Creating an Effective Mission Statement
The Mission Statement
A mission statement is the foundation for any volunteer program. It serves as a simple and effective way of sharing your organizations purpose and goals. It often is one of the things that a prospective volunteer will be aware of when evaluating where to volunteer, so your statement should be able to capture their attention and draw them in.
A mission statement must offer a clear sense of your program's purpose. Here are a few things you can do to examine and craft (or update) your mission statement:
What is your mission?
Before you can develop your mission statement, you need to determine the exact function of your organization and what it aims to accomplish with the volunteer program. This involves determining what community you serve (or want service to include), and determining how you will go about it. Your mission statement reflects your organization - so knowing what your aims are will ensure that the statement reflects this.
What is the role of your volunteers?
Volunteers are essential to any non-profit organization; they can fill a lot of different roles - so you need to determine what exactly their role is with your organization. This involves determining the specifics about what tasks or jobs a volunteer will be responsible for, how many your organization needs and what sort of time commitment you need.
It's critical to understand both the "big picture" of how volunteers support your mission, and also to understand things on a more granular level. Sometimes the details of what kinds of tasks and duties need to happen will clarify ways volunteers can contribute which you may not have considered previously.
While these volunteer roles won't be directly reflected in your mission statement, it can help with developing it in a way that reflects the goals of your program, and ensures volunteers have a clear place and function in supporting those goals.
Ultimately, your volunteers will need to have an understanding of why your organization exists, who it serves and how it serves them. This should be reflected in some form through your mission statement.
United Way British Columbia - Mission Statement
We strengthen vital connections that support people in need in our local communities.
Using United Way British Columbia's mission statement as an example:
Strengthen Vital Connections
- This wording reflects United Way's purpose to support and enhance the many types of connections needed to support community
- This demonstrates United Way's role as a connector organization, which works to help many other organizations and individuals with their goals
- It also defines what types of connections as "vital," meaning services that support basic needs, health and quality of life.
- Although not directly mentioned, since United Way works with many other community organizations, this wording also leaves room for the understanding that volunteers are part of this solution and call to action.
Support People in Need
- This broad wording reflects the many ways that United Way BC operates in community through a variety of programs which both directly and indirectly support those in need. This also implies a space for volunteers to support this mission, which is not separate from the roles of staff. All are working towards a common goal.
In Our Local Communities
- This summarizes United Way's approach to working with, by and for local communities through a variety of different United Way organizations worldwide.
Basic Structure
When you're developing your mission statement you need to keep in mind a few things that help ensure its effective:
- Make it simple and easy to understand
- Keep it short
- Make sure it reflects your plan and goals
Your mission statement does not need to be a very long description and provide a ton of detail; it only needs to be a short and effective statement. It needs to provide those looking from the outside a window into what your organization does.
Make sure to periodically review your mission statement as well, as your organization evolves your mission statement may need to as well to reflect that. Your mission statement is important, but not permanent. It is better that it accurately reflects your organization, and should be open to periodic review and refresh.
Common Mistakes
Up to this point the focus has been mainly on what to include that would help shape your mission statement but there are also some things to avoid doing that will help you make it effective. Some of the more common mistakes are:
- Being too broad
- Using colorful language
- Making it too long
You don't want your mission statement to be too specific, but you also don't want to simply say "We want to help people" and leave it at that. Keep the use of language simple as well; you want as many people as possible to understand it - so sticking to simple choices will help ensure it's accessible to understand for people who are ESL, youth, or ultimately anyone.
When it comes to the length of your mission statement it shouldn't be much more than a simple statement consisting of no more than one or two sentences. The best approach is to think of it as a summary that clear, concise, and contains a call to action which staff and volunteers alike can easily understand.
