• How to Start and Grow a Think Tank
• Grassroots Leadership Guide to K-12 Education Reform
  • Prologue
  • Decide What Type of Organization You Want to Become
  • Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
  • Get Things Up and Running
    • Overview
    • Defining Your Organization: Vision, Mission, Purpose
    • Increasing your Social Return on Investment through Technology
    • Harnessing Technology to Advance Our Ideas: Doing More With Less - The Bluegrass Story
    • Measure Success, Not Just Output
    • Web Design: Planning and Best Practices
    • Integrating Podcasting Into Your Organization
    • Communicating Success: The Value of a Strategic Communications Plan
    • Great Books on Leadership and Non-Profit Management
  • Legal Reference Material
  • Organize Your Staff and Volunteers
  • Examples of Programs and Operational Materials
  • Building Coalitions
  • Getting Your Message Out/Media Relations
  • Talking with Legislators
  • Raising Money
  • History of School Choice
  • Education Reform Research and Resources
  • Resources
• Taking Donors Seriously
• Fundraising Fundamentals

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Defining Your Organization: Vision, Mission, Purpose

by Kurt T. Weber and Nicole Williams, State Policy Network

With so much to do when starting an organization, it is sometimes hard to stop, take a step back and cover the basics. That is, define your organization and what it seeks to do. However, taking the time to do this will help you make important decisions, accomplish your goals and achieve greater success in the short- and long-run.

A house built on a proper foundation can last a long time. That same house built upon a shoddy foundation will not. As with construction, so it is with an organization: The fundamentals, the foundation, must be strong.

Where to begin

When we advise any nonprofit, we begin with three basic questions:

• What is your vision?
• What is your mission?
• What is your purpose?

Once the vision, mission, and purpose are defined for an organization, it is also important to evaluate their quality:

• Is the language easy to understand?
• Does it mean the same thing to most people?
• Do they motivate you and your colleagues?

Internal application

Well-stated vision, mission, and purpose statements serve as guides and yardsticks for evaluating an organization's plans. Does every component of your plan support them? If not, can the components be authentically adjusted to support the organization's goals?

Five-point program evaluation guide

The following five questions are good to ask when evaluating whether to add a program or project. They will help you decide how your organization can best accomplish its goals.

1. Does this support and help us further our mission? (How?)
2. Does it fit our purpose? (How?)
3. Is this something we want to do? (Why?)
4. Can we get funding for it? (Where?)
5. Do we have the human resources and time to do it? If not, can we add contractors or employees to get it done? (Who?)

Example

When we worked together at Cascade Policy Institute, we faced a challenging question: Should we add a program to our busy schedule for the year? New research showed that low-income people who owned cars were able to earn more money than those who depended on mass-transit to get to work.

The proposed program, Wheels to Wealth, would provide additional research and public education elements to help verify the data and put low-income people in the region in cars. The decision-makers gathered and went through the questions:

1. Does this support and help us further our mission? (How?)
   
   The Institute's mission is to explore and advance public policy alternatives that foster individual liberty, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity. The program was definitely a fit for that.
   
   
2. Does it fit our purpose? (How?)
   
   We already had a program that focused on transit-issues in the state. Therefore, the program also dovetailed with our purpose.
   
   
3. Is this something we want to do? (Why?)
   
   One of our research analysts was excited to work on this project. In addition, our staff felt it would be a great opportunity to fulfill our mission and help some low-income people improve their financial situation.
   
   
4. Can we get funding for it? (Where?)
   
   Though we did not have funds in our budget to fund it, we felt we could apply for grants from several sources to work on this program. We made a list of possible sources.
   
   
5. Do we have the resources to do this? If not, can we add contractors or employees to get it done? (Who?)
   
   Indeed, we did not have enough staff to handle this program by ourselves, while still doing a great job with our other projects. We quickly identified a research assistant who we could add when funding for the project came through.

Though the first grant request was turned down, Cascade Policy Institute successfully secured funding. Because we had made the decision based on the above criteria, it was easy to make a strong case to potential donors that this program was important for our organization, for Oregon and, importantly, those on the lower rung of the economic ladder.

Conclusion

Defining your organization's vision, mission and purpose is an important step in the planning process because they:

• Serve as a motivator for employees, volunteers and donors
• Communicate to others what your organization does
• Are key tools in evaluating your business plan, programs and new opportunities

Kurt T. Weber is senior advisor at State Policy Network. Nicole Williams is technology and management advisor at State Policy Network and vice president of operations at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.