Planning for Sustainability : Promoting Adoption of the Initiative's Mission and Objectives
Learn how to promote your organization's mission and objectives to help with organizational goals, such as financial or in-kind support and partnerships.
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WHAT DO WE MEAN BY PROMOTING ADOPTION OF THE INITIATIVE'S MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
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WHY PROMOTE THE ADOPTION OF THE INITIATIVE'S MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
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WHOM SHOULD YOU ENCOURAGE TO ADOPT YOUR MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
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HOW DO YOU GET OTHERS TO ADOPT YOUR MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
You believe in your work, and naturally you want others to believe in it. In fact, there are many ways your initiative can benefit when you encourage others to adopt its mission and objectives. This section shows what your initiative can gain by promoting your mission and objectives, and how you can do so effectively.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY PROMOTING ADOPTION OF THE INITIATIVE'S MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
Promoting adoption of your initiative's mission and objectives can mean many things. In a broad sense, it can mean getting others--potential funders, other organizations, or members of the community--to think your program's mission and objectives are generally a good idea. However, promotion of your program's mission and objectives can be part of a more tangible goal, such as:
- Getting others to provide financial or in-kind support
- Getting other groups to do the same types of things you do, or to partner with you in an initiative
- Getting others to promote your mission and objectives.
Promoting your organization's mission and objectives is a little bit different from promoting your group's activities. While you're probably accustomed to promoting what your group does--teaching adult literacy classes, providing meals to homeless people, or setting up infant immunization drives, for example--promotion of your mission and objectives involves, as much as anything, selling what you stand for. There are many ways you can go about doing this; this section will show you how.
A mission statement describes your organization's statement of purpose--what your group is going to do and why.
Objectives are short-term goals that your organization can use as intermediate markers of its progress.
As an analogy, suppose you decide to travel from Seattle, Washington to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Graceland. Your mission is to see Graceland. On your first day, you decide to drive 839 miles from Seattle to Salt Lake City. The second day of driving takes you to Kansas City. Your last day of driving ends in Memphis. These cities that you visit along the way are short-term goals, or objectives, with which you can gauge how much progress you're making on the way to your final destination.
WHY PROMOTE THE ADOPTION OF THE INITIATIVE'S MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
By promoting your initiative's mission and objectives, you encourage others to take them to heart and make them their own. This will increase the overall impact of your work.
Promoting the adoption of your mission and objectives will also help insure that your work will continue when or if your group is no longer around (heaven forbid!)--or if you simply decide to move on to other things.
Your mission and objectives are part of your legacy, which you are handing down to your spiritual heirs. As with many non material legacies, you may want to line up your heirs in advance and maximize the chances that they are going to carry on your work.
WHOM SHOULD YOU ENCOURAGE TO ADOPT YOUR MISSION AND OBJECTIVES?
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