Understanding the Mission

A nonprofit organization exists to fulfill its mission. The mission statement of any organization is a short statement that communicates the organizations’ purpose for existing. This statement should include who the organization supports, how they plan to support them and can also describe how they will do this differently from similar organizations. The organization usually provides an overall vision for the future and what values an organization share and uphold.

As Youth workers it is important to understand how an organization functions. Working for a nonprofit is a very conscious choice. As an employee of a nonprofit organization, you become a facilitator of that mission. Your role in the organization whether it be entry level or executive, providing direct services or administrative, impacts the success of the organization.

So why is this important?

An individual who works for a nonprofit may find altruistic value in the work they do for a given nonprofit. Therefore, the mission, vision and values of an organization have so much meaning. Choosing to work for a nonprofit means you also chose to support their mission. As an individual at that organization, if your values do not align with the mission, how can you effectively play your role for the organization. Individuals that find they have opposing or conflicting values with that of the organization may find their time their time in the organization brief or limited, and that is not beneficial to either party. This helps perpetuate the myth of nonprofit burnout.

When you find an organization deeply connect with you are engaged and committed to the work. As previously mentioned, the mission of the organization gives you a look into what the organizations reason for existing. However, it is important to fully research the mission and more importantly if the organization is living their mission. How does the organization live up to their mission? Do the services they provide support the mission? How about the work culture?

An issue in the nonprofit world is finding the proper funding. Many nonprofits have had to change their missions wording or phrasing in order to be eligible for certain grants or funding. This is the unfortunate truth. Organizations try to stay true to their original plan best they can.

In 2019 the College Crusade of Rhode Island celebrated its 30th anniversary. However, this was not an easy feat to accomplish. The mission of the College Crusade at the time was as follows:

“The mission of the College Crusade of Rhode Island is to increase high school graduation, college and career readiness, and college completion for youth in Rhode Island's low-income communities.”

And continued with the following description.

“The College Crusade is the state’s most comprehensive college-readiness and scholarship program for middle school and high school students in low-income urban school districts. We reach out early to motivated students and encourage their commitment to learning. No other organization in Rhode Island provides as much long-term guidance and support for students from these communities.”

 

How did they do this? The College Crusade enrolled students into their program when they were in third grade and followed them until their postsecondary needs. This included providing after school, weekend, and summer programing as well as a school advisor to check in on students regularly. The Crusade lived their mission well but noticed that keeping 3rd graders interested and keeping track of all those students was time and cost consuming. They changed their model to begin enrolling students in middle school and continuing to provide those same programs. Keeping in mind that this was all free to the students.

Their model was successful and as their mission stated they were a "scholarship program". Depending on their level of participation; kept track by hours the student spent in programing, the students became eligible for a different tier scholarship. Meaning that at the highest-level students going to college could collect up to 4,500 a year to pay for school. This was a great opportunity that did lead them to support college completion for youth in the program as their mission stated.

However, this model was so successful that the Crusade began to run low on funds. This is where the issue of needing to change the mission comes in to play. Many organizations realize that to get more funds or certain grants they may need to change how they do things to survive. This left the organization to evolve and adapt to the current financial situation while still trying to stay true to their original mission. This is what the Crusade also realized. In 2019 they changed their mission statement to the following:

“We at the College Crusade prepare and inspire young people in Rhode Island to become the first in their families to attend and complete college.”

Following their revised Vision;

“Equity and opportunity for first-generation students in their pursuit of higher education.”

The College Crusade managed to stay true to their original mission of aiding students in hopes of higher education. The programing and serviced communities stayed the same, the only change was the monetary reward their senior years and beyond.

As an employee of the organization, I was shocked at the change, and thought that the organization was letting down the communities. In retrospect I see now that there were two option the Crusade had, to be the same organization and provide scholarships but only for a few more years or continue to service students for many years to come with continued programing and no yearly scholarship. Seeing that now the choice was obvious. The Crusade came to existence to support students from early age into their college days, to provide long term support unlike any other organization, so they adapted while still staying true to that mission.

Although their may be financial hardships that hit any organization it is important to stay true to that mission.  The College Crusade continued servicing underserved communities from grades 6 and up. They provided the same year-round programing full of academic and social emotional learning activities for students all still free of charge to families. Although this was a dramatic change, they held true to their mission in their programing however the mission, vision and values also need to be help up internally.

The first thing to remember is that a nonprofit has its set of values in which it services its community, but it must also equally serve its employees. Like previously mentioned, you chose a nonprofit for its mission and to be a part of it, but that can not conflict with how it operates internally.

The College Crusade values the following: Student Focus, Commitment, Equity, Diversity, Inclusiveness, Accountability and Sustainability. As core values of the organization these need to be present in all aspects. So, how does the Crusade do this?

When the organization decided to undergo their strategic planning and mission change, they made sure that the voices and opinions of all the staff were considered. This was done through various open discussions, surveys, and planning committee to ensure that all the staff not only had a voice but could also still uphold the mission. It was important that as facilitators of the mission all staff at all levels could still feel comfortable in their ability to continue their work to support the mission.

This is just one of many examples in which the Crusade has successfully lived their mission. No organization is perfect, and nonprofits like the College Crusade have areas in which they need to improve to live their mission to the fullest. A core value of the Crusade is diversity. The College Crusade has employed a wide variety of peoples from diverse backgrounds in their organization, including many alumni from the program. Advisors that work directly with schools and students are amongst the most diverse in the organization. As the face of the organization for the communities serviced by the Advisors, the advisors are reflections of the populations we serve. As a former Advisor I was able to work for my own alma mater, giving me insight on the population and an outlook on how to best service my students. For students and families, it is great to see someone who understands where they come from or can relate to them. Another benefit is students seeing themselves in a working adult showing them that this is possible and, in their future, as well.

Advisors are the ones that provide direct programing and is a position for many new graduates ready to work in the field. The downside of the advisor population being a majority diverse group is that this is where the large percentage of diversity is within the whole organization. The fact here is that the executive positions in the organization are not help by a diverse group of individuals. Being a small nonprofit with fixed positions makes it difficult for advisors to grow within the organization and find themselves moving on from the organization in a small timeframe.

Its difficult to understand whether a nonprofit is being true to their mission from the outside. It is unfortunate when you are already working for an organization and then find out that it does not live its mission externally and internally. There are ways to research and understand an organization and even better to have a first-person perspective on how things are run. The important thing to always remember is that the mission needs to align with your own mission and values. As the saying goes, if you choose a career you love, you will never work a day in your life. Supporting and working for a nonprofit is not a simple task and can be overwhelming, but at the end of the day your mission is to make a difference and part of that can be working in a nonprofit that supports that mission.