Discover what mission and vision statements are, plus the importance of using power language to craft your non-profits’ mission and vision statements. Learn how to write mission and vision statements.
You know when you go to pick up your kids from school and they get in the car and one of them starts rambling about how much they love you, and how you are the absolutely the greatest parent on the entire planet? How it pulls on your heart strings, just right? How they butter you up just so they can ask for something and nine times out of ten you can’t seem to refuse?
We’re not sure where they learn the art of persuasion, but it seems to come naturally to them. To all of us, really. At some point in life, we learn that in order to get what we want, it oftentime takes persuasion. We spend a lot of the time appealing to the person we’re trying to persuade by using certain vernacular.
The same applies to grant writing. When you are writing grants, imagine yourself as the little kid who just got picked up from school, explaining to your parents why it is an absolutely dire need, end-of-the-world scenario, the universes-might-collide situation if you do not get to eat dessert before dinner.
An exaggeration, right? Maybe slightly, but these words of desperation do something to the person on the receiving end. They make them want to respond and that is exactly what we want from grantors.
We want them to feel as if they are that parent who cannot resist this sweet, innocent child who needs them. So, how does one achieve this? Typically through one’s mission and vision statements. However, these mission and vision statements can’t just be any old regular mission and vision statements. They have to move their readers to respond.
In the following article, we will discuss what mission and vision statements are, the importance of using the correct vernacular in your mission and vision statements, and some key words to use when crafting your mission and vision statements!
What is a mission statement?
A mission statement defines your church' s purpose, objectives, and how it plans to reach those objectives. It focuses on what an organization seeks to achieve presently.
Your mission statement will answer:
What does your church or church programs do?
Whom does your church or ministry serve?
How do you serve them?
Riley Martin of River of Life Church in Muncie, IN says, “Having a clear, concise, and measurable mission statement is essential to writing a good grant proposal. It needs to be clearly defined. Everyone working in your church should know it. It should be concise. If your mission statement is three pages long, it will be impossible to easily convey to someone. Think elevator speech.”
“It should also be measurable. You should be able to show how this grant will help you fulfill your mission in the church and community. For example, if your mission is to REACH, then your outcomes should show the number of people you are reaching through your program,” continues Martin.
As an example, Exousia Group’s mission statement is to accelerate faith-based nonprofit growth by increasing the knowledge and resources needed to research, write and land grants.
Grant funding organizations want to know exactly who they’re funding, why they exist, what they desire to do and how they’re going to get there. This is your chance to persuade them, and you don’t want to persuade amiss.
What is a vision statement?
A vision statement details where the organization aspires to go tomorrow. In other words, what is your church or program striving to become? This is a future goal, which provides intent to every ministry, program or project that your church operates.
Your vision statement will answer:
What are your church's or program's hopes and dreams?
What problem are you solving for the greater good?
Who and what is your church and church program inspiring to change?
For instance, Exousia Group’s vision statement is to empower organizations to make world-changing dreams a reality.
If you and your organization have dreams and aspirations and you are passionate about them, let the passion come through in your vision statement! You want the grantors to feel what you feel.
Set non-profit apart from crowd
Growing up, a common phrase that was thrown around my household was: “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.” And, if that isn’t grant writing, then I don’t know what is. Anyone can write mission and vision statements, but you want to write mission and vision statements that set you apart from the rest of the grant writing crowd.
The vernacular of your mission and vision statements is so crucial, because you are trying to get the grantors to understand the urgency of what is taking place in your organization. You need to succinctly convey to funders that your non-profit is impacting the real needs of real people. You need to be passionate about it and you need to use words that will demonstrate you are the solution.
Or, think of the opposite: “If it doesn’t happen, if what you're doing, if what you're program is doing doesn't happen, then this will happen.”
You need to use drama-laden words. Use words that portray urgency, extreme needs, dire situations. You need these grantors to feel compelled to come through with financial support.
Let’s take a look at a couple of mission and vision statements from well-known companies around the world.
Nike
“Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
The focus on equality and body positivity in Nike's mission statement helps the company appeal to millennials and Gen Z workers.
Amazon
“To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”
The emphasis on customer service and affordable costs in this mission statement perfectly captures what Amazon offers to its consumers while also demonstrating how big and far-reaching Amazon is.
Through using descriptive language, these two companies appeal to the emotions of its audience. Words like inspiration, innovation, and endeavors, show the audience how critical their existence is to the world around them.
Let’s go back to this phrase: “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” It does not matter how much you say to these grantors if they do not understand the motivation behind what you’re saying. Your words need to speak life into the situations you are trying to portray to them.
So, what are some keywords that can help you accomplish this?
Keyword Bank
Keywords are critical for stirring up emotion within your audience. It is good to use words that create a sense of empowerment.
Check out the following words that motivate readers to engage:
Empower Motivate Discover Endeavor
Inspire Innovate Collaborate Influence
Fulfill Improve Enable Assure
Advance Accelerate Demonstrate Strive
Offer Revolutionary Focus Implement
Build Create Spread Universal
Most Access Become Organize
Promote Nurture Inclusive Sustain
Save Essential Achieve Lead
Integrity Provide Superior To end
Reinvent Connect Redefine Define
Ensure Help Power Deliver
By using words like these, you create an image within the grantor's mind of the communities they want to participate in or connect with. It takes them from where they are sitting and places them right in the middle of it.
To repeat, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Use that to your advantage when writing your mission and vision statements. Appeal to the audience’s emotions. Take them to the world that you are living in.
Grant Writing Strategies for Churches devotes an entire chapter to laying the foundation of your grant application. This chapter also includes two worksheets to help develop your mission and vision statements.
In this article, we have discussed what mission and vision statements are, the importance of using the correct vernacular in your mission and vision statements, and some key words to use when crafting them.
Exousia seeks to educate and consult church leaders on how grants work and the importance of crafting your mission and vision statements. Our prayer is that you are inspired to write grants and are blessed to land funding for your church ministries.
If you desire to learn more about grant writing, check out our online grant writing institute or attend an upcoming in-person workshop!