27 Establishing the Vision and Mission

Creating your organization’s vision and mission statements are the first two steps in the action planning process. Developing a vision and mission statement is crucial to the success of community initiatives. These statements concisely explain your group’s aspirations, help your organization focus on what is really important, and provide a basis for developing other aspects of your strategic plan. This section is from the Community Toolbox^[1] and provides a guide for developing and implementing your organization’s vision and mission statements.

What is a vision statement?

Your vision is your dream. It’s what your organization believes are the ideal conditions for your community; that is, how things would look if the issue important to you were completely and perfectly addressed. It might be a world without war or a community in which all people are treated as equals, regardless of the differences that set us apart.

Whatever your organization’s dream is, it may be well articulated by one or more vision statements—a phrase or sentence that conveys your community’s hopes for the future. By developing a vision statement—or several—your organization clarifies the beliefs and governing principles of your organization, first for yourselves, and then for the greater community.

There are certain characteristics that most vision statements have in common. In general, vision statements should be all of the following:

• Understood and shared by members of the community
• Broad enough to include a diverse variety of local perspectives
• Inspiring and uplifting to everyone involved in your effort
• Easy to communicate—for example, they are generally short enough to fit on a T-shirt

Here are some examples of vision statements that meet the above criteria:

What is a mission statement?

The next step of the action planning process is to ground your vision in practical terms; this is where developing a mission statement comes in. An organization’s mission statement describes what the group will do and why it will do that.

Mission statements are similar to vision statements in that they, too, look at the big picture. However, they’re more concrete and more “action-oriented” than vision statements. Your vision statement should inspire people to dream; your mission statement should inspire them to act.

The mission statement might refer to a problem such as inadequate housing, or a goal such as providing universal access to health care. While they don’t go into a lot of detail, they hint—very broadly—at how your organization might fix these problems or reach these goals. In general, a mission statement should be all of the following:

• Concise: While not as short as vision statements, mission statements generally still get their point across in one sentence.
• Outcome-oriented: Mission statements explain the fundamental outcomes your organization is working to achieve.
• Inclusive: While mission statements make statements about your group’s key goals, they must do so very broadly. Good mission statements are not limited to the strategies or sectors of the community that may become involved in the project.

The following examples should help you understand what it means to be an effective mission statement:

Why should you create vision and mission statements?

Why is it important that your organization develops vision and mission statements like those above? First of all, these statements can help your organization focus on what is really important. Although your organization knows what you are trying to do to improve your community, it’s easy to lose sight of this when dealing with day-to-day organizational hassles. Your vision and mission statements remind members what is important.

Second, your vision and mission statements give others a snapshot view of what your group is and what it wants to accomplish. When your vision and mission statements are easily visible, for example, if they are on the letterhead of your stationery, people learn about your organization without having to work hard for the information. Then, people who your statements resonate with can take the time to learn more. This efficiency is very helpful when you are recruiting other people and organizations to join your effort.

Finally, vision and mission statements focus members on their common purpose. Not only do the statements themselves serve as a constant reminder of what is important to your organization, but the process of developing them allows people to see the organization as “theirs.” Creating these statements builds motivation, as people tend to believe in something more completely if they have a hand in developing it.

Having a clear and compelling vision statement has other advantages:

• Drawing people to common work
• Giving hope for a better future
• Inspiring community members to realize their dreams through positive and effective action
• Providing a basis for developing the other aspects of your action planning process: your mission, objectives, strategies, and action plans

Having a clear and compelling mission statement also has more advantages:

• Converting the broad dreams of your vision into more specific, action-oriented terms
• Explaining your goals to interested parties in a clear and concise manner
• Enhancing your organization’s image as being competent and professional, thus reassuring funding sources that their investment was (or would be!) a smart choice

Values or Guiding Principles

Another common way that organizations communicate with the public regarding their work is to create a set of guiding values, often consolidated into a list of guiding principles or a values statement. These are similar to vision and mission statements since they are all used to communicate which values drive the work of the organization. It should also be used for ethical decision-making and accountability.

Here is an example from the Trevor Project, whose vision is: A world where all LGBTQ+ young people see a bright future for themselves.

The Guiding Principles evident from their vision are the following:

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Youth-centricity
• Growth
• Quality
• Innovation
• Best-In-Class Team