by Todd Pheifer

Created on: June 29, 2009

The mission statement is an odd part of organizational culture because some entities live every day with a sense of their written purpose while other organizations have never taken the time to even write a mission statement. Many organizations fall somewhere in the middle, where they have a written statement, but it is not necessarily a major part of their organizational culture. The non-profit is in a unique position of existing for some other purpose besides profit, which means that their particular mission statement may be more important in terms of institutional identity. Here are a few thoughts on the importance of a non-profit mission statement.

Purpose

First of all, a non-profit mission statement may serve to educate the community on why the organization actually exists. There are times where a non-profit organization performs a very specific function that is easy to explain and understand. However, there are other entities that either do a variety of functions or the work that they do is a bit nebulous and somewhat difficult to easily present. In those cases, a concise mission statement may serve as a conduit for explaining to the community why they should be interested in the non-profit organization.

Inspiration

Another purpose of the non-profit mission statement is that it can serve to inspire people or organizations that may come in contact with the institution. In many situations, a non-profit organization is formed to support a particular need or cause. Therefore, people who work for non-profits often wish to "inspire" the general public to support the organization. While inspiration is accomplished in many ways, a mission statement may be part of that process.

Differentiation

The non-profit mission statement is also valuable because it may be one way to separate the non-profit from other businesses. As mentioned, the mission statement is used by many organizations and they come in all sizes and styles. Sometimes the mission statement of a for-profit company can read like a greeting card or a compassionate charity rather than a mega-business that will make a profit at all costs. Therefore, the non-profit organization needs to use their mission statement at times to differentiate themselves through particular words, phrases, and concepts. It may be valuable at times to spell out the fact that the organization is a non-profit. Or, if the organization is affiliated with another known non-profit entity, that identity may also serve to differentiate the non-profit.

Focus

Finally, the non-profit mission statement may be one way to maintain focus within organization. A non-profit status does not shield such organizations from dealing with strategy, personnel, and budgetary issues. The non-profit organization still has to deal with aspects of business, which can be distracting at times. Therefore, the mission statement may serve as a consistent reminder that the non-profit is different. In addition, it may help create a sense of accountability for people working within the organization. Though non-profit staffers must run an organization, they are also there for a different purpose and hopefully the mission statement will help them non lose sight of that purpose.

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