Creating Meaningful Change Through Mission-Driven Leadership

An altruistic mission does not ensure success. Every nonprofit must be singularly focused on a compelling mission story and measured ways of showing impact. Having good intentions and actually making a positive impact is not the same, and even with the best intentions, a bad investment is still a bad investment. There is nothing more important for a nonprofit than ensuring it accomplishes mission-driven action across the organization.

Achieving Missional Alignment from the Top Down

How does an exceptional leader achieve missional alignment from the top down in a nonprofit? The key is clarity and consistency in communication. The CEO, as the chief visionary and steward of the mission, plays a crucial role in keeping the mission alive and convincing all stakeholders. This involves intentionally cultivating their imagination around the mission’s significance and possibilities and communicating that to the leaders clearly and consistently. 

Leaders then must embrace the responsibility for cascading communication, to cast vision and align departments and individuals to the organization’s purpose. In return, channels for reporting gaps and problems need to be accessible to all staff, so that the leadership can nimbly respond to internal or external challenges in real-time. 

Recently Avail made additions to our weekly team email communications and team meetings to address an internal communication gap by bringing staff up to speed on key strategic actions taking place across the organization. Second, success must be measured against the mission at all levels of the organization, from organization-wide impact metrics to personal staff goals. Ultimately, when team members are asked why they do their jobs, each person should be able to articulate what success looks like for the organization and why their role is important.

Maintaining a Broad, Organization-Wide Perspective

For all of this to be consistently executed, nonprofit leaders need a broad, organization-wide perspective. Do they know the organization’s history and where it is along the path to its preferred future? Do changes within the organization or shifts in the culture require updating the mission or reassessing processes?

Perhaps the organization has recently experienced rapid growth or intense and sudden challenges like during COVID. In these cases, circumstances demand returning to the basic questions of an organization, including the mission. Regularly reflecting on the organization’s trajectory ensures it stays on course, opening up opportunities for team mobilization, innovation and contributions from everyone — ultimately leading to exceptional results.

A key component of the mission is the values that drive how the mission is accomplished.

The nonprofit's beneficiaries include the team that brings the mission to life. They are influenced every minute by the organizational culture, which either affirms or denies the organization's integrity. So, the process of ensuring missional alignment must also work in tandem with those values. 

One of Avail’s values, “health promotes growth” requires sober evaluation of what will work best for our people, not just the organization. A key frustration for nonprofit staff can often be an invitation to participate in a process but with no attending power. Opportunities for input that won’t be taken seriously are no opportunities at all. Worse yet are responsibilities that are passed on with no authority. So, it’s always important for leaders at all levels of the organization to clarify what they are asking staff to do, how the team is participating, and who makes the final decisions.  When expectations are clear and staff is empowered, staff experiences the freedom to ideate and to fail, and the best ideas often emerge from unexpected corners of the organization. 

Aligning Around Core Values

As CEO of Avail, I've seen how aligning around Avail’s core values strengthens our ability to collaborate across departments, and that in turn facilitates team interdependence and appreciation for each other. Another of Avail’s core values is “who you are matters more than what you do.” We emphasize the personal character and growth of each staff person because we know that the more we grow into the best versions of ourselves, the stronger our team will be. Our core values are vital to our success and require more than lip service. We invest time and money to realize Avail’s values. 

Our hybrid team — those who work in the office and those who work from home — meet quarterly for three-day retreats where we experience professional development, team building, strategic ideation, celebration and rest. 

As leaders of nonprofits, it behooves us to have a vision for the staff even beyond their role with the organization. When we genuinely want their best and give them opportunities to grow as individuals and professionals realizing that they may ultimately invest their talents elsewhere, we participate in the development of social entrepreneurs who are committed to the common good, and that benefits us all. In the best circumstances, the incredible team we develop stays with us! 

By galvanizing people and resources around a common purpose, nonprofits strengthen the fabric of neighborhoods by meeting real needs. More than that, they create communities where people find meaning and purpose. In a culture awash in loneliness, mission-driven nonprofits can be a place of belonging for staff members and clients alike. Ultimately, a successful nonprofit inspires and mobilizes employees and stakeholders around a shared vision, igniting a profound wave of positive change that transforms society.

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.