Charity Vision & Mission Statements

There are often arguments over creating vision and mission statements.  This resource gives you a simple template to write your charity mission and vision statements quickly and simply, explains vision v mission and gives you some examples. 

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Charity Vision v Mission Statements

There is often confusion between vision and mission statements.

·        Vision Statement - an image of the future you aspire to create. It drives the organisation toward future goals, defining what will be pursued, but not how it will be achieved.

·        Mission Statement - what will be accomplished in pursuit of this vision. It should define your charity's purpose and primary objectives. 

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

What Is A Charity 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 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 Mission Statement

A charity 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 your purpose, 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

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 mission statements. If it's your kind of thing, it actually makes a lot of sense.

You'll Know You've Got It 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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