mission statement that so long and complex that the board president can’t state it without referring to notes when making a presentation?

If the leadership of your organization can relate to these scenarios, it may be time to revisit your mission statement.

Ideally, a nonprofit organization’s mission statement should clearly articulate in one concise statement what the organization does, for whom or what the organization does it, and where. Most foundation grant applications require organizations to include their mission statement in funding requests. By reviewing an organization’s mission statement, a funder can immediately determine if the organization’s mission is in alignment with the foundation’s giving priorities. Funders are hesitant to commit resources to some ambiguous purpose, making it extremely important for a mission statement to be clear enough to individuals who are not familiar with the organization to understand what the organization actually does.

Sonoma Valley’s La Luz Center has an extremely succinct, focused mission statement: Empowering our community through education, leadership, and self-advocacy.  La Luz Center’s Executive Director, Juan Hernandez, includes this mission statement in every public presentation he makes. He commented, “Saying the mission statement is a starting point for the story of the organization.  I then, depending on the audience, go back and tell the history of La Luz Center in relation to the mission statement or I go forward and tell the story of how we are meeting the mission statement.”

The simplicity of that organization’s mission statement makes it easy for the leadership to keep the mission at the core of everything it does to serve Sonoma Valley’s Latino community.

To craft an effective mission statement, many organizational leaders conduct a planning retreat to gather input from the board and staff. In addition, some organizations use interviews or focus groups to get opinions from their clients and community partners regarding the organization’s purpose. Regardless of how an organization’s leadership gains input to craft or re-write its mission statement, the answers to the following questions will provide focus: (1) Why does the organization exist?; (2) What is the end result of our work?; (3) What societal problems do we hope to solve through our work?; (4) What activities will we conduct to enable us to reach our goals?; (5) What makes our organization unique?; (6) Who or what will benefit from our work?; and (7) What core values drive our work?

Sonoma Valley Teen Services (SVTS) recently changed its mission statement. This new mission statement, “The purpose of SVTS is to provide employment and career services that empower teens to develop into happy, healthy, contributing members of their community,” replaced this old one, “The mission of SVTS is to empower Sonoma Valley youth to make positive choices for their health, safety, education and future.” According to Board President Marguerite Ladue, “The former mission was way too vague and broad…and it left us open to many interpretations.  As a result, we were incorporating everything into our programs with no way of prioritizing where our efforts should be concentrated. We were everything and when asked what we did, any number of answers were provided, which diluted our messaging and caused confusion…It is only by being specific that you can deliver a consistent message and be truly distinct, memorable and effective.” Ladue added, “A clear, concise mission statement is absolutely essential.  It’s what guides and informs all efforts and is the vehicle for getting everyone on the same page and working together towards a common goal.”

In addition to a one-sentence statement, many organizations choose to elaborate the mission by adding their vision for the future and their values or guiding principles. Sonoma’s WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center was originally called WillMar Center for Bereaved Children. After its board of directors engaging in a strategic planning process almost three years ago, the organization’s leadership determined that it was essential to change the organization’s mission statement to include families, because, according to WillMar’s Executive Director Barbara Cullen, “Grief support for children and teens is most effective when the whole family is included. As a result, our name changed to reflect our new mission statement.”  Cullen added, “Although WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center’s stated mission is only two lines, it is very powerful: WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center provides compassionate peer group support for children and teens, and their families who are grieving the death of a loved one, and for those living with family members struggling with a life-changing illness or injury. In addition to the safe, healing environment offered at the Center, WillMar also provides emergency on-site grief support, education, and training to schools and the community at large.”

Since so much of the organization’s work was being conducted in the community and not just within the walls of the center, WillMar’s board thought it was essential to add that second sentence describing its outreach efforts. Cullen concluded, “Our board of directors went through a thoughtful and thorough review of our mission statement to make it as concise and meaningful as possible. This process helped to set the primary focus of our organization for our staff, volunteers and for the families that we serve. Our mission statement is also a very useful tool for soliciting funds for our free programming.”

Although it’s essential to get broad input in the development of your mission statement, it is difficult for a group to wordsmith the actual statement. The easiest way is usually to ask one or two individuals to draft the document and then ask them to present it to the group, such as the board, for feedback. Expect this process to take several iterations of edits before you have the finished product that is approved by consensus. And just when you think you have the perfect mission statement, five years down the road, take the opportunity to revisit it again to ensure that you’re still on track with serving the community’s needs.

Dr. B.J. Bischoff owns Bischoff Performance Improvement Consulting, a Sonoma firm specializing in building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and public sector agencies to better serve their stakeholders. She assists her clients with strategic planning, training resulting in performance improvement, fund development, and community relations.  She is past president of Impact100 Sonoma and serves as a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors’ appointee to the Sonoma County Portfolio of Model Upstream Programs Review Committee. [email protected].