The Power of a Focused Mission Statement

Tuesday July 12, 2022 comments Tags: mission, mission statement, nonprofit, nonprofit, accounting, mission, vision

Hey, it's Chyla Graham, welcome to another season of the Nonprofit ACE Podcast this season around, we are doing some replays. So we are taking our top most downloaded episodes and giving you sort of a preview of where other people have started. I'd love to know what you all think, is there an episode that you think should have made the list? Send me a DM, best place to find me is going to be LinkedIn. But you can also reach me on Instagram. So I'll be sure to drop our handle in the show notes.

Any accounting business and tax advice contained in this podcast is not intended as a thorough in depth analysis of specific issues. Nor is it a substitute for format information. Nor is it sufficient to avoid tax related penalties. If you have specific questions that you need advice for, be sure to schedule a strategy session and not solely rely on information in this podcast.

Have you ever felt like you did not know where your organization was going, like you were completely ungrounded just going through the motions super overwhelmed and confused? It might be because you are not as clear about your mission as you could be.

I'm Chyla Graham, CNRG Accounting Advisory and I want to share a few tips for you on making your mission easier so that you can manage it and do better about making an impact. Your mission is the who and what your organization is. It is who are you serving? What are you doing with those people?

So you may be saying, Hey, we serve kids in Denver, alleviate poverty to have a great time in high school and make it into college and fulfill their best dreams. That's way too many words, way too many words. And that's why you would not feel grounded because you have all these things that are floating out in the air, that when you're ready to make a decision, you're thinking through 50 million things.

I recommend you distill it down to five words, those will be the five words that are just gonna say, who do we help? The kids. What do we help them do? To get a better future. That way, when you have a decision to make, you know, you need to point back to those two things. Are they helping the kids? Yes or No. Is it going to help them get a better future? Yes or No.

If you can't say yes to both those questions, you don't need to do it. This goes for hiring a staff member, purchasing an item, applying for a grant. If you can't say yes to both of those questions. It doesn't match the mission. So if you say oh, man, we need a new computer. Okay, that's valid, you know, organization, I need a new computer. Why do you need this new computer? Because the old one is broken? Why do we need the new computer because this new one will help us serve the kids faster. The old one is slow, it's slowing down the time we have to respond. We're all waiting for it to reboot.

You've got to really be able to point back to your why and then it'll make it easier. Why do we need the newest team member? Because we're not able to serve as many kids because we're stretched on time. Why do we need to apply for the grant? Because we need to pay for the staff member who's going to help us serve more students and help them realize their dreams.

You've got to be able to point back with every question to your what and your why because it'll save you so much time and energy. So your homework is to take however long your mission statement is, distill it. And I'm gonna give you some breaks, you have five words, but I'm aiming for three. So you're going to distill to who, one or two words about who you're serving, and the what, two to three words about the what, and then put that down someplace, put that down several places be that on your computer, it on your wall in your office, save it on your phone.

And then at your next team meeting, share that with the team. Share that with all your volunteers, share that with your board members, let them know, this is who we serve, this is what we're doing for them. That way when they need to make a decision, they can think back to those five words as opposed to the 50 words that you have put out on your newsletter and put out on your website.

All of them are just too much and no one's listening to it. It's not helping them make a decision. It might be good. It might make you feel really great. But if it's not ultimately helping you make a decision. Cut it out. So that's your homework.

Be sure to share with us tag us on social media. We are CNRGadvisory on all the social media handles Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I'm your host Chyla again super excited to see you please join us. Let us know what you need. What type of support will help you feel less overwhelmed and reduce your anxiety about money so that you can go ahead and make an impact.

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