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Five Ways to Sabotage Your Nonprofit Mission Statement

By , About.com Guide

1 of 5

Use words that people outside your industry do not understand

Example

"It is our mission to ensure high academic achievement for every student by attracting and preparing outstanding leaders and supporting the performance of the urban public schools they lead at scale."

The Problem

This mission statement got off to a great start but then lost it at that last word, "scale." What does that mean? It is a term that is used by nonprofit professionals to indicate growth or growing or maximizing. A layperson is probably stopped cold by it. The lesson: don't use your profession's jargon.

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