There are thousands of things to do and it is very easy to let your focus roam to the immediate urgencies of the moment.  These urgencies are important, but don’t let them distract you.  You need to keep your focus on the long term, while paying attention to immediate issues.  If there is anything that distinguishes a leader from a manager, this is it.

Keep your focus on:

*Closing your Mission Gap.  Imagine what the world would look like if you were accomplishing your mission 100%.  And compare that to the way the world looks like today.  Your job is to remind people that your collective job is to close that gap.  Remind them of the big picture and the progress they are making toward that with the work they are doing.

*Your Strategic Goals.  You set Strategic Goals to close the Mission Gap.  If someone suggests a new activity or idea, then you ask “How does that support our Strategic Goals?”  Of course the Strategic Goals need to be broken down into annual goals and activities and accountabilities.  But as all that is going on you need to remind people of the connection of the daily activities to the Strategic Goals and how you are all making progress toward closing the Mission Gap.

Focus!  And you will surely make more of a Mission Impact.

Strategy is an integrated explanation of how an organization is going to guide its performance into the future.

In installment #2 of “What is Strategy?” we consider an organization’s future.  If Strategy guides performance “into the future, ” then an obvious question is “Where are you going?”

To answer that question, I first suggest that an organization identify its Mission Gap – which is essentially a statement of unmet mission needs.  For example, if your mission was to eliminate illiteracy in your county, then your Mission Gap would be the number of people who are currently not literate.  Click here to learn more about Mission Gap.

Next, ask yourself “What would our organization need to look like ideally in order to close our Mission Gap as effectively as possible?”  This is time to dream!  Dream a Vision of what your organization would look like if you could have it any way you wanted it – with no constraints.  Most visions are incremental and adapt themselves to current reality.  Click here to learn more about aspirational visioning – including my $100 Billion Challenge exercise.

To finish off the “Where are you going?” question it is time to set Strategic Goals.  I recommend setting Strategic Goals five years into the future which inspire you and which you think will catapult your organization toward closing your Mission Gap as effectively as possible.  I encourage organizations to set specific Almost Impossible Goals.  Click here to learn about this powerful way of setting goals that leads to Breakthrough Performance.

Once you have dreamed and are in touch with your highest aspirations for those you serve, then it is time for the next step.  For the next installment we’ll talk about getting clarity on your current reality.  And from there, we will be able to chart the strategic course toward your future.

The three words I always make sure to keep in mind when I discuss a possible gift with a prospective donor are Problem, Opportunity,  and Challenge.  Though it is indeed a simplistic approach, I have found it to be very helpful.  It keeps me on track during a fund-raising conversation.  I have used it as a personal guide and I have taught it as a guide for others – especially for volunteer fundraisers.  A conversation with someone about making a gift should be sure to cover:

Problem.  This is where the Mission is discussed and it is the perfect place to discuss your organization’s Mission Gap – the unmet needs of those you serve.  “You may not be aware of this, but . . . . . and insert your own explanation of your organization’s Mission Gap.”  Example:  “Twenty percent of the adults in our county are not literate.”

Opportunity.  This is where you talk about your organization’s Vision.  You explain what you are doing now, but you then paint a picture of what more you want to do so you can close that Mission Gap and meet those needs more effectively.  “We have a dream that one day all adults in our community will be literate and we have programs that are proven to make a difference.”

Challenge.  “We understand the Problem.  And we have a Vision for what needs to be done to address it.  Our Challenge is that we do not have the resources at this time to begin making that Vision a reality.  Will you invest (insert your vision of their gift) to help us make that Vision come true for the benefit of those we serve?”

The nonprofit executives who do a lot of fundraising know that I am simplifying a lot here, but it is amazing to me how many people skip one or more of these basic steps.

There are many who chit chat and then go straight to the Challenge (“We need money!”) and ask for a gift.  The prospective donor is not given the chance to understand the magnitude of the Problemand worse, they are not given an Opportunity to dream about helping to solve the problem.

Perhaps still worse, there are those who explain the Problem in excruciating detail and then go directly to Challenge, without discussing the hope of the Vision.  Talk about a depressing conversation!

Vision provides opportunity.  Vision provides hope.  With Vision, we have a chance to make a difference.  Creating an Aspirational Vision for an organization that can help close the Mission Gap is vital to any fundraising effort.

And as we all know, funding is needed by all organizations in order to make even more of a Mission Impact.

Mission.  The aspect of Mission I encourage nonprofits to focus on is identifying their Mission Gap.  Mission Gap is essentially a statement of unmet mission needs.  It compares the current reality of those you serve with what their ideal condition would be.  For example, if your mission was to eliminate illiteracy in your county, then you would want to know your current reality – how many people are currently not literate.  You would compare that to your ideal of everyone being literate.  If your county matches the national average, then 20% of the adults there are not literate.  If you had a county of 100,000 adults, then your Mission Gap would be 20,000 people.  Mission Gap gives you a clear way to communicate the stark challenges your organization faces.  Instead of asking for incremental improvements in funding to help a few more people read, you can say “We have 20,000 people in our county who cannot read.  It’s a big number and we need your big time support to close the gap.”

Vision.  Create a Vision – an ideal picture of what your organization would be like – if you could have it any way you wanted it, so you could close the Mission Gap as effectively as possible.  In the literacy example above, we would want to know what kind of capacity the organization would need in order to close the Mission Gap.  What would your programs, staffing, budget, etc. look like if you were ideally positioned to close that gap most effectively?

Money.  Put a price tag on the Vision.  “We have excellent programs that teach people how to read – but we need more programs to reach many, many more people.  Here’s what we think it is going to take, ideally, to close the illiteracy gap in our community as effectively as we can.  (Describe Vision& Price Tag.)  Will you help us close the illiteracy gap by making a $10,000 gift to our annual fund today?”

Mission Gap helps articulate the problem your organization is working to solve and an aspirational Vision can inspire donors to make major gifts which contribute to the solution.  Money feeds the Vision and that helps close the Mission Gap.  Share your Mission Gap & Vision with others and make even more of a Mission Impact.

Many strategies are based simply on an analytical forecast of the way things are currently headed.  How dull.  It was Goethe who said:

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

In his presidential run, Robert Kennedy used to quote George Bernard Shaw at the end of his speeches:

Some men see things as they are and say ‘why,’ I dream of things that never were and say ‘why not.’

The way to tap into dreams is through Vision.  One of the very important steps in the strategy process I use is for a nonprofit to focus on its commitment to fulfilling its unmet mission needs (aka Mission Gap) and then dream about what the organization would look like in an ideal state – so that it could close its Mission Gap as effectively as possible.

We need to let people dream these big, bold visions.  They want to be inspired by something.  Ask your stakeholders about their dreams.  Ask them what your organization would look like if they could have it any way they wanted it – so they could make even more of a difference for those they serve.

Ask, listen, share your own dreams – and create a vision with others that inspires you all.

I am often told that this approach to dreaming an ideal is a totally unreasonable way to go about creating a strategy.  When I am told that, I enthusiastically agree!  And then I share another quote by George Bernard Shaw:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in attempting to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

We need big, “unreasonable” visions because – face it – we are trying to solve big, challenging problems.  And incremental improvement is just not satisfactory.  Not for me, at least.  Whether your passion is providing affordable housing, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, or something else – we need organizations to build capacity to address these needs.

Doing this is important because vision – based on the opportunity to close a Mission Gap effectively – drives strategy.  And it ignites the “out of the box” thinking that everyone talks about.

Resist the temptation to create a vision you are sure you can achieve.  And remember the words of Nelson Mandela:

Your playing small does not serve the world.