The right goals are a roadmap to fulfilling the mission.

I’ve always loved a good atlas. As a kid, I spent hours looking at maps, including the Rand McNally Road Atlas of the United States. That atlas shows you states, counties, cities, interstate highways, state highways, county roads, lakes, rivers, populations, and so much more. There’s nothing wrong with modern apps that help plot a course, but there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned atlas for a road trip. 

My daughter has picked up the love of a good atlas from me. As a teenager, she loves to plan our road trips with an atlas. For example, we recently took a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. For us, that’s a road trip across five states, several state highways, and at least two interstate highways. Along the way, we need to refuel, take bathroom breaks, and stop for meals. My daughter plotted it all out. 

The mission was clear: arrive in Orlando by 6 PM so we could go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. That meant we had to meet a series of goals—and, they were almost all set with the help of the map. We had to leave our home by 5 AM. Our first break wasn’t until we reached Emporia, Virginia. According to the map, our next stop wasn’t until a McDonald’s in North Carolina—and, so it went.

Guess what? We made it. We fulfilled our mission. Here’s the key—we fulfilled our mission because we met most of our goals along the route. We left on time. We stopped at designated points. We refueled when we were slated to. We did adjust a few things along the way, but that’s to be expected on a long trip.

But the key takeaway is this: we had the right goals for the journey and those goals got us to our mission.

The role of a Board in a nonprofit or church is to set the mission, determine the core values, and set and align the organization’s long-term goals with the core values to fulfill the mission.

Board’s Must Know Where the Starting Point Is

Our family’s mission was to get to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida by 6 PM on a certain date. To accomplish the mission, the second thing we needed to know—after determining where we were going—was where we were starting from. The first thing to know is where you want to go (that’s a mission). The second thing to know is where the starting point is. If a Board doesn’t know the starting point, they will probably pick the wrong route, set the wrong goals, and meet with nothing but frustrated expectations. To find the starting point, the Board needs information—financial, personnel, recent history, current programming, reputation in the community, the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and more. With that information, the Board and senior leader can determine this is where the organization’s starting point is.

Long-Term Goals Move the Organization Toward Mission

Once the Board knows the starting point, it can set long-range goals to move from the starting point to the fulfillment of the mission. Again, long-term goals flow from the mission and acknowledge the organization’s starting point. 

For example, if a nonprofit exists to fulfill the mission of eliminating hunger in a city, a long-range goal could be to start ten food banks in the next ten years. How those food banks are set up and how they are run are operational issues within the purview of the senior leader and staff.

Long-Term Goals Must be Aligned with Core Values

Finally, long-term goals must take into account the organization’s starting point, flow from the organization’s mission, and must be aligned with core values. In our example above, the nonprofit’s long-term goal was to start ten new food banks in ten years. Perhaps, the organization’s core value is to partner with local churches to eliminate hunger. Therefore, the goal should be set in that context—meaning, the goal could be to set up ten new food banks in ten churches throughout the city. In this way, the goal fulfills the mission and aligns with the core values.

If you would like more information about how Reynolds Law Group, PLLC can help train your nonprofit or church’s board in its responsibilities call 757.219.2500 or send us an email to assistant@reynoldslawgroup.net to set up an appointment.

If you would like to read the first two blogs in the series, 7 Essentials of a Board, you can find them here:

Avoid Mission Creep: A Board’s First Priority

Board Members, Fiduciary Duties, and Staying Out of the News