Are you on track to achieving your vision, mission, values and strategic aims and objectives.
A charitable organisation should be clear about its vision, mission, values and key strategic aims and objectives. In particular, how these will be achieved and the impact that this will have on the organisation’s beneficiaries.
Below are some questions to prompt you in your organisation’s review focusing on your Vision, Mission and Values and Strategic Aims and Objectives:
Your Vision
- Does the organisation have a vision statement?
- How aspirational is it?
- How long do you think it would take to achieve?
- Do you understand what a vision is?
- Do you think a vision and mission are the same?
- What kind of a society do you want to see?
- In a perfect world, what kind of difference do you want to make?
Your Mission
- Is there a mission statement?
- Does it fit with the charitable objectives and the requirements of the constitution or Memorandum and Articles of Association?
- Is it short and clear? Does it clearly say what you are all about in 2-3 sentences? Do you need a longer version to compliment it? Can you verbally sum up in a sentence what you do?
- Is it understood, articulated and acted upon by staff, volunteers and trustees? Is it clear why it is needed and how it can be used to steer the organisation?
- Is it expressed as a clear sense of motivating purpose?
- Can people in the organisation envisage a situation where the organisation will no longer be needed?
- Has it been translated into a statement for an external audience?
Your Values
- Are they things that people feel have value or worth and people adhere too?
- Do they express beliefs, attitudes or principles?
- Do the values govern and guide organisational behaviour, what people do and how they do it, for example valuing diversity and equal opportunity?
- Are the values consistent with each other and with your vision and mission?
Your Strategic Aims
- Are the aims clear?
- Do they fall into distinct strategic areas, e.g. education; welfare; etc.?
- Are they closely focused on meeting identified client or beneficiary needs?
- Are they articulated clearly and consistently throughout the organisation’s communications?
- Is it understood and agreed by other stakeholders?
- Is it expressed as a clear sense of motivating purpose?
- Do the goals support the vision and mission of the organisation?
- Has the organisation completed a competitor analysis?
Your Strategic Objectives
- What are the charities objectives?
- Are individual and team objectives SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time based)?
- Is there an objective to strive for future self-sustainability? If not, why not?
- Are there clear and achievable performance milestones and targets?
- Do they flow directly from the mission?
Your Strategy
- What options and general methods has the organisation drawn up to achieve the aims and objectives?
- Does the overall strategy illustrate the organisation’s mechanisms for action?
- Is there evidence of an operational business plan and fundraising and marketing strategies?
Culture:
- Do teams function effectively together with any misunderstandings dealt with appropriately?
- Do people value overall organisational objectives and mission above departmental or personal ones?
- Is there an absence of ‘founder syndrome’, dependency behaviours, blame culture etc.
- Are People able to question accepted practices and share lessons learned from less successful experiences?
- Do Leaders or managers consistently maintain those roles?
- Are there structures that allow two-way communication between all staff and senior staff team (staff meetings, feedback from board meetings etc.)?
- Are there barriers to communication (e.g. split sites, departmental cultures) recognised and addressed?
- Does the organisation communicate and interact appropriately with its external environment?
If you would like to find out more about how we can assist and support you with an organisation review then contact us
