Mission Strategy
While non-profit organizations are unique in not being profit driven and often not thinking in terms of competitive markets, there is still a need to clearly understand the mission of the organization within the environment (external opportunities and challenges and internal strengths and weaknesses) and therefore how the organization will achieve that mission.
Often, a given non-profit isn’t the only one working to address a need in the community, so it is critical for these organizations to understand what is unique to them. Hopefully it’s not a competitive challenge but a cooperative opportunity to meet that need completely. Any given non-profit needs specific focus on those being served, how they are being served, and/or what services are being provided. This focus likely requires a deep understanding of the external environment (what specific needs/groups are underserved and what projects are donors funding) and the internal environment (what resources and capabilities are unique strengths that can be brought to bear).
Scope: The entire organization
Key Stakeholders: Board of Directors, Leadership, Key Staff
Decisions Involved: Mission, Areas of Focus
Example Tools/Approaches: Logic Model, Theory of Change
Decisions Enabled: New Communities to Serve, New Services to Offer, New Team Members to Add, New Sources for Funding
Logic Models
One of the tools often used in developing a mission strategy is the Logic Model. A logic model is a structured visual way to present the relationships between the resources you have, the activities you plan to perform, and the results you hope to achieve.¹
A basic logic model would show these relationships like this:
Resources include everything the organization has available for doing the work including human, financial, organizational, and community resources.
Activities represent what the organization does with the resources and includes processes, events, actions, tools, and technology.
Outputs are the direct products of the activities and may include services delivered by the organization.
Outcomes (not to be confused with Outputs) are changes in the program participants’ behavior, knowledge, skills, status, and level of functioning.
Impact is the fundamental change occurring in organizations, communities, or systems as a result of the program.
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A logic model can be an excellent planning tool — helping identify the resources required and the activities that must be performed to achieve the desired results. It’s also a helpful tool for evaluating different scenarios — if a given resource isn’t available, or if a specific activity cannot be performed, how would we expect Outputs, Outcomes, and Impact to be changed?
Logic models are also often used in fundraising. The model itself clearly presents the resources required, the activities to be performed, and the results expected, making it easier for potential funders to evaluate their ability to participate and the alignment of the program with their personal goals. The logic model also provides a natural tool for reporting progress to donors — providing updates on planned activities and sharing progress on outputs, outcomes, and impact in a format that they have seen before.
Theory of Change
Another tool often used in developing a mission strategy is the Theory of Change. The Center for Theory of Change describes the Theory of Change as “a comprehensive description and illustration of how and why a desired change is expected to happen in a particular context.”² To use the tool, an organization first specifies the long term impact desired, and then identifies the conditions that must be in place to achieve that outcome. This process is then repeated back all the way to the current situation.
This can be graphically represented in an Outcomes Framework such as this one from the Theory of Change website:
In this example, the desired outcome is at the top, the current situation is at the bottom, and the intermediate conditions that must occur to achieve the outcome are represented by the paths through the framework.
The book From Concept to Scale by Steve Graves, Dave Blanchard, and Josh Kwan introduces a much simpler version of the Theory of Change. The authors represent the tool as a simple equation:
Who is Being Changed + What Needs to Change + Why They Will Change = Impact³
Any given desired outcome (or impact) may require multiple parties to change — using this simplified version of the Theory of Change model for all of those parties can help the organization identify where they need to focus their efforts to reach those that need to change and give them a good reason to change in order to achieve the desired outcome.
Sources:
¹W.K. Kellogg Foundation. (2004–01). “Guiding Program Direction with Logic Models”. W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.wkkf.org/resource-directory/resources/2004/01/guiding-program-direction-with-logic-models
²Center for Theory of Change. “What is Theory of Change?”. Center for Theory of Change. Retrieved from https://www.theoryofchange.org/what-is-theory-of-change/
³Graves, Stephen R., Dave Blanchard, Josh Kwan, and Jason Locy. From Concept to Scale: Creating a Gospel-minded Organization. New York: Praxis Media, 2013.
