January 7, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Creating a mission statement can sometimes feel as “difficult and unrewarding as having a root canal,” writes Kelly Kleiman on her blog The Nonprofiteer. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
Ms. Kleiman writes that charities can simplify the process by spending an hour — or even just 15 minutes — drafting a single sentence that outlines their mission.
The statement, she says, should take the following form: “We do [activity] so that [result will occur].”
Among the examples she gives: “We conduct educational campaigns so the public will demand legislation outlawing smoking,” and “We commission and perform new plays so we can keep alive a sense that it’s important to experience things in other people’s company and not just alone at our computers.”
Avoid replacing “so that” with “because,” Ms. Kleiman writes. “If you use the word “because” you’ll end up with statements like, “We produce plays because drama is important,” that is, ideas at a level of generality too great to be useful,” she says.
While mission statements need not take forever to write, they can help charities bring in more money. Ms. Kleiman writes of donors: “Either they’ll think your activity is valuable in and of itself (and will pay for it); or they’ll agree with your reasoning that your activity will lead to your outcome and they like both (and will pay for it); or they’ll be so gung-ho about your outcome that they’ll be willing to gamble that your activity will actually produce it.”
What do you think? Are mission statements valuable? And would Ms. Kleiman’s advice on how to craft them work for your charity? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
