If one is starting a social sector organization, it is natural to want to clearly define a purpose or mission for the organization. The mission defines the direction of how to serve the public good. Often, non-profit organizations struggle with defining their mission and determining how to stay focused on that purpose over time. This is called mission drift.

It is easy for a nonprofit organization to be tempted to turn away from its mission and start to look for other organizations that have similar goals. Some nonprofit leaders decide to pursue opportunities to get more money when this kind of work might just be a waste of time. But, over time, it can cause problems for the organization. This can also happen if the people that work for the organization put personal preference above public good. It might be difficult for a small organization to tell people what it wants to say, but it really does happen one small thing at a time. All nonprofits are susceptible to mission drift, so it is important to evaluate programs against the mission of your organization.

It may be difficult for a non-profit to avoid mission drift, but there are ways to keep this from happening:

  • Having regular meetings with your employees or the people who volunteer to help you decide how the organization should work is a good chance to have a good real-world review of how things are going.
  • Asking employees or volunteers to evaluate the performance of the organization is a good chance for you to have a good real-world review.
  • If a non-profit is trying to keep its original purpose in mind then it is important to have a governing body that is totally in accordance with its founding principles. This could ultimately be the board of directors. It is very important for the boards to understand what the organization is all set to achieve and to be willing to speak out against decisions which are taken to change the organization’s mission.

It is impossible for anyone to fully understand what happens when an organization makes decisions that are not aligned with its original purpose. When the people and the world around us are constantly evolving, the way in which people work and resources are used need to evolve, too, in order to enable them to continue to deliver the benefits they are supposed to deliver. It is natural for organizations to drift in various directions; it happens naturally. It is important to keep organizations focused on what is important, but ultimately it is important to make sure that the people they are working with will benefit from what they do.

For more information on nonprofits and furthering your mission, contact MyDonors. MyDonors is part of MyCommunity, which exists to build relationships and tools that equip organizations so that they can maximize their impact. Our suite of tools is designed to help organizations of all sizes focus on their mission without worrying about the logistics. We understand the importance of building strong relationships, so we provide the necessary tools to maximize impact and make a difference like our easy-to-use platforms MyDonors and MyVolunteers. Likewise, MyNonprofitCoach equips nonprofits with the training they need to be successful. Schedule a demo for any of our solutions here.

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Source(s):
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mission-drift-what-does-mean-sudeep-mohandas/
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/good-to-great-and-the-social-sectors-notes-review/
https://gracelead.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/good-to-great-social-sectors-summary.pdf