Case Solution

On Scenario

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 Part A: Mission versus Goals

Imagine this scenario: You are members of the board of directors of a religious community.
There is strong sentiment among you for establishing a faith-based feeding program for homeless
people in your town, using your congregation’s meeting and conference facilities. Your mission, as you
have worked it out so far, is straightforward: “Our mission is to feed the hungry of our town and provide
a sense of hope to that in need.” In a setting like this (and I have seen it myself), there will be some who
say that the mission says it all; there is no need to waste time articulating formal goals and objectives for
the program. This leads me to the first question:

# How do you respond in this situation and make a case for setting specific goals and
objectives?

There are differences between the meaning of mission, goal and objective. A mission
statement is a general statement of how will someone achieve the vision. Again, goal is the
milestone or process of implementing a mission. Goal is a broader and general term regarding
what needs to be done in support of mission statement. If we define objective, it is specific
actions required to achieve the goal. Objective is specific, quantifiable, time constraint actions
regarding what needs to be achieved within specific timeline.

Mission is the key principle for a faith-based organization or community, which

historically contributes to humanitarian aid worldwide. Its key mission is to alleviate hunger,
promote food security and provide other necessary humanitarian support for the needy people in
the town. But unplanned action only based on the general mission statement will be result in
vain. Because as a member of the community, I will not get any detailed courses of work to
achieve the mission statement. Without formal goals and objectives, my mission to feed the
hungry people and provide humanitarian support will not fulfilled properly. For example, to
support the mission, my goal might be to distribute every single needy people in town a package
consists of dry foods, urgent medicines, clothes and money for urgent need in a given time
frame. This goal will give me a better idea of what needs to done under the mission statement.

Again, I need to figure out the detailed and specific measures of action or formal
objective to meet the goal. For example, I need to identify how many needy people are there in
the town. How much budget my community has to feed this needy people, as setting the budget
and work accordingly is necessary to meet the goal. After budget setting, I can figure out what
type of food, clothes and food to be provided and how much cash we can distribute to the needy
people. A time frame is required to arrange the full package from the vendors and also schedule

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the distribution date. Again, the objective also includes details of every single person received
the package to be listed in a document so that no one is missing and no one gets the double
package. Thus, though setting formal goals and objectives are time consuming and difficult, it is
pre-requisite to organize courses of action properly.

Part B: Mission Expansion versus Mission Drift

Here is a second scenario: A multi-program, regional social service agency, ECS, states its
mission this way: “ECS strengthens and supports adults, youth, children, and families at risk and in
need.” It operates twelve programs. Eight of them are residential treatment programs for youth, age 12
to 18, with behavioral and mental health issues. This division of the agency accounts for 80% of the
organization's budget and staff. This division of the agency is led by a psychologist. The remaining four
programs account for the other 20% of the operating budget and staffing. They are “Family Resource
Centers,” located in four different cities. They provide supportive housing, work readiness counseling
and employment assistance, and transportation support services to low-income working mothers with
children. This division is led by a social worker. The Director of the Family Resource Centers is now
proposing that the Centers expand their programming to include GED and mentoring for community
college applicants and students. She says that these educational offerings serve the Resource Centers’
goal of enhancing the workforce readiness of the clients. You sit on the board’s Program Committee,
which is charged with judging the mission consistency of potential new programs, as well as their
cultural fit with the organization.

# What do you say?

When a non-profit organization is started, one of the most obvious things to do is to

create a core mission statement. A mission statement, summaries the way the organization wants
to drive based on its own set of principles and philosophy. But as soon as the NGO gets older, it
is difficult to maintain the core values and principles set at first place. As a result, mission
statement paradox arises which creates a confusion.

There is always a debatable argument in terms of mission expansion Vs mission drift in a

non-profit social organization. The term ‘mission expansion’ refers to broadening the social
activities of a non-profit organization which aligns with the primary mission statement. Mission
expansion is considered as a good way to extend the work of social support in a community
while maintaining core goals and objectives. But the term ‘mission drift’ is considered opposite
to mission expansion. Mission drifts happen whenever an NGO diverges from its principle
mission statement. To avoid significant deviance from the original mission, it is essential to keep
the organization in check by regularly asking stakeholders and the public or having conferences
regarding how well the nonprofit is serving its interests.

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 In case of ECS, their main mission is to provide support to adults, youth, children and
families at risk and in need. It has currently 12 different social programs aligned with the
mission. Out of twelve, eight programs are related to youth’s mental and behavioral issues and
accounts for 80% of the budget. The other four programs consist of 20% of the budget and are
responsible to provide family related social support like housing, work counseling, employment
help and transportation for low-income working mothers.

The proposal of work expansion is related to provide general education (GED) and
mentor support to the college students. Whether it aligns with the basic mission statement or not
depends on some factors. The family resource center is currently conducting employment
assistance and work readiness program to the community. So, the introduction of GED program
may play a vital role in fostering the ongoing employment assistance support. But raising budget
will be a challenge as currently the family resource center is allocated to only 20% of the total. If
they plan to raise excessive donation to run the GED and education program or charge higher
fees, then community people may perceive ECS a profitable organization and their social value
as a non-profit organization might get hampered. As a result, mission drift will occur.

To align the work of general education with the mission statement, I recommend ECS to
reallocate the budget among the current programs so that the new one can be run smoothly.
There is also need to arrange a publicity campaign among all the stakeholders in the community
regarding the GED and college education support program in order to create public awareness. If
public gets aware about the importance of the program, they don’t mind to help the organization
raise essential donation required to launch the mentoring support. Again, the objective and goal
of the fundraising should be to cover expense and smooth operation of the program instead of
any profit making objective. In that way the educational campaign will be considered as a
mission expansion rather than mission drift and will be beneficial to the community.

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Bibliography

 https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c5-
09.html#:~:text=Mission%20is%20a%20general%20statement%20of%20how%20you%2
0will%20achieve%20your%20vision.&text=Goals%20are%20statements%20of%20what,t
imelines%20for%20achieving%20the%20goal.
 https://ssir.org/articles/entry/mission_matters_most#
 https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/the-fundraising-patterns-and-the-management-
professionalization-in-independent-arts-organizations-in-see/55963