A Step-by-Step Exercise for
Creating a Mission Statement
START
HERE
Working as a Group to Define a Mission that Matters
60120 minutes 1030 people
What youll find inside
Your mission statement
By itself, your mission statement doesnt mean much.
Its just words on a page.
Who needs to write a mission statement?
Anyone who wants to decide what you stand for
how to do work that matters and bring your team together.
Get your group together
What you need. Who youll need. How much time youll need.
Step 1: Storytelling
One of the fastest ways to get to the heart of your mission.
Step 2: Sharing
Sharing your stories with the group and discovering the Big Ideas.
Step 3: Craft your statements
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You have everything you need to create a powerful statement.
Step 4: Sharing, take 2
13
Here, I made this. What do you think?
Step 5: A dose of vision
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This is why we have to do this. This is why we can succeed.
Step 6: Jump
Close your eyes and do it.
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Your mission statement
Change This
By itself, your mission statement
doesnt mean much.
Its just words on a page.
But if its supported by a
group of people who care about
making a difference in the world,
thats something else.
Few things are as powerful as
a shared mission.
This exercise will help your team
come up with a mission that
matters, and then make the jump.
It can take as little time as an hour.
Are you ready?
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Who needs to write a mission statement?
A nonprofit mission is never static.
Especially in the first years, an organizations mission
shifts and changes as the organization develops.
This tool is for teams who are either:
Starting a nonprofit organization, or
Rebooting their mission statement.
This tool is for those who want to skip the nitpicking, word choice arguments
or needing to create the elusive perfect mission statement.
Its about deciding what you stand for, doing work that matters and bringing
your team together.
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Get your group together
What youll need:
Paper and pens for brainstorming. Index cards work great.
A whiteboard or big sheets of paper for the group moderator.
Coffee and bagels (optional).
Who youll need:
You: an impartial moderatorpreferably an outsider, not the
executive director. You keep things moving and help supervise.
10 to 30 of the people who care most about your organization.
This is a group project.
How much time youll need:
One to two hours.
tick tock
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Step 1: Storytelling
Time: 1020 minutes
Once upon
a time . . .
One of the fastest ways to the heart of your
mission is the stories your group already has.
1. Split your large group into several small groups of 35 people each.
Make your groups as diverse as possible.
2. Each member of your mini-group gets a few minutes to share a story.
This question can prompt some good ones:
What does it look like when were doing our best work?
3. Dont have any story yet? Make one up.
What would it look like when were doing our best work?
4. Write details out on your notecards or paper. Youll be sharing
stories with the large group soon. Dont forget them.
e.g.
In Rwanda, we got to help Baginas family easily get clean water
which allowed the four children to focus on school work instead
of spending days sick from bad water and nights walking hours
to carry back water from the dirty river.
(Modeled after charity: water)
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5. Look at the stories youve written down as a group. Identify every
time you mention a specific place or a person. Circle them so you
can identify them later.
e.g.
In Rwanda, we got to help Baginas family easily get clean water
which allowed the four children to focus on school work instead
of spending days sick from bad water and nights walking hours
to carry back water from the dirty river.
6. Now draw a square around any mention of your organization
making a difference and taking action. (Its ok to overlap your squares
and circles.)
e.g.
In Rwanda, we got to help Baginas family easily get clean water
which allowed the four children to focus on school work instead
of spending days sick from bad water and nights walking hours
to carry back water from the dirty river.
7. Finally, underline anytime something in the story changes for better
or results from your work.
e.g.
In Rwanda, we got to help Baginas family easily get clean water
which allowed the four children to focus on school work instead
of spending days sick from bad water and nights walking hours
to carry back water from the dirty river.
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8. Your stories should look like this by now:
In Rwanda, we got to help Baginas family easily get clean water
which allowed the four children to focus on school work instead
of spending days sick from bad water and nights walking hours
to carry back water from the dirty river.
The point of this exercise: being able to identify the important
parts of your stories so you can share with the large group.
If you identify the parts of your stories out loud, you can skip all
the diagramming. But we think its helpful.
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Step 2: Sharing
Time: 2025 minutes
Now its time to share your stories and important elements.
1. All small groups merge back into one large group.
2. As moderator, create the following grid on a visible whiteboard,
large piece of paper or whatever else youve got:
Our Cause
Who? What? Where?
Our Actions
What we do
Our Impact
Changes for the better
Circled items go here
Squared items go here
Underlined items go here
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3. Have each group share stories from their group.
As they share, have them identify the objects the identified and put
them on your chart.
e.g.
charity: water
Our Cause
Who? What? Where?
Our Actions
What we do
Our Impact
Changes for the better
Bangladesh
Rwanda Ngoma
Liberia
developing areas
rural communities
farmers
women families
business owners
children Bagina
fishermen
access to clean water
wells latrines
safe routes to water
sanitation
handwashing
education
water filter
less sickness
reduce poverty
health
less thirst
improved economy
decrease mortality
solid communities
more food
kids can go to school
less fear
can pursue other dreams
less crime
save time and energy
4. Patterns and similarities will develop naturallygroup similar ideas
more or less together, like weve grouped our examples above.
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5. Name and identify common ideas from your stories and label their Big Idea.
e.g.
charity: water
Developing Areas
Our Cause
Who? What? Where?
Bangladesh
Rwanda
Ngoma
Liberia
developing areas
rural communities
Families/Communities
Local Economies
women families
children Bagina
Our Actions
What we do
Sanitation/Education
access to clean water
latrines
wells
sanitation
handwashing
safe routes to water education
water filter
Our Impact
Changes for the better
Clean Water
farmers
business owners
fishermen
Health
Stronger Communities
less sickness reduce poverty
health
less thirst improved economy
decrease mortality
solid communities
more food
Security
Opportunity
less fear
kids can go to school
less crime can pursue other dreams
save time and energy
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Step 3: Craft your statements
Time: 510 minutes
Time to get back into your original small groups
and craft a mission statement.
1. Split back into your small groups.
2. As a group, youre going to write a mission statement for your organization
that incorporates the Big Ideas you identified as a large group (They should still
be somewhere everyone can see them.):
Our Cause
Who? What? Where?
Our Actions
What we do
Our Impact
Changes for the better
developing areas
provide clean water
health
families/communities
sanitation/education
stronger communities
local economies
security
opportunity
All mission statements have these three elements: Cause, Actions and Impact.
Here are some simple examples of mission statements that incorporate the Big
Ideas above:
We help families in developing areas stay healthy
by providing clean water and education.
e.g.
Helping build safe, strong communities in the
developing world through safe drinking water.
Through clean water, we promote security and
opportunities in rural economies.
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3. Here are 5 things to remind your group:
Dont worry about word choice. This is the easiest part to nitpick and the least important for your final statement!
Keep it short. Many of the best mission statements have fewer
than 10 words.
Keep it simple. Too many nonprofits have long, flowery mission
statements that sound toiled over.
Say it out loud. Does it sound awkward? Memorable? Catchy?
Human?
The disagreement test: If no one would disagree with your
statement (things like make the world better or act with integrity)
then your statement is too generic. Dont hide behind clichs!
charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe
drinking water to people in developing nations.
e.g.
The mission of The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts is to work
with our community to reduce hunger and increase food security.
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.
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Step 4: Sharing, take 2
Time: 5 minutes
Now its time to share your potential statements as a large group.
1. All small groups merge back into one large group.
2. Have the moderator write each potential mission statement for
everyone to see as each group shares it out loud.
3. If you like, you can identify each time a Big Idea identified earlier shows up. Remember: the Big Ideas can be impliedthey
dont have to be stated directly.
Big Idea
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Ahoy
Step 5: A dose of vision
Time: 5 minutes
Now youve got several strong, simple mission statement
possibilities.
Each statement is built off the powerful stories your
nonprofit has experienced or hopes to make true.
1. Moderator: Ask for volunteers to share why they know
the mission youve defined is important.
Why does it matter?
And most of all, why do you know that you can achieve
this mission together?
This is the final, most important test.
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Step 6: Jump
You dont have your final mission statement yet, but youre close.
1. Appoint a committee or final decision maker to take these
mission statements and Big Ideas finalize the wording.
2. Have the final decision maker present the final mission
statement to your organization at a later date.
A mission statement does two things:
1. Tells the world why what youre doing matters.
2. Leads your organization to do what matters.
By itself, a mission statement isnt enough.
Youve got to make the jump.
Make your mission a reality. Do work that matters.
You
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Thanks for reading
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