Crafting Your Nonprofit's North Star: The Vision Statement
A good vision statement should scare you just a little bit because it should be so big that there's a good chance that you'll actually never completely achieve it. Welcome to the nonprofit launch plan podcast for startups, small, and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong foundation. Every episode, we give you frameworks and tools and guidance that you need to create lasting impact. I'm thrilled you're here.
Matt Stockman:My name is Matt Stockman. I'm a nonprofit growth coach. At nonprofit launch plan, we believe that every nonprofit, including yours, has gotta be operating at peak performance in six key areas in order to be successful. Those six areas are leadership, development or fundraising, marketing, programs and services, the things you do, operations, and finances. So every episode of the podcast, we try to talk about a topic that is core to one of those six areas.
Matt Stockman:And today's episode is part two of the previous episode where we talked all statements. And today, it's all about the sister to your nonprofit's mission statement, the vision statement. Lots of people use these two things, mission statements and vision statements interchangeably. And quite frankly, that's wrong. Each are distinct and serve two separate purposes for your organization's leadership and for your organization's foundation.
Matt Stockman:So that's why we split this up into two separate episodes. So today is all about vision statements. And like your mission statement, your vision statement should actually serve a purpose and be a tool and a guide for the leadership of your nonprofit, not just something that gets framed and hung up on a walls in place. And when you spend the time to craft a vision statement that really makes sense for your nonprofit, it then becomes kind of a north star to everybody in the nonprofit, your staff, your volunteers, donors, other supporters. So taking the time to wordsmith it out and get it right is really important.
Matt Stockman:So before we jump into the deep end of the pool about vision statements, I do wanna tell you about a special freebie that I've got for you. If you're struggling with fundraising, which that is the number one pain point for just about everybody launching a nonprofit, and it should be at least 80% of what you're concentrating on at the beginning of your nonprofit journey. I've got a great tool for you. It's a free mini course. It's a PDF workbook.
Matt Stockman:You download, you click on the videos, you watch some short videos, and, you follow through the workbook. It will help you with the five core steps of the fearless fundraising framework. That's a framework we designed here that helps you clarify your messaging and grow your confidence to ask other people to partner with you financially. The mini course is free. All you've gotta do is go to nonprofitlaunchplan.com to get the course right there.
Matt Stockman:It will remove the fear out of asking other people to partner with you financially and get you more results, more people saying yes and supporting your work. Again, it's free. You can get it at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Okay, so let's dive into your nonprofit's vision statement. As a reminder, last week we talked about mission statements.
Matt Stockman:And we said mission statements are one sentence that clearly states the why you are nonprofit exists, and it should answer three questions. Those three questions are who your work is for, what you do, and the why or how you do it. Like one example I gave you last time of a powerful mission statement goes like this. To advance cures and protection, that's the what, of pediatric catastrophic diseases, that's the who, kids with catastrophic diseases, through research and treatment. So the mission statement goes like this, to advance cures and protection of pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.
Matt Stockman:That's the what, the who, and the how. That's the mission statement for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Your nonprofit vision statement is different. A vision statement is also one sentence about where we're going as an organization or what does success look like in the distant future.
Matt Stockman:And we'll get into more specifics about building your nonprofit's vision statement more in just a bit, but here's why all of this matters. There's a couple of different reasons. First is inspiration and motivation for your staff, your team, your volunteers. A vision statement creates a future, a sense of something shared to work toward together, especially early on when results haven't really started to manifest themselves yet. So a vision statement can really create a sense of something that's possible in the future.
Matt Stockman:It's also inspiring and motivational for donors and supporters that helps them connect emotionally with the long term impact that they get to actually help create. If a donor can see a future that looks different than the present because of their financial support, that is a really powerful thing. And your vision statement can help sort of articulate that and paint a vivid picture for them to help you get there. A vision statement's also important just to provide strategic direction and decision making. It acts like a North Star.
Matt Stockman:So when you're faced with choices in programming, in partnerships, in fundraising initiatives, your vision statement can help you kind of answer the question, does this align with our ultimate goal? Does this align with our ultimate vision? And if the answer is yes, then you can move forward with it. Also, your vision statement helps prevent what I call mission creep, which it just keeps your organization focused on its core long term objectives. We said this last week, it bears repeating that when you launch a nonprofit, you open yourself to getting distracted by all kinds of different things.
Matt Stockman:Many of those things are actually really good, but the combination of your mission statement and your vision statement helps to sort of put blinders on the things that ultimately don't get you moving towards your ultimate goal. Your vision statement also helps with communication and clarity. Internally, when everybody on your team, your volunteers, your staff understands that the ultimate destination of what an impacted future looks like, they can help move the organization towards that destination. In other words, you get your team rowing the boat in the right direction. Then externally, for supporters and especially major givers, they are way more likely to join in at a higher and more significant level if they get a sense that your organization is shooting for a solid, well defined target someplace in the future.
Matt Stockman:Your vision statement helps to clarify that for major donors. Finally, it helps with long term planning and sustainability as well. Your vision for this imagined future informs all of the strategic plans that you put in place today. What steps do you need to take right now in order to get moving towards that place somewhere in the future in order to achieve that vision? And then when it comes to attracting talent, people wanna be a part of something bigger than themselves.
Matt Stockman:And without a clear, concise vision statement, it's hard to clearly paint that picture of where we're headed as an organization for somebody that you're trying to get to join your team. So those are some of the reasons vision statements are so key. What makes a good one? Number one, it's gotta be inspiring and aspirational. When people hear it, you want them to say, yes, I want that too.
Matt Stockman:It's gotta be future oriented. Like take me twenty, fifty, a hundred years into the future and paint the picture of how your nonprofit has changed that future. It's gotta be clear and concise and memorable. Hear me when I say this, only one sentence. Say it after me.
Matt Stockman:Only one sentence. Not a run on sentence, not a paragraph, not two sentences. One sentence, clear, concise, and memorable. And most importantly, internally, a good vision statement should scare you just a little bit because it should be so big that there's a good chance that you'll actually never completely achieve it. And you'll see what I mean about that as we unpack some specific examples.
Matt Stockman:I've got a couple of vision statements here that I think are really wonderful because they check the boxes of what I just laid out. Let me share a couple of with you. Let me share a couple of them with you. The mission statement for Habitat for Humanity, great organization, says this, a world where everyone has a decent place to live. It's simple.
Matt Stockman:It's one sentence. It's powerful. It's clear. And it's kind of scary because with 8,000,000,000 people in the world, that's a vision that's going to have to live on beyond anybody who works for Habitat for Humanity right now. Great vision statement.
Matt Stockman:Here's another one for an organization called Teach For America. One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. This is a great mission statement. It's very future oriented. It looks into the future by saying one day, it also addresses a fundamental societal issue, education and excellence for children, and then it clearly defines the outcome.
Matt Stockman:One day, every child in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. On last week's episode, I told you about a nonprofit organization that I kind of stumbled upon called the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, and we were talking about their mission statement last week. Their vision statement of the Wyoming Hunger Initiative is to end hunger in Wyoming. It's super concise, it's ambitious, it's a little scary, and it's really easy to understand. So here's some key takeaways from these examples.
Matt Stockman:Number one, notice how they are concise. All of them are just one sentence and a short sentence. They're super inspiring and they paint a vivid picture of an impacted and better future. And if you're the leader of these nonprofits, when you read those vision statements, you should have a sense of anxiety or just a little bit of fear of like, I wonder if we can really get close to this. That's what a good vision statement should do for everybody in your organization.
Matt Stockman:So now as we're starting to get your heads kind of thinking in that direction, let me give you a very simple framework to help you kind of craft your nonprofit's vision statement. Keep in mind, as I introduce the framework for you, there's four steps to it. This is not a one size fits all. You know, you do this, you just plug some words in and voila, you have a vision statement, but it's definitely a process. And these four steps should be kind of a guide to lead you through the process.
Matt Stockman:My encouragement to you would be, gather your board or your staff or volunteers, or if it's just you and you're doing this all yourself, just get your spouse and just work through this framework together. There's four steps to it. It's pretty simple. Make sure you have a document open on your laptop, or if you're going old school, you got paper and pen, because you're gonna wanna take some notes and brainstorm some things, especially in step step one is the dream big step. And I want you to do this exercise.
Matt Stockman:I call it the imagine a world where exercise. At the top of your document, I want you to write this. If our nonprofit was wildly successful, what would the world look like in fifty years because of our work? And then just start listing out whatever ideas come to mind. Think about what fundamental problems would be solved or at the very least significantly alleviated.
Matt Stockman:Think about what's the ultimate long term impact that you are hoping to achieve. And I want you to write down every idea no matter how big. In fact, I think I would go bigger than smaller. Dream up big ideas and really focus on the beneficiaries, the people who are gonna realize the impact of your work. Write down how you think their lives are gonna be different.
Matt Stockman:What transformation occurs for them or for your community? So I just want you to spend fifteen, twenty minutes with somebody and just start dreaming and writing all this stuff down. Like, there needs to be zero organization to it. You're literally just sort of spilling things on paper. And, again, the questions are, hey.
Matt Stockman:If my nonprofit was wildly successful, what would the world around us look like in fifty years because of our work? Imagine the future. Dream as big as possible. And again, we call this the imaginal world where exercise. So that's step one.
Matt Stockman:After twenty minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, step two then is to identify some of the core themes that might be coming out of the notes that you have just take. Look at all your brainstormed ideas. Are there any kind of recurring themes or keywords that come out of that? What's the single sort of most compelling future that you've jotted down or written about that emerges from this? And what's ultimately the desired outcome?
Matt Stockman:And I want you to concentrate more on the outcome rather than the activities that lead to it. In other words, think back to the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, their vision statement to end hunger in Wyoming. They don't say to feed every person in Wyoming. The end result, the ultimate goal is nobody being hungry in Wyoming. Wyoming being hunger free.
Matt Stockman:So in step two is we're identifying these core themes. We really wanna focus on the ultimate desired outcome, not the activities that lead to it. So instead of saying we provide food, we're gonna say we're a hunger free community or our state is hunger free. So to recap, step two then is identify just one or two core themes that seem to be a thread that maybe ties all of the brainstorming ideas and work that you've done together. What is it that sort of rises to the surface as the single most compelling idea that emerges in the ultimate desired outcome?
Matt Stockman:And, again, not the activities that lead to it, but the actual desired outcome, like a hunger free Wyoming. So after you've got all that, step three then is to actually try to draft your vision statement. And a couple of bullets to just keep in mind as you sit down with paper and pen or to do this on your laptop. Number one, keep it concise. One sentence only.
Matt Stockman:You've gotta make it as aspirational and inspiring as you can. Strong, positive language. It should evoke some sort of an emotion. I want you to make it future oriented. In fact, here's a couple of sentence structures that you can kinda start it with.
Matt Stockman:You could start your vision statement with, we envision a world where dot dot dot, or we strive to achieve dot dot dot, or one day we believe that this problem will be eliminated and a positive outcome will exist. That's just a couple of different options you can try. You might have something different. You might wanna start with one day we wanna have this. We envision a world where or our nonprofit exists to see, fill in the blank, or to achieve, fill in the blank.
Matt Stockman:But it's gotta be very future oriented. Envision a hundred years in the future. What does that imagined future look like? So keep it concise, make it aspirational and inspiring, make it future oriented, make it clear and easy to understand, no jargon, no technical terms, think third grade English. Number five, focus on the desired end state, not the activities like we talked about before.
Matt Stockman:What will be different in the world because you exist and because you have achieved this impact? And here's the last thing I'll say about this as I would not be afraid to use an AI tool to help you get started. Dump all of your brainstorming notes in, really write a solid prompt, and see what it comes up with. At the very least, it can kind of break the ice and just get through a bunch of sort of not very good ones in order to help you really refine and figure out what that sweet vision statement sentence is for your nonprofit. And then step four, this is the last part of the framework, is to test it and refine it.
Matt Stockman:And to begin, once you feel like you've got that vision statement sentence written, I want you to sit on it for a few days. Don't do anything with it right away. Make sure that you can live with it, return to it after a day, two days, three days. Make sure that you can live with it and you love it. And then share it with the rest of your team, your board, maybe a few trusted volunteers, people in the community, people who are gonna give you good feedback and tell you the truth about it.
Matt Stockman:And you wanna ask them, does this inspire you? Is it clear? Do you feel like it represents our ultimate goal as an organization? And you have to be open to them saying no or not really, and be open to the idea of maybe going all the way back to the drawing board and starting again or changing it up. It's really rare to get this perfect on the first try.
Matt Stockman:Finally, ask yourself a couple of questions. Do you feel like it's clear? Do you feel like it's inspiring? Do you feel like it's concise? It's future oriented.
Matt Stockman:It's impactful. So to recap the four steps of the framework for crafting your nonprofit vision statement are number one, do the Imagine a World Wear exercise and dream big and just brainstorm all the things you can imagine about this potential future fifty or a hundred years out. Step two is identify the core themes. What kind of really rises to the top? Are there any threads of commonality between any of the ideas that you brainstormed?
Matt Stockman:What's the single most compelling kind of future vision that you have that emerges from all the brainstorming that you did? And what's that ultimate desired outcome? Then step three is to actually write the vision statement. You want it one sentence, aspirational, future focused, clear like a third grader can understand it, and focusing on the desired end state. Then lastly, step four is test it, refine it, rest on it, sit on it, come back to it, and then start to ask other people, does this make sense to you?
Matt Stockman:Is it inspiring? Is it clear? Is it future focused enough? And again, be ready to scrap it and maybe start again because these things don't often land on the first try, but it's really, really important because again, it will become a north star and a guide for all the future decisions of your organization. Hey, you got this.
Matt Stockman:Your vision statement is a real key ingredient in the beginning days of your nonprofit, and it's something you're gonna live with for a while. So doing the hard work now of getting something you, your team, your board, your volunteers are really happy with is super valuable. So that's it for this episode of the nonprofit launch plan podcast for startup small and growing nonprofits. Thanks so much for investing the time and growing your organization for doing what you're doing and doing the hard work now of getting the pieces and the frameworks and the processes in place so that you can focus on impacting the world later on. If you've got a special question or an issue, you wanna talk more about your vision statement, it's really easy to book some free time with me on my calendar.
Matt Stockman:When you do, here's what's gonna happen. Just so you're not surprised, we'll get together online. There's no pressure. There's no obligation. There's no pitching.
Matt Stockman:I'll just kinda get to know a little bit about you're working on, what you're challenges you're facing, and we can talk about whatever it is that you're dealing with. And then after we're all done, I'll follow-up within twenty four hours guaranteed with a few recommendations or just some ideas on what next steps might look like if we think that we're right for each other. The whole thing is a 100% free. I also got this other freebie on the website. Don't want you to miss out on.
Matt Stockman:If you wanna binge all the material related to the five steps of the fearless fundraising framework, I've got this easy to use workbook and the videos that go along with it that are gonna walk you through all five steps and help you in building your confidence and knowing how to invite other people to partner with your nonprofit financially. It's all free. You can book a call or you can get the fearless fundraising PDF at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. And again, if you want to email me about anything we talked about just with a question, mattnonprofitlaunchplan dot com, matt@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. That is it for this episode.
Matt Stockman:Thanks for hanging in there. It's nonprofit launch plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. Again, thank you so much for making the time. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on our next episode. And if in any way you found any part of this helpful and you think of somebody else who might need to hear it, please share this with another nonprofit leader who you think might benefit.
Matt Stockman:Until next time, thank you so much for listening, and keep making the difference.
