I was reading another article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy titled Making Money With a Mission: Many charities are starting business ventures, but their goals are as much social as they are financial.
What I want to muse about is the importance of mission--whether or not you are for-profit or not-for-profit. Now any person with some sort of business knowledge will say "of course" and maybe roll his/her eyes at suggesting that--it's a fairly basic rule of business. And mission is known to be helpful for keeping a business on track, focused, and successful. Business 101. But the key, if you are concerned with social responsibility, is that your mission has to have soul. Not only should the mission statement describe what you do and how you do it, and what you see your focus and responsibility as, but it should also be embedded with the passion that you hold for what you do. In thinking about the mission statement that I'm trying to draft for a nonprofit that I'm trying to establish, it doesn't have that resonate echo of passion and soul for our cause (yet). It merely outlines, in a rather dry and sterile way, what we do, for whom, and the desired outcome. I think that if your passion is honestly reflected in the mission statement, then it will be easier to consult when you need a reminder of what your doing and why.
Then, with your soulful mission statement, you do need to constantly consult that passion and mission to drive the initiatives that you are undertaking. In the Making Money With a Mission article touches on this. Mike Burns, former CEO of Pioneer Human Services, a Seattle charity that runs 9 businesses to contribute to the nonprofit's budget, is quoted, "What makes us successful is the passion for the mission, not the passion for the business disciplines. The business disciplines are just a vehicle for us to accomplish our mission."
This quote reminds me of my gripe with the former museum with whom I was recently employed. I was in the Development office and our job was to raise money for the capital campaign. The thing that most disappointed me was the lack of passion for the mission. Not once did I hear the leaders talk about the mission of the museum. Not once did we discuss how the new building would actually improve the lives of others in our community (we talked about it in proposals--to convince donors, but there were no passionate reminders amongst the staff). Money came first, everything else fell in line after that, and I have no idea where the passion for the mission fell in. Money and profitability are important, and they can be such wonderful assets to drive your mission. But if money comes before mission, the purpose is deflated, and the social benefit is diminished. At the museum's Development office I thought that we should focus less on ranking wealthy individuals and more on driving fundraising efforts with the passion for our mission. Then, perhaps, the funds would fall into place more easily. But to be fair, the museum has a horribly written mission statement--one that is long, soulless, and antiquated. Again, if your mission statement itself lacks soul, it's rather hard to get passionate about it.
Now, idealistically, I think it would be great if every business set up their missions and visions like this--with a social purpose. Which is actually probably possible if people put a little thought into it. Then, once getting the whole organization passionate about the way you are serving others, the profitability should fall into place. Again, profitability is essential--you have to make money to exist and carry-out your mission, but the social mission, how you are serving others, should be the driving force.
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