One Phase of Nonprofit Organizational Readiness for Grant Funding: Recordkeeping

Every organization needs well-planned, carefully maintained files in order to handle applications, grants and to function effectively. Setting up a useful filing system can be an easy task if several basic decisions are made beforehand. This article offers an outline of what an organization can expect to maintain: written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping. It will discuss the need for maintaining, retrieving, archiving and destroying records and accountability for each.

I have included a list of resources for deciding on retention deadlines and management of records.

There are those of us who see the mission and the vision of an organization as a spiritual process seeking and expressing the values of the organization. It is outward, not inward. It is the pursuit of excellence, not necessarily perfection. It is an experience of constant renewal; there is a dimension of the human soul and an orientation of the heart. It is a way of making sense of the insensible and insensible.

Beginning and working in a nonprofit organization is a leap of faith. It is walking to the end of a cliff and taking one more step. It is a calling that is difficult to put down. It is a risk about which we are passionate. With this spiritual side of an NPO, there are the hard facts that leadership, paper work, recordkeeping, management, budgets, grant writing, fund raising, cleaning the bathroom are the outward and visible signs of that inward and spiritual belief in the mission and the vision of the organization.

And so here we go.

How long should you keep records? Some records may have to be kept 3 years, some 7 years, some permanently. Your state or the grant or contract may have minimum requirements for keeping records. It is my suggestion that you have a written policy about keeping these records and more such as business-related web sites and significant e-mail at least through the state or Federal statute of limitations for bringing a lawsuit against the organization and any subsequent appeals. The statutes of limitation are different state by state and with the federal law; they are based on the type of suit or administrative complaint.

It is important that you meet with an attorney to assist on this and other policies to be certain you are appropriately protected.

Specific people should be assigned responsibility for maintaining specific files. Once these assignments are made, everyone in the organization should know who can assist in locating needed information, as well as to whom various documents should be given for filing. When an organization has staff and an office, the staff usually maintains the files for the organization in the office. Public disclosure laws require certain information be located in all offices with three employees or more. Privacy laws may affect the way you handle personnel records and the records of applicants for employment.

In an organization without staff, generally the secretary is responsible for maintaining corporate records, correspondence, and membership files, while the treasurer is responsible for all financial records. The bylaws should clearly state that the officer, secretary and treasurer are obligated to return all records to the organization president or chairperson when relieved of duties. Make sure board members know who is responsible for what, and that nothing falls through the cracks.

Nonprofit organizations should have a written, mandatory document retention and periodic destruction policy. Policies such as this will eliminate accidental or innocent destruction. In addition, it is important for administrative personnel to know the length of time records should be retained to be in compliance with the law and with contracts.

I also suggest checking with your attorney and accountant before destroying any records.
But First: An Important Tip - Always return all material to the proper file promptly to avoid loss of important documents.
Records and Files to Be Kept
The following are samples of records you should keep permanently, even if the law or a grant permits a shorter period. Your state/province may have statutes of limitation for legal action that will influence the maintenance and destruction of records. Some of these records will be important to preparing a grant application.

• Audit reports of accountant or board committee
• General ledger
• Cash books, petty cash, client funds
• Charts of accounts
• Transfer registers
• Bank statements
• Property lists and inventory, serial numbers, date of purchase, original cost, grantor(s) who paid for it, purchase records
• Checks (canceled, and especially for taxes, purchase of property, salaries, contracts, etc.)
• As appropriate copies of staff licensing (i.e. social worker, doctor, lawyer, psychologist, nurse), staff and volunteer motor vehicle insurance if driving clients or for other work duties
• Employment contracts
• Personnel records and material filed by applicants for employment
• Hiring policy, procedure and application forms; establish a written policy for the retention of applications, resumes and employment inquiry letters, from three to six months but there is an argument that you need to keep them through the statute of limitations for any potential law suit.
• All employee withholding, transmittal, reporting, forms filed.
• Written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping such as Personnel Manuals, Equal Employment, Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy, Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy, Violence in the Workplace Policy and Procedure Manual, Standards of Practice, Ethics, etc.
• Employee benefits and records of accrual, employee time and travel sheets
• Policies, applications and records of volunteers
• Correspondence (legal and important letters)
• Records of all gifts received and letters of acknowledgement
• Deeds, mortgages, easements and bills of sale
• Financial statements (at least end-of-year, other months optional unless required by law or a grantor)
• End of year trial balances
• Insurance policies and other records, correspondence, claims
• Current accident reports and claims
• Journals and minutes of Board meetings and attachments
• Charter or incorporation papers with amendments, bylaws and amendments and change of registered agent, state and local approvals and reports
• Purchase of Service Agreements.
• Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)
• Copies of all Federal, State and local tax documents, e.g.: Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), IRS designation letters, state identification number, all correspondence with the IRS and state including annual reports, 990 and so on
• All correspondence to or from federal, state and local taxing agencies, tax returns, extensions, worksheets, reports, income tax forms etc.
• Property records (costs, depreciation, blueprints, plans, etc.)
• Trademark registrations, patents and copyrights and applications
• Material related to any threat of or actual lawsuit or administrative claim including but not limited to civil rights, ADA and other potential liabilities, subject to statute of limitations; avoid destruction of e-mail and other records that may impact litigation
• Client or customer's files; client or customer complains, contracts, a state or federal Statute or a licensing organization may set time lines for retaining these files but be conscious of the statute of limitations for legal action by a client or customer
• Copy of all matters posted on your web site
• Significant and relevant e-mail, instant messaging, and other telephonic communication systems
• Labor contracts
• Training and orientation material
• Hardware and software licenses
• User names and passwords

Important Tip: Nonprofit organizations should give careful consideration to written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping separating duties between officers and employees. For instance the duties of opening envelopes with checks, registering the checks, preparing bank deposits and accounting for funds are different duties that should be shared by various board officers or employees. Talk with your accountant to develop these written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping to increase accountability.

There are two other files that the organization and development people should create, The Dream File and The Memory File:


The Dream File – This file should contain the dreams of programs and activities that leadership, staff and others present for funding ideas. They may be somewhat far fetched. They cannot be off-mission, however. The record of a dream may be simply a few lines; it may be several pages with details started. Take the time to dream and capture the dreams for potential funding opportunities and partnerships. Add to the dream file material from what you read or what you hear, a line may make a good opening to a grant application if on mission I have used lyrics of Bruce Springsteen successfully more than once to lead off the cover letter.


The Memory Files - These files should contain information that a potential funder may request. Have them clearly available so that there will be no delay or lost opportunities for grants. There is no consistency about what funders want. These are samples of commonly requested material:

• Original verified copies of the Articles of Incorporation and any amendments, and copies of the bylaws and all amendments,
• History and mission of the organization,
• The completed IRS Form 1023, FEIN, state identification number or other papers
• The last three years of 990s, audits and management letters,
• Employee and board job descriptions,
• Leadership resumes,
• Current annual budget,
• Board minutes and fiscal reports for the most recent 12 month period,
• Evaluations and monitoring reports by any funders,
• Press coverage, Internet references
• Names and short biography of board members and staff management and leadership,
• Templates of the description and brief history of the organization, its mission, goals, objectives, activities,
• List of current funding sources,
• Business or strategic plan, needs assessment and priority studies,
• Building plans and
• Any other papers you believe may be relevant to a government, foundation or corporation.

The copies sent to a funder should be legible and presented in and orderly and best possible fashion. It may help to have an appendix sheet listing additional material. Some applications require consecutive numbering from page 1 through the last page. A copy of a that is crooked or the bottom cut off is not the way to do it.


Funders may request all material be on back-to-back paper for conservation. Others may request 20 copies of everything. Follow the instructions. Provide what they ask for. Follow instructions as to what they do not want. You are putting your best foot forward here. Show your professionalism, your passion and abilities.


Considerations

The recordkeeping about recordkeeping should give guidance concerning categories of records, access to records, forms, schedule for retention or destruction, schedule for archiving if appropriate, methods for retrieval and notice of who is responsible for the action.

The board needs to develop written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping capability for fiscal, legal, contract, employment and other accountability. Who will maintain the corporate files for fiscal accountability? Who does not have access to certain records? How will the board know what is going on?

Where do you keep these records? What facts and documents of your organization are available to the public? If you receive public funds there may be requirements from your state law or funding source about more public accountability. If you have staff, there are certain personnel records that may not be released, such as health records. On the other hand, there are some personnel records open for inspection at least to funders. What other records should an organization retain permanently and in what format? Who may have access to the records?

What policy and procedure will you have for destruction and retention of records? What system will be used for retrieval of documents? Who has access and who has the right of access to these records?

Where do you store the old records for your organization? In a disaster, how vulnerable do you think these records will be? There are consultants to help you assess the vulnerability of your organization to disaster, but they may be more costly than you can afford. But what can you afford if you lose everything?

The best advice: Plan ahead. Keep copies of backup material off site. Store it in an electronic vault or secure web site if necessary. Double-check your insurance – does it cover floods if you are near water or other disasters? Develop a plan for protecting your business so you will be up and running as soon as possible.

If you are going to seek grants, be certain you have looked carefully at the responsibilities, recordkeeping and reporting in the application and in the contract.

I am required to tell you that I am a licensed attorney in New Jersey. It is not my intent to provide you with legal advice. I may have given you legal information but I have not given you legal advice. Reading this material is not a substitute for seeking legal assistance in these decisions.


Resources


Document Retention Limits

A limited list from Pfau Englund Nonprofit Law can be found at http://www.nonprofitlaw.com/retention.shtml


Records Retention Schedule at Delaware Association of Nonprofit Agencies’ web site - http://www.delawarenonprofit.org/toolstemplates/managefinance_faq2.php


Document Retention In The Digital Age: How Long Is Long Enough? By Philip L. Gordon of Littler Mendelson, P.C. - http://library.findlaw.com/2004/Sep/27/133589.html


Management

The Basic Guide to Nonprofit Financial Management by Carter McNamara at http://www.mapnp.org/library/finance/np_fnce/np_fnce.htm

See the Policies for Financial Accountability at Idealist/Action Without Borders http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/faq/56-25/50-5


Financial Management - http://www.allianceonline.org/FAQ/financial_management

Foundation Center Tutorial, Proposal Budgeting Basics - http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/prop_budgt/


The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Implications for Nonprofit Organizations – http://www.independentsector.org/issues/sarbanesoxley.html


Compendium of Standards, Codes, and Principles of Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organizations - http://www.independentsector.org/issues/accountability/standards2.html


Audit Committee Toolkit - http://www.aicpa.org/Audcommctr/toolkitsnpo/homepage.htm


Checklist for Accountability - http://www.independentsector.org/issues/accountability/Checklist/index.html


Insurance Questions for Nonprofits – http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/faq/144-221/50-5


Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations. http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/report/principles/Principles_Guide.pdf and http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/


What Must We, What Can We Disclose to the Public, Staff, Board and Clients? - http://www.nonprofits.org/if/idealist/en/FAQ/QuestionViewer/default?category-id=1&item=1505&sid=40057025-157-xBkAU


Standards for Charity Accountability - http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=4dd040fd-08af-4dd2-aaa0-dcd66c1a17fc


Nonprofit Governance and Accountability - http://www.jhu.edu/listeningpost/news/pdf/comm04.pdf


Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability Standards and Best Practices - http://www.ecfa.org/Content.aspx?PageName=ECFABestPractices

Maryland Nonprofits: Standards for Excellence - An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector - http://www.marylandnonprofits.org/html/standards/04_02.asp

Grant Writing Tools Web Sites - http://www.idealist.org/npofaq/19/64.html

IKnow is Interactive Knowledge for Nonprofit Organizations Worldwide - http://www.iknow.org/Main.cfm?Main=14


Is a Grant Right for Your Agency? A helpful one page check list from U.S. Department of Agriculture - http://www.nal.usda.gov/wicworks/Topics/grant_checklist.pdf 

U.S. Election Night 2008 - Flashes of My Life Came Before Me

Watching the U.S. election returns on Tuesday night, November 4, 2008, brought many flashes of memories and experiences into my frontal lobes from 76 years. They, whoever they are, say your life flashes before you before you die. Well, what I know is that night my life flashed before my eyes and I am alive. They are vignettes.

From my childhood In Pleasantville NJ in 1940 when I could visit a black friend in his house and he could visit me, but he was not allowed in our house; I did not understand why. I traveled with the Wildwood High School (NJ) basketball team and every year in certain communities we would have windows broken on the bus because we had black players.

In college I did sports broadcasting for the four years. We went to Annapolis MD to broadcast a game between Gettysburg College and the Naval Academy. The only black student in Gettysburg was with me. We were not allowed to eat anywhere in Maryland together so we did not eat.

In seminary a black friend from Pleasantville NJ and I worked on a model mission to South Philadelphia, poverty, racism, prostitution, unsafe housing, no employment but near the University of Pennsylvania. He was a friend of my childhood friend who was then a cop. The model served as the way I started a community center in Camden NJ about 5 years later. Both friends are now dead.

I was almost fired from my first clergy job in Grace Church Plainfield NJ in 1958. My boss was on vacation in Nova Scotia and I was left in charge. On one Sunday I preached on the question why there were two Episcopal Churches in the small community of Plainfield, one white, one black, and how can we begin to worship together. Before the service was over my boss was on the phone waiting for me. He asked what happened. I told him. He said yes that is basically what he heard. He said some of the leaders wanted him to fire me. He then told me he was not coming back over this issue and to preach about whatever God and I decided. So I did it again the next week. The ceiling never caved in.

On April Fool’s Day, 1959 I moved to Camden NJ to work in an inner city church. Camden: too many mountain top experiences, too many sadnesses to write here. I started the community center across the street from the church, a huge building, a half-block long, three stories high with a gymnasium, library and rooms everywhere. It became a center for children and youth and for inner city adults, my neighbors, working on community issues.

The flashes include being on the Civil Rights March in 1963 in Washington DC and listening to Dr. Martin Luther King preach. There must have been 50 speeches that day, but only one conquered us. I heard an earlier version of the speech that he gave in Detroit, but he was under the spirit that bright sunny day in Washington DC and it became a hymn. He gave us all a dream. We knew we could realize it. But as decades past the dream stayed a dream.

JFK's death. King's death. Bobby Kennedy's death. Each was a different experience. When JFK was shot I was driving a parishioner for her brother to enter a rehab center in Princeton. When we arrived no one was in the reception room. That is when we three learned of it.

Martin and Bobby's deaths I was in Camden and I opened the church for anyone to use. We had an impromptu service for each and the church was almost filled both days by folks who did not go to our church. The neighborhood mourned there those two days, however. We did together. Many civil rights marches. The Camden riot. Speaking before Senate and House committees about Camden and urban renewal. Blocking I-76 from coming into Camden until there were protections for a public housing complex and competent relocation of families throughout the region, not just in the inner city.

Changing dim light bulbs in tenements from 25 watts to 100 watts. We did it because it made sense. The hallways were dark, the stairs dangerous, the tenants black and Hispanic families. If the landlord removed them we replaced them.

The church was all white, suburbanites coming back to the old neighborhood, when I started work there. The church was a white spiritual doughnut hole in a black and Hispanic poverty community. After I started the community center with their help in 1960, we saw black and Hispanic people begin to come to church. Then regularly. I started a new custom of greeting each other with a fold of the hands over the others in the form of a cross. White, black, Hispanic touched each other. I held a jazz mass. Black jazz musicians.

Black power. A description of a people changed from Negro to black to African American in a flash it seems. I remember being trailed by Camden police wherever I went with black kids or adults in the car. I remember riding shotgun with a sheriff many nights. He was Arnold Cream, a hero of mine from high school. He was also known as Jersey Joe Walcott, former heavy weight champion of the world. We were friends in Camden.

I remember he and some federal employees worked with me to bring H. Rap Brown, later Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, to the community center to speak. He was wanted for federal offenses at the time. Brown was sneaked into Camden and out by black law enforcement and federal officials. He was a leader of the militant black power group, the Black Panthers. And he was a hero in the black community. He is now in prison on a homicide conviction. He was a wonderful speaker.

Minister Malcolm X came to Camden in 1965. I heard him preach and he was phenomenal. I was one of a few white people there, escorted straight to the front of the convention hall by a Muslim Guard. He entered the stage to a standing and tumultuous greeting. He looked around the auditorium and then said, I hear there are some white people here today but I cannot see them for all the beautiful color. The place went over the top! I never felt fear or apprehension. I was with neighbors and friends, why should I? I also met him for a brief talk. Weeks later he was assassinated.

My oldest daughter was with me through most of these events. I was a single parent.

I remember meeting after meeting in our house with African American and Hispanic and white leaders talking about the present and the future of Camden through the 1960s - one eventually became governor of NJ; another became the first minority/Hispanic on the Federal Court in NJ. I learned so much at the feet of black women who wanted so much more for themselves, their children, their community, their country. At that time we were simply trying to get a minority on city council. We did, the brother of the future judge.

It was an exciting and vibrant and hopeful time. But president...? Not even in our vocabulary.

Now there are and will be children who will grow up thinking that having a black president is a norm.

I have been enriched for these and so many experiences as a clergyperson and a lawyer with legal services programs in low-income communities over 76 years. I looked back on election night and I rejoiced. I have seen history in the United States through a kaleidoscope, not simply in black and white.

My family participated at one level or another for Barack Obama. My wife, her family and I in New York, My oldest daughter, an attorney, in New Jersey. My middle daughter (who came home from Korea where she teaches) in North Carolina. My youngest daughter (where she is completing her masters in journalism) at the University of Oregon. My granddaughter (in her third year at Penn State before heading to study in Argentina) in Pennsylvania. All blue states this election.

The flashes of light from 76 years, but only a portion. Unto the second and third generations.

In Praise of Small and Mid-size Nonprofits - On the Side Streets of America

What will happen to Main street is a discussion the candidates for President and others talk about in the national fiscal crisis. This is my offer of praise for those who work in small to mid-size nonprofit groups, not on Main street but on the side streets of America. They and their clients, customers, patients and constituencies will feel more pain. We have been told for years to do more with less. The near future may be do less with even more less, if you know what I mean.

It appears to me that there are several reasons why we have small ($100,00 annual budget and/or staff of five) and mid-size ($5M annual budget or less): There are community needs that are best served by them. They are "on the ground" meeting priorities, goals and objectives that are not or cannot be met by larger nonprofits such as national groups, universities and others which have a different mission and vision. Many of these larger organizations provide support, training, technical assistance and evaluation to small and mid-size organizations. Much funding from Federal and state government, United Way, the Combined Federal Campaign, trust funds, foundations and corporations is aimed at small to mid-size nonprofits. There are probably many other reasons but I am not a researcher or historian.

I offer my praise and deep appreciation to the founders of small and mid-size organizations who have the passion, the mission, vision, the smarts and understand the pulse of their communities to tackle serious community problems and gaps in services, underpaid and understaffed and yet producing change and support in human lives daily. They are in inner cities, rural and farm towns, in suburbs.

I offer my deep appreciation for what they provide our society. They comfort the disturbed - they disturb the comfortable at the local level. They give with their personal values of dedication and hard work. They give with their education and experience. They want to be in those small to mid-sized organizations because of their moral fiber...it isn't right and someone has to address that need now and on into the unforeseeable future. For so many employees and volunteers working with the small to mid-sized organizations, small pay and benefits, significant paper-work, hard issues - they can do no less. They have a spiritual sense of the rightness of being social workers, case managers, community organizers, lawyers, counselors, doctors, nurses, mothers, fathers, retirees, teachers, youth workers, respite support, mentors only in local small and mid-sized nonprofits

I offer praise to those who will spend a significant part of their lives working with broken families, mentally ill, people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, victims of domestic violence and rape, growing artists, actors and musicians, literacy, migrant camps, tenants rights, undocumented aliens, ex-offenders, new born, homeless, women, elderly, job training, single parents, working poor, displaced people, health, community advocacy, civil rights, people suffering from addiction, offer mentoring, save and protect animals, the environment and local or ethnic history and so much more. All are within locally-based small and mid-sized 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations with executive directors and boards and stake-holders and constituencies and clients, customers and patients. They are not on Wall Street. They are not even on Main street. They are on side streets, low rent areas close to those they serve.

They deserve the interest of donors, volunteers and funders. They deserve training, technical assistance and serious research, not at the expense of their missions but in the support and enhancement of their missions and results.

I can never offer thank you sufficiently for what you have given me and our neighbors and what I have learned at your knees.

The Mission Statement - The Spiritual Rudder

Some 40 years ago I developed the Camden Episcopal Community Center in the heart of Camden NJ. The center continues in existence serving the community as the Camden Community Center at Broadway and Royden. Back 40 years ago when I sought funding and prepared grant applications, no one talked about mission statements.

The times changed and the concept of a mission statement for nonprofit and for-profit corporations caught on. Looking back on the change, I say it is a great idea. When statements took hold, it was not very clear what it should and maybe not say. I remember the first mission statement I used I wrote myself. It did not dawn on me to include others in the process of creating it and celebrating it. It had some 4 paragraphs of multiple sentences. I have no idea what it was about now.

The idea of a mission statement is now so burned into me that I cannot envision a nonprofit that does not spend the time and energy creating one.

What is it? How do we define a "mission statement"?

I call it the spiritual rudder. It defines the purpose for the nonprofit's existence. It briefly describes the uniqueness of the organization, why it exists, what it will accomplish. It gives the board, the staff, the community and potential funders a sense of what the organization stands for. It keeps the organization focused and under control.

As the rudder guides and forces a boat, ship, airplane or submarine to stay on course when water, wind and weather attempt to move it off course, the spiritual rudder maintains the direction when inside and outside forces attempt to change it. It is strong. It is bold. It expresses the soul of the organization, the spiritual rudder.

Creating the mission statement is not a solo act. It can and should be considered and discussed by the leadership. The board and/or staff can participate in several ways including saying how the members want to proceed. My experience shows that it can be a slow process. That is it can be democratized for greater sharing and dreaming. I have been in a process that took six months and resulted in a universal agreement of what the organization was about. We celebrated the end - which was a new beginning.

We used the statement regularly. It had to be out front. We posted it at staff and board meetings. All or the heart of the statement was a watermark on letterhead. It appeared in all publicity, all grant applications. We created a portable, folding triptych poster display for community events featuring the mission statement at the top center. My last development of a mission statement, except for myself, predated websites and other wonderful ways to position the mission statement.

It was not important whether it was short enough for a baseball cap or too long to memorize. It was more important that it was accurate, honest, forceful and expressed our values.

The statement may have to be revisited every so many years. Organizations grow, slide, shift in focus. New people, changed circumstances may alter the direction with a better way to say the words for the spiritual rudder.

Every corporation, including nonprofits, develop a corporate culture. That culture should be influenced by the mission statement from as early a moment as possible, from the first board meeting onward if possible.

For experienced nonprofits that are considering a mission statement for the first time, the development process should have an effect on the culture and can have positive and negative implications that will have to be managed.

The mission statement is the "bottom line". It is one of the three Ms - mission, management and money.

Some resources for understanding a mission statement, a vision statement, marketing, positioning, and advocacy:

Tony Poderis, The Mission Checklist,
http://www.raise-funds.com/1101forum.html and
http://www.raise-funds.com/exhibits/exhibit46.html

Carter McNamara’s Basics of Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements
http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/stmnts.htm

“So, when you are preparing your Mission Statement remember to make it clear and succinct, incorporating socially meaningful and measurable criteria and consider approaching it from a grand scale. As you create your Mission Statement consider including some or all of the following concepts.

1. The moral/ethical position of the enterprise


2. The desired public image


3. The key strategic influence for the business


4. A description of the target market


5. A description of the products/services


6. The geographic domain


7. Expectations of growth and profitability”

From Business Resource Software, Inc. Mission Statement http://www.businessplansoftware.org/advice_mission.asp

Often overlooked at the beginning of the development of a new organization is communication. Communication includes talking and listening. You will find some guidance through these concepts at Smart Chart 3.0 http://www.smartchart.org/ Free registration required.

Independent Center’s Mission & Market: The Resource Center for Effective Corporate-Nonprofit Partnerships
http://www.independentsector.org/mission_market/index.html

Ron Meshanko’s article at Idealist.com, What should our mission statement say?
http://www.idealist.org/if/idealist/en/FAQ/QuestionViewer/default?section=03&item=21

Joanne Fritz’s article at About.com, How to Avoid Mission Creep: 7 Hallmarks of Mission Statements That Stay Put
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitmanagement/tp/Mission-Creep.htm

Joanne Fritz’s article at About.com, Mission Impossible? How to Write Your Mission Statement http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm

Third Sector New England, Strategic Communications Blog Video: What is the difference between a nonprofit’s mission and vision?
http://tsne.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/vlog_mission/

Nancy Schwartz, The Nonprofit Tag Line Report
http://www.gettingattention.org/tagline_report.pdf

Vince Hyman, Positioning Your Organization for Success http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/npEnterprise/message/2094

Vince Hyman, Reputation Builders http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/npEnterprise/message/2131

Alder Consulting, Branding Your Organization through Your Website
http://www.alderconsulting.com/branding.html

SAMPLE MISSION STATEMENT

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is the national, professional organization for all certified public accountants. Its mission is to provide members with the resources, information and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public, employers and clients.

And how do you achieve this mission?
http://www.aicpa.org/MediaCenter/MissionStatement.htm

Use your mission statement for advocating for your organization and what it is doing. We do not spend much energy advocating for our nonprofits and we should . When you advocate for your organization, advocate with the mission statement involved.

Be at the helm of your spiritual rudder.

The voice says, who will go for us, who will speak for us, who will care for us, who will show us?

There are those of us who see the mission, vision and the passion of a nonprofit organization as a spiritual process seeking and expressing the values of the individuals and the organization. It is an inward event, an inward experience. It is what you feel about an issue, a problem and the incredible desire to do something about it. What you feel is deeper than your head and your heart. You feel it in your soul. If you do not believe in a "soul", it is still deeper than your head and your heart, wherever it may reside.

It is stupid. It is stupid the problem exists in the first place. No one should have to fix this problem – it should not exist in the first place. And here I am. I feel the problem either because I have it, a loved one has it or I have seen it face to face through reading, through pictures or in person. Some stimulation hits me and I have to do something. It seems I have no other choice. I have to do something. But it is so absurd!

It is also an outward spirituality. It is the pursuit of perfection and, if not that, then it is the pursuit of excellence. It is an experience of constant renewal; there is a dimension of the human soul and an orientation of the heart and the action of our body and being. It is a way of making sense of the insensible, the senselessness, the hole that needs to be filled and made whole. A stupid problem that should not even exist does not need a stupid fix. It needs the best of me and the best of people with whom I join.

The spiritual slams the brain and says, what are you going to do about it? What do you have to find out? Is someone already working on it? Where can I link up with them? I have to learn more about the problem, about possible resources, about the best and most sensible approaches so that I am a help and not a hindrance. Are there new and innovative ways the problem can be attacked and minimized or overcome?

And so we begin the spiritual quest with mundane research, learning, taking classes, getting licensed, reading, thinking, writing, incorporating, and talking with people who share the same or similar sense of the stupidity, the absurd.

Beginning a nonprofit organization is a spiritual act, a leap of faith. It is walking to the end of a cliff and taking one more step. I know it is the right thing to do. I may not know the right way to do it. But I believe that next step is for me to take. It is a calling that is difficult to hush and put to sleep.

With this spiritual side of a nonprofit organization, there are the hard facts that are the outward and visible signs of that inward and spiritual belief in the mission, the vision and the passion of the organization:

• Listening
• Observing and working with the stupidity of it all
• Leadership
• Followship
• Developing partnerships
• Paper work
• Teams
• Servant
• Planning
• Beauty
• Facing/causing/accepting change
• Management
• Giving voice
• Study
• Deadlines
• Hiring to firing or leaving
• Record keeping
• Reporting
• Angst
• Standards
• Joy
• Rules
• Meetings
• Solving
• Budgets
• Healing
• Quality
• Reaching agreement
• Conflicts
• Honesty
• Handling the finances
• Giving talks
• Anomie
• The law
• Supervising people
• Feeling hurt
• Giving bad news
• Awe
• Training
• Stuff happens
• Winning
• Feedback
• Loving the job; hating the reasons for it
• Messing up
• Exhaustion
• Evaluating
• Inspiration
• Resource development
• Grant writing
• Anger
• Human resources
• Marketing
• Ethics
• Celebrating
• Fund raising
• Advocacy
• Cleaning the bathroom
• Living to work yourself out of a job by eliminating or reducing the stupidity
• Moving on

It is a spiritual evolution and not a revolution. It is not a quick and unthoughtout repair job...although that may be only what you have the funding to do.

The voice says, who will go for us, who will speak for us, who will care for us, who will show us?

The silence hears, here I am, send me.