Why Mission and Programs Must Align in Your Nonprofit Start-up

Let’s imagine that Sunshine Senior Services is a program for the elderly community focusing on improving the lives of people with dementia and their families.  We’ll occasionally use this fictional nonprofit start-up as an example in this blog series. 

One of the things you must have to make your start-up charity successful is alignment between your mission and your programs.    

Charities serve the public good.  They provide a service or serve to create change.  The mission of an organization should make clear what kind of results or improvements the charity will provide.  Is the organization improving health, providing an education, or making people safe?  Is it preventing an unhealthy behavior?
​
The missions on which charities focus are usually complex.  Eradicating hunger, reducing the number of people in poverty, and reducing the dropout rate are massive tasks, and any one organization by itself may not quickly produce a noticeable change across a large community.  Having clear alignment will help show where you intend to make an impact and may even show that you’ve “moved the needle” in a significant way at some point. 

Read More