Kim Jonker, a consultant to nonprofits, and William F. Meehan III, a senior director at McKinsey and Company, wrote in a classic article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review that mission statements that have these characteristics are less likely to "creep":
1. Mission statements should be focused.
The best mission statements are not grandiose or even particularly inspiring, but rather narrowly focused...more like a laser beam than a spotlight. Feeding all the hungry people in the world is laudable but likely out of reach for an organization with finite resources. The more focused the mission, the better the performance is a good rule of thumb.
2. Mission statements should solve unmet public needs.
Nonprofits receive special tax status because they address problems that the government and business can't or won't deal with. Their mission statement must be about these public needs.
3. Mission statement should leverage unique skills.
Passion and high aspirations are not enough for real impact. A nonprofit should have skills and be capable of specific actions that are different than other organizations. An example is Teach for America which enlists young people (future leaders) to help eliminate educational inequality. That is specific as to the who and the what.4. Mission statements should guide trade-offs.
Every nonprofit organization must make critical decision and trade-offs...what intitiatives to proceed with and which to abandon. They should say "no" to funding opportunities or programs that do not align with their mission but they should say "yes" to opportunities that will take their mission to the next level.5. Mission statements should energize and inspire stakeholders.
A nonprofit has multiple stakeholders, often with conflicting interests and ideas. These can include board members, staff, customers, government agencies and the public. Great missions reflect all those interests but balances them, sometimes favoring some over others. But, as a result, the mission statement inspires those stakeholders.
6. Great mission statements should anticipate change.
In anticipating change, these mission statements are timeless. To accomodate change, nonprofits should re-explain their missions to their stakeholders every three to five years. This will regain their understanding and commitment. But that does not mean organizations need to change their missions. That should only be done in truly exceptional cases.
7. A mission statement should stick in the memory.
Stakeholders, especially external ones such as donors, rely on your nonprofit's mission statement to guide their actions. So, the statement should be something that can easily be remembered. That means it should be short and concrete. A good example is Kiva's statement: "to connect people, through lending, to alleviate poverty."
