A Secure Vision Guides the Mission

March of Dimes began with a single purpose: to fight polio. When vaccines changed the course of that disease, the organization faced a strategic question. Should it declare victory and close its doors, or should it focus on a larger purpose?

The answer was to move from polio to the broader health of infants and children that had been present all along. The mission (the work) changed. The vision endured.

As a gift solicitor, I once had to explain to a longtime supporter that the work no longer looked like the work they had originally chosen to support. We lost the donor—and, more importantly, damaged our credibility with others who had believed in the original vision.

“Transformative philanthropy” can challenge faithfulness to the vision statement. Joan Kroc’s extraordinary bequest to The Salvation Army created the Kroc Centers major community and recreation centers in underserved neighborhoods. The gift could be understood as consistent with The Salvation Army’s broad commitment to meeting human need. But a well-crafted Gift Agreement is needed that considers how the organization will build and sustain a type of work it was not set out to create on that scale.

A clear vision statement gives an organization the confidence to decline opportunity. Not every generous gift is the right gift. When a proposed gift would pull the organization away from its enduring purpose, the responsible answer may be a gracious no.

This is not ingratitude. It is stewardship. Donors deserve clarity, and organizations have an obligation to protect the promise they have made to the people and communities they serve.

A clear vision statement can protect an organization from mission drift. Donors do not object to mission growth. They object to losing the promise they thought they were funding.