How to Create Vision & Mission Statements for Your Charity Foundation

There are often arguments over creating charity vision and mission statements.  Here's a step by step process that enables anyone to create vision and mission statements for their charity foundation, or other non profit organisation, and explains charity vision v mission, with examples.

The Difference Between Organisation Vision and Mission Statements

There is often confusion between charity vision and mission statements.

• Charity Vision Statement - an image of the future you aspire to create. It drives your charity toward future goals, defining what will be pursued, but not how it will be achieved.
• Charity Mission Statement - what will be accomplished in pursuit of this vision. It should define your charity's purpose and primary objectives.

The vision of a charity is what is sought and the mission how this will be accomplished.

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What Is A Charity Foundation Vision Statement?

There is no ‘correct way’ to develop a vision, but the following advice may be helpful.

First, think about what organisational values matter to your charity Board, staff and other stakeholders and what difference you would have made, if you achieved your mission.

Then distil that down into an inspirational, clear, memorable, and concise statement, which describes the world, as you believe it should be.

Charity Vision Statement Example

A just world without poverty - Oxfam

What Is A Charity Foundation Mission Statement?

A charity foundation mission statement makes clear what is important, whom your stakeholders are and provides direction. One way of formulating a mission statement is to answer the following questions:

• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• Whom do we do it for?
• And, for some organisations, where do we do it?

It communicates the purpose of your organisation, so should be action focused, succinct and emotionally engaging. And, it's also the framework within which to create your strategy. Your mission is what you're going to do and your strategy is your plan for how you will do that.

Charity Mission Statement Example

 To serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world - CARE

Why Not Use ChatGPT To Create Your Vision And Mission Statements?

To create your vision and mission statement really quickly and easily, copy our vision and mission statement ChatGPT prompts, amend to suit your charity, drop these into ChatGPT and it'll generate a whole series of both, tailored to your charity.  Then all you have to do is decide which one works best for you and amend it, if you need to.

I wrote the prompts based on the guidance in this resource, so it does all the work for you.  If you don't have a free ChatGPT account, we've a step-by-step guide for that too.

Mission Statement Haiku

If you'd like to try something a bit different, read this article on how to apply the principles of Haiku poetry to organisation mission statements. If it's your kind of thing, it actually makes a lot of sense.

You'll Know You've Got Your Mission and Vision Right When...........

Whilst visiting NASA in 1961, President John F. Kennedy introduced himself to a janitor mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA. He replied:

"I'm helping to put a man on the moon".

And they did!

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Charity Vision and Mission Statement FAQs

• What is the vision statement of a charity?  A charity's vision statement is an image of the future the charity trustees aspire to create. It drives the organisation toward future goals, defining what will be pursued, but not how it will be achieved.
• What is the mission statement of a charity?  A charity's mission statement defines what will be accomplished in pursuit of its vision and should define the charity's purpose and primary objectives. A charity mission statement makes clear what is important, whom your stakeholders are and provides direction.
• What is the difference between vision and mission statements?  A charity's vision statement is what is sought and is usually aspirational, whereas the mission is the what, how, whom and where of how that will be accomplished.
• How to write a vision statement?  To write a charity's vision statement, first think about what organisational values matter to your Board, staff and other stakeholders and what difference you would have made, if you achieved your mission.  Then distil that down into an inspirational, clear, memorable, and concise statement, which describes the world, as you believe it should be.
• How to write a mission statement?  One way of formulating a mission statement is to answer the following questions: What do we do? How do we do it? Whom do we do it for? and, for some organisations, Where do we do it?  It communicates your purpose, so should be action focused, succinct and emotionally engaging.
• What is a mission statement and strategy?  A charity's mission statement is the framework within which to create its strategy. The mission is what it's going to do and its strategy is the plan for how it will do that.