What would the world look like if the problem your organization exists to fix actually got fixed?
Every non-profit organization, every charitable organization, every NGO exists with the stated goal of eliminating some problem in the world. Eliminate hunger, poverty, war, cruelty to animals, cruelty to children, disease, and the list goes on. Hundreds, and maybe thousands, of organizations exist to eliminate some wrong, some evil, some injustice in this world.
This is good. There are many, maybe innumerable, wrongs, evils, and injustices in the world.
These organizations work hard. They raise money. They enlist volunteers. They recruit staff. They have passion and exhibit creativity. Sometimes they actually make inroads in pursuit of fixing the world.
This is good. The world needs fixed.
These organizations create, implement, and sustain programs to fix the problem the specific organization especially was created to fix. The programs benefit many people. The programs make life better for some. The really sophisticated organizations can prove it with "outcome data" they mine from their programs.
This is good. Problems do not fix themselves.
How often, however, does an organization stop and ask itself, "What is our purpose?" One might answer, "To fix the problem!" But fixing the problem is a goal, not a purpose. Goals are things one can list, and check off once accomplished. Purpose is bigger--purpose answers the question, "Why are we interested in the goal?"
Suppose my organization passes out food to hungry people who cannot obtain enough food through other means. The organization's stated goal might be to eliminate hunger in that city. This is a worthy goal. But if my organization asked itself, "Why are we interested in eliminating hunger in our city?" the answer might be something like this: "Because if hunger is eliminated in our city, that means that people have become self-sufficient and independent of the dependency machine!" This answer begs the question, "How does passing out food, for free, help people to become self-sufficient and independent?" We realize the goal and the purpose are actually at cross-purposes with one another. One of those two things has got to change or the organization will become more and more schizophrenic and dysfunctional.
Suppose my organization runs a pet shelter. The goal of the shelter is to rescue domestic animals and get them adopted. But suppose the organization also has a "no-kill" policy, and ends up spending more and more money on taking care of animals that are too sick, or too mean, or too whatever to have any hope of being adopted to the point where the main activity of the organization becomes taking care of animals that can never be adopted. If the organization asked itself, "What is our purpose," and the answer had to do with rescuing animals, then the goal should be restated. If the purpose answer emphasizes adoption, then the action of the organization in spending all its money on caring for rescued, but un-adoptable, animals is at variance with the stated purpose of the organization.
Every on-profit organization, every charitable organization, every NGO, must develop a purpose statement, and test everything the organization does against the purpose statement. Otherwise, the organization is or will become inconsistent, or schizophrenic, or dysfunctional, or otherwise come to a place where it will fail.
Develop a purpose statement, and rigorously test everything the organization does against the purpose statement. If there is a variance, something needs to give.
John Grundy
Warren, Ohio
March, 2018
