7 Reasons to Refresh your Mission and Vision Statements

By Jennifer E. Goldman, President of Resonance, LLC 

 

 

Very few nonprofit organizations get years down the road and decide to change their mission, but sometimes it’s a great idea to change your mission statement. And while you’re at it, take a hard look at your vision statement, too.

 

Here’s why:

• Did the board that set up the organization know the difference between a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement? The vision statement should exhibit what the world would look like if your organization accomplished its mission. (Think “In a perfect world...”) The Mission Statement should say HOW you plan to accomplish your vision.
• How old are these statements? After many years a Vision and Mission Statement can get old, stale, dated. Your organization my seek to accomplish the same thing, but the language may need a refresh.
• How old is your board? Not the ages of your members; the length of time the members have been with the organization. In many instances a board that has no original (founding) members isn’t especially tied with the Vision and Mission Statements formed so long ago. In some cases, it’s helpful to have your board review and refresh your statements simply in order to have them feel more ownership, more buy-in, more engaged.
• Who wrote this stuff anyway? Sometimes the people involved in the organization didn’t even create the Vision and Mission Statements – the attorneys did. Often founding board members hire an attorney to set up an organization, create the Articles of Incorporation, and other initial documents, and the Vision and Mission Statements may be contained therein and never refined into “normal people” jargon. If your board or target market can’t identify with your statements, the organization’s sustainability may be in jeopardy.
• Are you talkin’ to me? Has the audience, donors or benefactors of your organization changed over the years? If so, then it may be a good idea to review and refresh your statements to better connect with your present community.
•  Use your words...just not that many! If your Vision and Mission Statements are too long to be easily memorized and recited by staff and board members, they’re too long. Less is more – revise the statements to be true to their integrity but briefer; more easily digested.
•  Does your Mission Statement require a magician? It’s common for founding members of a nonprofit to want to do sooooo many good things, but it’s not realistic to believe that any one organization is going to: cure cancer, eradicate hunger, eliminate homelessness and teach the world to sing on top of it. If your organization’s Mission or Vision Statement just aren’t realistic then it’s time to bring them under a microscope and scale it back to something reasonable.

Having your staff and board get together to review and refresh your organizational Vision and Mission Statements is a fantastic team building exercise that can lead to elevated levels of morale and engagement. But you don’t have to do it all yourselves. Engaging your community by including them in your process may also have the positive side effect of increasing volunteerism and donation levels. Public outreach through surveys and virtual town hall meetings is a great way to engage your stakeholders prior to your staff and board meeting to discuss and make decisions about the Vision and Mission Statements. Bringing in a facilitator may also be helpful to ensure the project stays on track and is accomplished appropriately and in a timely fashion; they can also bridge the gaps in communication that can sometimes occur between staff and board members and guarantee that all parties are heard. In the end, what you want is a Vision Statement that says what the world looks like if you accomplish your mission and a Mission Statement that is a concise statement of how you plan to make the vision come true.