Nearly every nonprofit has a mission and vision statement, but there is a third statement becoming more and more common among social sector organizations. Some call it a “purpose statement” or a “why statement.” We call it a reason for being. We’ve found this statement to be an incredibly powerful asset that brings an additional level of clarity and focus to nonprofit teams and boards. So what is a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being? Does your nonprofit really need one? How should you go about developing one? Read on for the answers to these questions and more.
What is a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being?
Definition: Nonprofit purpose statement aka reason for being
A statement that defines the specific sort of impact only your organization can make, and why it matters.
A nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being statement is an internal aligning statement intended for use by your staff, board and volunteers only. It might impact external messaging, but the statement itself is not intended for external audiences.
While on the surface this statement might appear to be similar to a vision or mission statement, they’re really quite different. A vision statement defines how the would would change if your organization achieved all its goals, while a mission statement describes the work you’re doing every day to get closer to your vision. Neither of these statements explicitly articulate why your work is important, nor how your approach is different from other “comparator” organizations with similar areas of focus. That’s the niche a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being can fill. When your staff and board are clear about your organization’s differentiators and its “why,” their work becomes more focused and intentional. And a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being is one of the best tools for fostering clarity.
Who needs a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being?
Any organization can benefit from developing a purpose statement or reason for being to accompany its mission, vision, messaging and strategic plan. That said, there are some clear cases where a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being is especially useful:
- For newly established organizations that need to align developing staff and board groups around a common motivation
- For organizations going through transformation or growth into new service areas
- For organizations that work in “competitive” sub-sectors, such as college access and success or human services, and need to establish how their work is different from other, similar organizations
- For organizations that struggle to get alignment around strategic decisions because staff and board members have widely varied opinions about why the organization exists and/or its unique focus
- For organizations struggling to put their work into the context of the systemic or institutional challenges they exist to address
If any of these examples describe your organization, you’ll be well served by developing a purpose statement or reason for being. Even if you feel your team is pretty clear about why your organization exists and how it is different, the exercise of articulating it explicitly through a purpose statement or reason for being can be very powerful. You might just find yourself surprised about what comes up in the process.
How can we develop a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being?
Purpose statement development typically takes place at one of two key points:
During messaging development
Many nonprofits realize they need a purpose statement or reason for being when they initiate the process of developing or revisiting key messages. They find that developing key messages about what they do, why it matters, and who they serve surfaces bigger strategic questions that need to be answered internally before external messaging can be developed.
During strategic planning
Mission and vision work is a key part of most strategic planning processes, but often, these statements can feel like they come up short. While they articulate an ideal future and the work you do day-to-day to achieve that ideal future, these statements often fail to get to the deeper “why.” They can also fail to articulate how your work is different. That’s why many organizations decide to include purpose statement/reason for being work in their strategic planning processes.
The process for developing a purpose statement is similar no matter which of these situations you find yourself in. It includes five basic steps:
Step one: Discover your why
Why does your organization exist? You might be surprised to find that, despite the clues to this question that exist in your mission and vision, every person on your board and team will answer it differently. Begin by sourcing their opinions, looking for common themes, and surfacing new questions that need deeper exploration. Then, gather opinions from the people and communities your organization serves, and aim to identify overlap between their perspectives and those of your team. Ultimately, the perspectives of people you serve should take precedence when defining why your organization exists.
Step two: Determine your organization’s strengths internally
What makes your organization strong? To answer this question, bring as many of your staff members, board members and volunteers together as you can and ask them to riff on the things that make your organization effective or unique. Give each participant a set of sticky notes, and ask them to write down as many strengths as they can think of, one per sticky note. Collect all their ideas and categorize similar ones together. Clear trends will rise to the top. Then, ask participants to discuss why they think certain strengths are particularly noteworthy for your organization.
Step three: Conduct a comparative analysis
Once you’ve narrowed down your list from step two to the 5-10 strengths that are most important to your organization, it’s time to see how those strengths stack up against other similar organizations. Select a list of the 3-7 organizations your nonprofit is most likely to compete with for donor dollars or be compared to from a service, product or mission perspective. Then, analyze their websites, marketing materials, and any publically available data about their operations to assess whether they are “owning” the same strengths as your organization in their messaging. To help you assess the results of this analysis, we suggest laying it out on a matrix like the one below.
You will begin to see patterns emerge in your matrix. There might be one area of strength that only your organization owns, or there might be several strengths that come together at your organization and nowhere else. In the example above, the three areas that together appeared to make the organization unique included: reciprocal mentor-student relationships, the whole school model, and recognition of the many pathways to post-secondary success. There was a common theme among these strengths: they all allowed the organization to take a particularly effective approach to addressing issues of race equity in access to higher education.
Step four: Survey your stakeholders
Next, it’s time to determine whether the things that seem to be unique strengths to your organization internally are actually perceived as such externally. You can do this in several ways, but we prefer to use a survey. Send a simple survey to as many of your organization’s stakeholders as possible (donors, program participants, community partners, etc.) asking them how much they agree with and/or value each of the strengths you shortlisted from your matrix. If a survey isn’t possible, you can also conduct listening sessions or a set of stakeholder interviews to get insights into your stakeholders’ perspectives.
Step five: Articulate your nonprofit’s purpose statement or reason for being statement
Once you’ve made it to this point, you should have a strong sense of why your organization exists, along with data on the strengths that are unique to your organization and important to your stakeholders. These will be the basis for your nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being. See if you can articulate it in a statement using the following format, where each of the strengths you were left with after step four show up in the bullets labeled “Differentiator.” You don’t have to have three differentiators – one or two are perfectly fine.
ORGANIZATION NAME exists because WHY. We are the CATEGORY DESCRIPTION best positioned to DESCRIPTION OF UNIQUE IMPACT.
That’s because ONLY ORGANIZATION NAME:
- DIFFERENTIATOR 1
- DIFFERENTIATOR 2
- DIFFERENTIATOR 3
Then, test this statement with your internal and external stakeholders. Do they agree with it? Is it compelling? Does it feel authentic?
Reason for Being Example
Here’s an example reason for being developed based on the matrix above.
iMentor Chicago is the post-secondary success organization that exists to build a more equitable future for all Chicagoans.
That’s because only iMentor:– Works with every student across the whole school;
– Recognizes there are many pathways to post-secondary success for Chicago students; and
– Contributes to combat the efforts of segregation by fostering relationships between volunteer mentors and students across neighborhoods.
iMentor Chicago Reason for Being Statement
How Should We Use Our Nonprofit Purpose Statement or Reason for Being?
Once you’ve arrived at a nonprofit purpose statement or reason for being, it should become a filter through which every major decision at your organization gets made. For example, if you’re considering adding a new program or service, ask yourself if doing so will allow you to stay true to your reason for being or take you off course. Additionally, your reason for being should be woven into all of your brand materials and marketing communications. It is the differentiator that will help you stand out in the minds of those whose support you need most.
