The Fieldstone Alliance Nonprofit Guide to Crafting Effective Mission and Vision Statements

Emil Angelica

Description

Bring focus and direction to your work

Too often, if you ask four people in a nonprofit what their organization's mission is, you'll get four different answers. Organizations without clearly defined and agreed-to mission and vision statements frequently find themselves adrift at sea, in real financial trouble, and unable to make an ongoing, positive impact on the community. 

But an effective mission and vision statement can help an organization unify services and create a consistent approach to new program development. 

Crafting Effective Mission and Vision Statements will help your organization develop (or revise) mission and vision statements that bring focus and direction to your work. With orderly, easy-to-follow steps, this engaging guide helps you: 

• Build ownership for the mission and vision statements among board and staff
• Create a common understanding of your organization’s goals
• Understand how mission and vision statements differ and how to use both for greatest benefit
• Develop a mission statement that captures exactly what your organization does
• Create a vision statement based on stakeholders’ ideas and the organization’s history, capacity for growth, and fundraising potential

Use this guide to create mission and vision statements that help your organization stay focused and keep it moving toward a positive future.

Sujets

• vision
• Strategic Planning
• Economics
• Business

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781618588975
• Langue: English

Extrait

Copyright © 2001 Fieldstone Alliance
 
Fieldstone Alliance is committed to strengthening the performance of the nonprofit sector. Through the synergy of its consulting, training, publishing, and research and demonstration projects, Fieldstone Alliance provides solutions to issues facing nonprofits, funders, and the communities they serve. Fieldstone Alliance was formerly Wilder Publishing and Wilder Consulting departments of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. For information about other Fieldstone Alliance publications, see the last page of this book. If you would like more information about Fieldstone Alliance and our services, please contact us at
 
1-800-274-6024
www.FieldstoneAlliance.org
 
Edited by Vincent Hyman and Dale S. Thompson
Illustrations and book design by Rebecca Andrews
 
Manufactured in the United States of America
Third printing, January 2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Angelica, Emil, 1946-
The Wilder nonprofit field guide to crafting effective mission and vision statements / by Emil Angelica.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
9781618588975
ISBN-10: 0-940069-27-X (pbk.)
1. Mission statements. I. Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. II. Title.
HD30.285 .A54 2001
658.4’012--dc21
2001003263
Limited permission to copy
We have developed this publication to benefit nonprofit and community organizations. To enable this, we grant the purchaser of this work limited permission to reproduce forms, charts, graphics, or brief excerpts from the book so long as the reproductions are for direct use by the individual or organization that purchased the book and not for use by others outside the organization. For example, an organization that purchased the book to help its staff or board make plans relevant to the topic of this book may make copies of material from the book to distribute to others in the organization as they plan.
 
For permission to make multiple copies outside of the permission granted here—for example, for training, for use in a compilation of materials, for public presentation, or to otherwise distribute portions of the book to organizations and individuals that did not purchase the book—please visit the publisher’s web site, www.FieldstoneAlliance.org/permissions .
 
Aside from the limited permission granted here, all other rights not expressly granted here are reserved.
The publisher wishes to thank the people who participated in the field test review of this book:
Bryan Barry Pixie Martin Lesley Blicker Pat Peterson Maricarmen Cortes Judy Sharken Simon Paul Fate Karen Simmons Peggy Futch Larry Sommer Linda Hoskins Yorn Yan
To MIPPERS, the little “bird” who has stuck with me for over 35 years.
About the Author
EMIL W. ANGELICA, M.B.A., is president of the Community Consulting Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was a principal consultant with the Wilder Foundation’s Center for Communities for more than eighteen years. He has more than twenty-five years experience in providing consulting and training services in the topics of board and staff development, strategic planning, forming alliances, policy and community development, and nonprofit management. He has worked on a broad range of mergers, collaborations, and projects for refugee and immigrant communities. He is known as a national speaker and trainer. In 1998-99 he was commissioned as a Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus. He has published several articles on nonprofit funding issues and has conducted workshops and keynotes on a variety of nonprofit topics. He is coauthor of Coping with Cutbacks: The Nonprofit Guide to Success When Times Are Tight, also published by Fieldstone Alliance (formerly Wilder Publishing Center). Emil earned his M.B.A in finance and management from New York University.
Acknowledgments
Many people helped me bring this book to life.
 
Thanks to Vince Hyman for encouraging, supporting, and threatening me until I put fingers to keyboard; to Becky Andrews for her design skills and the special character of her humor and drawings; and to Dale Thompson for a first-class editing job that made my thinking understandable.
 
Special thanks to my colleagues at Wilder Foundation, who taught me much and gave me their professional expertise when needed. In particular, thanks to Bryan Barry, Carol Lukas, and Judy Sharken Simon, with whom I have worked for fifteen years.
 
Thanks to Jean Wieger, who taught me about intuition and how to access its power.
 
Thanks to the following individuals and organizations who contributed examples to this book—Kimberly Anderson, Executive Director, National Association for the Mentally Ill–Minnesota Chapter; Lawrence H. Borom, President/CEO, The City, Inc.; Claudia Dengler, Vice President, Services to Children, Elderly, and Families, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation; William R. King, Senior Vice President, Minnesota Council on Foundations; Eric Stevens, Executive Director, Courage Center.
 
Thanks to the book review team—Bryan Barry, Lesley Blicker, Maricarmen Cortes, Paul Fate, Peggy Futch, Linda Hoskins, Pixie Martin, Pat Peterson, Judy Sharken Simon, Karen Simmons, Larry Sommer, and Yorn Yan—who gave their attention to reviewing drafts of this book and whose comments and critiques enabled me to strengthen it.
 
And finally, thanks to my wife, Marion, who has supported all my endeavors for thirty-five years and believes in me; and my son, Ethan, and daughter, Carmen, who sharpen my management and observation skills and provide me with a wealth of stories.
Table of Contents
Title Page Copyright Page Dedication About the Author Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION - Why Mission and Vision Statements Are So Important: Opportunities Lost... and Gained PART I - Understanding and Using Mission and Vision Statements
How Mission and Vision Work Together Using Mission and Vision Statements
PART II - Developing the Mission Statement
Step 1: Select the Mission Statement Writing Team Step 2: Clarify Core Values Step 3: Review the Organization’s Underlying Strategies Step 4: Evaluate the Current Mission Statement Step 5: Draft the Mission Statement Step 6: Circulate the Mission Statement for Review and Modify It Step 7: Adopt the Mission Statement Step 1: Select the Mission Statement Writing Team Step 2: Clarify Core Values Step 3: Review the Organization’s Underlying Strategies Step 4: Evaluate the Current Mission Statement Step 5: Draft the Mission Statement Step 6: Circulate the Mission Statement for Review and Modify It Step 7: Adopt the Mission Statement
PART III - Developing the Vision Statement
Find out what significant stakeholders think Consider your organization’s history, capacity, and potential resources Step 1: Select the Vision Statement Writing Team Step 2: Generate Alternative Visions Step 3: Identify Common Themes Step 4: Draft the Vision Statement Step 5: Circulate the Vision Statement for Review and Modify It Step 6: Adopt the Vision Statement
The Leadership Benefits of Crafting Mission and Vision Statements More results-oriented books from Fieldstone Alliance Ordering Information
INTRODUCTION
Why Mission and Vision Statements Are So Important: Opportunities Lost... and Gained

“C’mon, put some muscle into it…we’re not getting anywhere!”
A S A CONSULTANT to nonprofit organizations I often begin my work with an organization by asking to see the current mission and vision statements. The response can give me a pretty clear picture of how the organization functions. On one such occasion, I was working with an organization that was having significant financial problems, and within a day it was easy to see why. In individual interviews, I asked board members and staff from throughout the organization to tell me the organization’s mission and vision for the future. Each person I spoke with had a different take on where the organization was going.
 
This organization faced the three typical problems experienced by organizations that lack visible, well-defined mission and vision statements: Disjointed and competing programs. Since program managers each acted on their own version of the organization’s mission and vision for the future, programs had developed in a scattered way and were disconnected from each other. There were instances where programs were actually working on competing outcomes for customers. Decreased funding. In the absence of clear statements of a desired future, the staff had resorted to chasing dollars to fund programs and services. Programs and services were developed based on the funders’ goals rather than the organization’s mission and vision. Eventually funders and donors realized what was happening, and support to the organization declined. Poor decision-making. Without having a working mission or vision statement that they had agreed to, board members had nothing to anchor decisions on. When the staff and community asked board members to make choices, they were at a loss because one option appeared to be as good as another. The board fell down on its responsibility to focus the organization and its work.
Because this organization had no clearly defined and agreed-to mission and vision statements, it was adrift at sea, in significant financial trouble, unable to make a consistent, positive impact on the community, and without any guide to get it back on course.
 
Compare this to a social service organization of similar size that had spent significant time preparing its mission and vision statements and building ownership for them by involving board and staff in their development. When I conducted interviews, everyone defined the desired future in the same way. This common understanding of the organization supported three critical outcomes: Unified and compatible services. In making decisions to contract or expand services, program staff looked first at how well the services fit with the mission and vision statements and then on need and available funding. This led to