1. Get your mission statement right:

Sounds simple, but in the absence of a purely financial profit motive, it is important that you can articulate exactly what you are trying to achieve. This will help you communicate effectively with clients, funding organisations, partners and other stakeholders.

Does our organisation need a mission?

Every organisation (company or charity) has a mission – that is a purpose or reason for being. A mission expresses the need which your organisation intends to meet and the main benefits that it seeks to deliver. Many organisations, however, fail to identity and articulate their mission clearly. It’s useful to do this because a well-defined mission will give focus and help your organisation avoid mission drift. Decisions concerning new strategic direction can be assessed in light of the original mission of your organisation. The benefits from developing a mission include:

- Gives operational focus and sharpens long-term decision-making.
- Motivates staff and stakeholders.
- Ensures continuity of purpose, particularly helpful as new staff or Board members join the organisation.
- Helps external communications remain consistent with the mission.

Developing a mission statement

The mission should first be developed and then articulated in the form of a short statement.
It is good practice to develop the mission by consulting with a wide group including board members, staff and possibly other stakeholders and beneficiaries. Use this process to agree precisely the needs which the organisation is being (or has been) set up to meet and the main benefits that the organisation is aiming to deliver.

When developing the mission, you will have to choose whether it is specific or general. Most mission statements are general in content and represent the broadest purpose of the enterprise today. It should be possible to explain all your activities as working – either directly or indirectly – towards the fulfilment of that mission.

A mission statement needs to be relevant and alive. Developing a mission is also an exercise in setting boundaries. It should be possible to imagine a day when your mission is achieved. In this way, a mission can be said to set theoretical limits as well as targets. If an organisation delivers on its mission, then, ironically, it will have satisfied its original purpose. Of course, in practice, this rarely happens. Greenpeace would be delighted if one day it was able to cease operations because the Earth was able to “nurture life in all its diversity”.

Bear in mind the following tips when you prepare the mission statement:
- Keep it short (say 2-3 lines) so that anyone connected to the organisation can readily repeat it
- Keep it free of jargon
- Make it current and alive
- Use proactive verbs
- Ensure it resonates with the people working in and for the organisation

Examples

Greenpeace:
 “Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and force solutions for a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace's goal is to ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity.”

Amnesty:
“Promoting general awareness of human rights; and opposing specific abuses of human rights”

Wal-Mart:
“To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people”

If you’d like to learn more about how to instil and ‘live’ the mission in your organisation, or about how to measure your success against your mission, please email info@sparkchallenge.org with ‘Question for Eastside’ in the subject line or visit our website www.eastsideconsulting.co.uk.

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