Jerr Boschee's column (continued)
Boschee on Marketing
A Successful Vision Statement:
Start with your customer
A vision statement should answer the question “How do we want the world to change?” and a mission statement should answer the question “What will we do to change it?”
Instead, my client’s vision statement was completely inner-directed. It expressed dreams for the organization — but it should have been about the world in which the organization exists and the people it serves, not the nonprofit itself.
My client’s mission statement actually contained some hopes for the people it serves – “independence,” “dignity,” “quality of life.” And after a lengthy brainstorming and word-smithing process, here’s what we came up with as a new vision statement:
• “We envision a world in which people grow older with dignity, control their destinies and live independently as long as possible.”
But that still leaves open the question of why a vision statement should be outer-directed, and the answer, I believe, resides in the very definition of marketing itself.
If you start with your products, services or programs, then go looking for customers, you are trying to push your way into the market. It works, sometimes, but not for long.
But if you start with a group of customers, then develop products, services or programs to meet their needs, you are being pulled into the market. No nonprofit can succeed for long unless it understands what its customers and clients really want, and that means the mantra is simple: “Always start with them!”
Now translate that into what happens if your vision statement is inner-directed. You’re not starting with the people you serve — you’re starting with your own ambitions. Here there be monsters.
A vision should inspire an organization to change the world. It should be a call to action that mobilizes support and triggers quantum leaps. A simple, powerful statement that opens hearts and wallets. But stakeholders won’t be inspired by a vision that’s inner-directed.
The Alliance for Children & Families, one of the leading nonprofit associations in the world, clearly understands the differences between vision and mission. Under the leadership of President and CEO Peter Goldberg and its Board of Directors, the Alliance this past June approved new wording for both. The vision? “A healthy society and strong communities for all children and families.”
Now that is a vision we all can share
--Jerr Boschee
Jerr Boschee has spent the past 25 years as an advisor to social entrepreneurs in the United States and abroad. To date he has delivered seminars or taught master classes in 41 states and 14 countries and has long been recognized as one of the founders of the social enterprise movement worldwide. Mr. Boschee is Executive Director of The Institute for Social Entrepreneurs, which he created in 1999, and is the former President and CEO of The National Center for Social Entrepreneurs. His most recent book (February 2006) is Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship: How Nonprofits are Moving toward Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency. Please direct your comments to jerr@orbis.net.