an Internet search for the fiscal sponsor’s name. Does its name appear in news stories detailing nonprofit misconduct or other skullduggery? Ask others in your community, including individuals who are knowledgeable about nonprofit activities in your town. While you’re at it, read its 990 tax form posted on GuideStar (www.guidestar.org) to see if it’s financially sound.
When you’re vetting a fiscal sponsor, ask the sponsor these questions to determine whether it’s a good fit for your project:
❯❯ Do your board of directors and accounting and legal advisors approve of each fiscal sponsorship?
❯❯ Do you charge for specific services, such as access to insurance programs, over and above your basic sponsorship fees? What additional services do you offer?
❯❯ Do you allow sponsored projects to hire salaried employees, and do you provide payroll services and access to health insurance?
❯❯ Do you provide coaching and mentoring in nonprofit management and fundraising?
❯❯ How frequently do you write checks to pay bills? What’s the frequency and format of financial reporting for the sponsored program?
❯❯ Do you require projects to maintain a minimum annual income?
❯❯ Do you formally acknowledge gifts and donations?
❯❯ Do you help sponsored projects raise funds through your website?
Chapter 3
Creating Your Mission Statement
IN THIS CHAPTER
❯❯ Identifying the key components of a strong mission statement
❯❯ Creating an effective mission statement with the help of your board, staff, and volunteers
❯❯ Using your statement to make organizational decisions
A good mission statement clearly states a nonprofit’s purpose – including who benefits from its work – and how it works to fulfill that purpose. The process of developing your mission statement is important because it can help you refine your ideas, test them with other people, and inspire those involved in the mission-writing process.
Mission statements can be one-liners or long declarations that go on for two or more pages. We suggest aiming for something between these two extremes. A mission statement contained in one line resembles an advertising slogan, and a long, rambling statement is rarely read or remembered, even by the board of directors and staff members.
Take some time to think about what you want to include in your mission statement because it defines what your organization hopes to accomplish. After you’ve decided on your organization’s mission statement, you can use it as your go-to reference when making decisions about your nonprofit’s activities. You’ll also include your mission statement in your 990 tax report to the IRS, in brochures, and in grant proposals. You may even print it on your business cards or coffee mugs.
In this chapter, we give you some guidance about how to create a simple yet compelling mission statement.
Mission Statement Basics
The mission statement is an organization’s center. We were tempted to use the word heart rather than center, but we think that’s stretching the metaphor a little. We also could have said that mission statements are living, breathing organisms from which all organizational life flows, but that’s really going too far. People are at the heart of and bring life to an organization. Mission statements just help give this human energy direction.
Can organizations operate without good mission statements? Yes, and some do. We’re sure that some nonprofits out there haven’t looked at their mission statements since the first Bush administration, and they’re still doing good things. But the world has changed since the early 1990s, and organizations have likely adapted to those changes. An organization’s chances of success in making that adaptation are better if the nonprofit and the people associated with it know exactly why it exists, what they’re trying to do, and how they’re going to do it.
❯❯ Memorable: You want to carry it around with you at all times.
❯❯ Focused: You want it to be narrow enough to focus the activities of your organization but broad enough to allow for growth and expansion.
❯❯ Compelling: You want to communicate the need your organization addresses and the importance of doing something about it.
❯❯ Easy to read: Your statement should be written in plain language so folks don’t need a set of footnotes to decipher it. Be sure to limit your use of adjectives and try to avoid jargon.
Jargon is a term for words that have specialized meaning within an industry or profession. When you’re communicating with colleagues, everyone knows the meaning of the specialized words you use. But when you’re writing for the general public – the people who are the target of your mission statement – you should use words that have a common meaning for everyone.
For example, if you’re an educator, you’re probably familiar with the term scaffolding. In education, the word is used as shorthand to describe the process of using the skills a student already has to help him learn new skills. If you’re a housepainter, it means something entirely different.
Think about the words you use to describe your mission and make sure everyone knows what they mean.
Homing in on your purpose
When thinking of your organization’s purpose, think of your desired end result. What would you like to see happen? What would the world (or your community) be like if your organization were to succeed?
To say that you have to have a purpose seems almost too basic. Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Of course I have a purpose. Why do you think I bought this book? I want to start a nonprofit to [fill in the blank].” But we bring up this point because clarifying the purpose is basic to a mission statement. Why should your nonprofit exist?
For example, you may know that you love cats and dogs and have always wanted to work with them, but that isn’t the same thing as identifying a nonprofit organization’s purpose. The mission statement for
