Vision Leaks: Keeping Your Nonprofit Focused

In the dynamic world of nonprofit leadership, maintaining focus on your organization's vision is more crucial than ever, especially in times of uncertainty and challenges. This episode explores the phenomenon of "vision leakage," a subtle yet significant issue where organizations lose sight of their core mission amid everyday operational demands.

Throughout the conversation, Tim and Nathan share practical strategies that nonprofit leaders can implement to counteract vision leakage effectively. From creating "mission moments" at meetings to sharing compelling stories that illustrate your organization's impact, these action items serve as powerful reminders of your purpose. Also emphasized is the importance of engaging stakeholders by offering them opportunities to experience your mission firsthand, reinforcing their connection to your work. The need for visual reminders and integrating mission-driven language into all organizational communications, ensuring that the core message is consistently shared is also discussed.

Transcript

Tim Barnes: 0:08

Welcome to the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership. I'm Tim Barnes and I'm Nathan Ruby. Today we're going to talk about vision and how vision has a tendency to leak as Nathan and I record this podcast. Many nonprofits in the US are facing some huge challenges as our new government administration is pausing, cutting and even eliminating some programs and funding of which many nonprofits depend on to carry out their vision and mission. As nonprofit leaders work to figure out their next steps in response to this, remembering and staying true to their vision and mission is so important.

Nathan Ruby : 0:47

Yeah, Tim, absolutely. And I mean there's no question that our industry, our sector, is in a state of flux and maybe ambiguity at the moment, not knowing how things are going to go, how they're going to shake out, and that just makes if there's one thing, which is why we're doing this episode today your vision and mission and keeping that front and center, and not only in front of you and in front of staff and in front of board, but also in front of donors, More important than ever. We've got to be tight on vision and mission and communicate that and get that out to your people again and again and again.

Tim Barnes: 1:36

You're absolutely right, nathan, and I know we in our organization have continued to talk over the last few weeks just almost daily. It's like, hey, our mission is still the same. Our mission hasn't changed. We may need to take some different tacks, may need to do some things differently, but our mission and our vision still remains the same and that's important, so important, because it's easy sometimes, when there's challenges, to kind of lose sight of what you're trying to do. And I'll just say, as things unfold and become clearer, if that's possible, as you said, there's a lot of ambiguity. We plan to do our best to provide insights how we're moving and how we're hearing other people move. That, hopefully, will be helpful to you as well. So for today, let's dive into the concept of vision leaks. First of all, let's define what vision leakage is.

Tim Barnes: 2:36

Vision leakage occurs when stakeholders gradually lose sight of the organization's core mission and purpose as they become immersed in day-to-day operations and tactical challenge. When that happens, what's the impact on the organization? Well, first of all, it's easy to have decreased engagement. When people forget what you're about, forget what your mission is, it's easy for them to get disconnected from what you're doing, which also then can lead to misaligned efforts. You know, if you forget what your mission is, you can grab at anything that's around you and you move away from your primary purpose, and so our efforts become misaligned.

Tim Barnes: 3:26

We, you know we do things that maybe we shouldn't be doing because they're not really part of who we are, which then also can reduce our organizational impact. You know, we stop making the difference that we really are supposed to be geared towards, and we can lose that strategic focus of why our organization exists. So that's the challenge, or the things that can happen when our vision begins to leak, when we forget why we exist. And so those are some of the things that can happen when vision begins to leak out of your organization. And, nathan, I'm sure you've probably observed this or seen this, maybe in your own organization. Or I mean, we work with organizations all over the place.

Nathan Ruby : 4:14

Yeah, and I think one of the words as I was listening to you go through that list, one of the words that came to my mind was complacency. And when you get outside of your vision and mission, it is really easy to become complacent. And we're not quite. We being executive directors. We become less excited, we become less engaged, we're not out front leading like we should be, because a leader should be out in front carrying the flag into battle.

Nathan Ruby : 4:50

And the vision that always comes to my mind is the leader is out there and you turn around and your team is behind you and you're waving, come on, you're waving them forward and being tight with your vision and mission and being right in the middle of that that's where you get that excitement, that's where you get that enthusiasm. And so when you lose that and you're starting to leak out to the side to maybe something else or whatever the leaking does to you as an individual, when you lose that enthusiasm and you get complacent, you know people will see that, your staff will see that, your team will see that, your board will see it, your donors will see it and you know it's kind of like a wheelbarrow where everything's going straight, but then in a wheelbarrow, if you get it tilted just to one side man, you could be going a whole different direction really easy. And that's what happens when you're vision leaking.

Tim Barnes: 5:51

So we're assuming, as we do, this episode. We're assuming that you do know what your vision and mission is, and if you don't, that's another episode.

Nathan Ruby : 6:00

Yeah, that's another episode. We haven't talked about vision and mission for a while.

Tim Barnes: 6:04

We need to get one of those queued up, Tim keep that, keep the vision front and center, and you'll notice we go through today. Uh, I'm going to probably use vision and mission somewhat interchangeably, although I see I see them differently, but they're they're so connected that it's easy to use them. Tim, tim can.

Nathan Ruby : 6:38

I can I interrupt for a second? Sure, um, we just we just made fun of, and laughed a little bit, that if you didn't know what your vision and mission was. But if you're listening to us saying, well, that's me, I don't know what our vision and mission is, that we don't mean that we're not laughing at you. We're laughing at each other because we both have been in that situation. So if that's you and you are not clear of what your vision is, or the vision or mission of your organization or what the difference is, reach out to us. Our contact information's in the show notes. Send us an email. We would love to talk to you about that and kind of help you get you straightened out on that, on how to maybe pursue that and figure that out. So we're not making fun of you. We're laughing at each other because we've literally both have been in that situation before. So if you don't know what it is, let us know and we'll be glad to help you. Okay, sorry, tim, didn't mean to interrupt.

Tim Barnes: 7:34

Key points Number one Great point, great point, thanks. Well, let's jump in. Let's jump into these practical actions. So here's the first one. The first one I'm calling mission moments and basically that's the idea of starting every board meeting, every staff meeting, volunteer gathering, whenever you gather people together in your organization, start with a powerful story that illustrates your vision in action. Stories are powerful when we can put names and faces on what we're doing. It reinforces the vision, it reinforces why we show up and why we are an organization.

Tim Barnes: 8:18

Here's some things to share and, nathan, I know you're good at this as well. Some things to share are, you know, share real impact stories, share those stories that tell about what you're actually doing and the impact it's having, and feel free to use some visual elements. Most of us are visual, are visual Using a video or a photo, something that can kind of grab our senses. That illustrates our mission, why we're doing what we're doing. Maybe have a testimony of those who've benefited from the work that you're doing. Connect those stories directly back to your mission statement, to the vision of where you're trying to go. So look for those opportunities. And you may say I get tired of doing all this. You know what. You just got to keep doing it, because it's so easy for you to forget. It can leak out, and so look for those opportunities to have these mission moments, stories, photos, visuals that illustrate what you're trying to do.

Nathan Ruby : 9:30

I, tim, and I think this is so important and I I try to do this as I was listening to you talk. I'm actually we've got a board meeting coming up here in the next six weeks, seven weeks, and there's all. There's things that I could do better on that and I actually had two ideas that I wrote down of things that that I want to do, and but I think this is really, really important for your board meeting, for your board members. It is from a staff perspective, because we're living this stuff every day. I think staff is a little closer to these things because it's part of their job.

Nathan Ruby : 10:09

Now, it's also important for staff because you can get caught up in budgets and you know this isn't going right and the toilet's leaking and the roof is leaking and you know, and it's easy for staff to get pulled away from this as well. But it's even more harder or more easier more easier for board members because they're not living this every day. And if you want to have board members who are engaged, who show up at your events, who offer to help fundraise, who connect you to people, you've got to have them connected to the mission of what you're doing, and the best way to do that is outcomes, videos of people being helped and lives being changed and lives being transformed, and stories and pictures. That is so important because it's really easy for your board members to just lose touch with the power and the impact that you're making as an organization, and so this is really important, tim, to be focusing on this with your board.

Tim Barnes: 11:12

And when this becomes a priority too, I think it creates the culture for our staff to be looking for those mission moments as well. So if they know there's going to be an opportunity when they come to staff meeting, or even inviting one of your staff members to come in and speak to your board and talk about something that they're experiencing or something they're doing, it just keeps it in front all the time and they're looking for those things, and so it's a powerful, powerful tool to keep you on track as you remember a mission. A second practical action is to actually give your stakeholders the opportunity to experience the mission. So you create a comprehensive orientation experience that can deeply connect new stakeholders to the vision. So it could be some ways to do that, and this is especially could be especially with board members, with donors, with new staff members. But you here's some actions to take. You could actually make some site visits. So take some donors to experience the work you're actually doing and let them see the mission in action. That reinforces it in their minds, in their imagination. So do some site visits. Let some of these stakeholders interact with those who are actually involved in your programs, so with those who are benefiting from the work that you're doing.

Tim Barnes: 12:51

A second or another thing is just even creating some historical content Talk about to your stakeholders.

Tim Barnes: 12:59

How did this organization even come about? Our board we actually meet online 11 times during the year and then once a year we all come together because we're spread out around the US. We all come together for a weekend together annual meeting, and we always start out on Friday night with a dinner and connections, kind of a social time. But one of the things that we do every year during that dinner is we tell the story of our organization. We tell the story of why this organization exists, how it came about, who was involved, and we've been doing that long enough that now we often say, okay, who can tell the story? So we're actually, instead of the founder telling it, he's asking hey, you tell me the story of our organization and it's really fun, but again, it reinforces why we exist and this mission that has come together. So having some historical context is really important and any kind of hands-on experience for your stakeholders Again, board members, volunteers, whoever some hands-on experience, let them experience the work that you do in the actual mission.

Nathan Ruby : 14:19

And I think this is the more spread out you are, the more spread out your team is, the more important this is. You know, tim's team and my team both staff wise and board members are spread out all across the country, and so it's a little harder to get that experiencing part not impossible, it's just a little bit more, a little more difficult. And my organization right now, all of our programs are in Haiti and Haiti is basically it's not safe to get there now. Right now we are, all of our programs are in Haiti and Haiti is basically you just it's not safe to get there now, and has been for since 2019 really. So it's difficult to do that.

Nathan Ruby : 15:05

But if you are local, if you have a local board and local staff, local donors, boy, the more you could get them hands-on, and hands-on could just be, you know, even if it's just walking through a tour, and I'm not saying they have to grab a broom and sweep the floor, although you know if they want to, we're not going to say no to that, right, but just just, the more you can involve your stakeholders in the day-to-day functions and operations of what you do, the more excited they'll be and the more connected to the organization they'll be. So if you could take advantage of that, oh man, by all means, take advantage of that.

Tim Barnes: 15:46

We're taking some people with us on our next visit to a refugee camp, again not as tourists visit to a refugee camp, again not as tourists, but to experience what the work is being done there, what the needs are, and again it's reinforcing the mission. So that's a big part of what we try to do in our organization.

Nathan Ruby : 16:07

Well, and some of that, Tim, is, you've got board members that are making decisions. They're making decisions on budget. They're making decisions on big decisions, big programmatic things that you're trying to do. It's hard for anybody to make decisions on something that they've never seen or experienced. So the more of your board and I'm not saying all of them are going to want to do it, especially if you have to fly halfway across the world to another continent. That's a difficulty, but the more you could get your board involved in that, the better they'll be able to make decisions, and I think, the more that they will make decisions supporting you and what you want to do if they have a better understanding of oh okay, I understand why, why Tim's asking for us to do this, because I saw this, this and this. That makes sense. So you'll you'll have easier board decisions if they truly understand what you're doing.

Tim Barnes: 17:07

And they may still make this. They may make the same decision, but they may make it more informed and with a little more discomfort if they have to make hard decisions, because they actually have seen and understand the impact of those decisions. And I think, just as we move on, I think also just to encourage you, we're all different in our organizations and so apply it to where you are right now. Maybe it's going and and having them hand out food in a soup kitchen or something like that. You know if you're, if you're a local organization focused on that, or if you're a a pet shelter, you know animal shelter, where you know get your board members to come in and play with the animals or help do some things like that. Just apply this in your context is what's really important.

Nathan Ruby : 18:00

Have a board member come in and you walk them through the process. You know we could use the animal shelter. You know, walk them through if they don't have a pet, although I would assume that if you have a pet shelter and most of your board members would have pets, but maybe not all. But anyway, just walk them through. You know this is the front desk. Then they go here and then we do this, and then we do this and then we do this, and so that when you at the next meeting, when you're talking about something in there, they could say, okay, I saw, you know, that x-ray machine. It's 20 years old. We really do need a new x-ray machine because it's not giving the doctors what they need to make decisions for their patients. So that's an easy example of them understanding what's happening, because they've seen it themselves.

Tim Barnes: 18:49

So the third action is vision metrics framework, and what I mean by that is to develop and track metrics that measure your progress towards your mission fulfillment, not just the program outputs and we've talked about this off and on through our time on the podcast. It's important that you know what is it that we're actually wanting to see happen. How are we seeing our mission fulfilled and so being able to create some metrics that measure those things? So create and use impact measurements, rather than all the things that the output, all the things that you're doing. Find those indicators that actually track your progress. So if you are wanting to bring down homeless in your community, you know track the number of people that are homeless. You know track the number of people that you're serving.

Tim Barnes: 19:47

Some of those kinds of things that you're able to look and to see how what you're doing is to see if your mission is really being fulfilled and can conduct regular reviews and alignment sessions. Make sure that the things you're doing are actually moving you towards the mission and measure those Even in your performance reviews when you sit down with your staff. Connect the framework, this vision metrics framework, to how you measure the work that your staff are doing or the things that your volunteers are doing, and also you can recognize your employees according to those as well. Are they actually carrying out the mission? When you see that, recognize it. That reinforces that they're doing the right stuff.

Nathan Ruby : 20:40

So here's an example of outputs versus mission fulfillment Last year in Haiti. One of our programs is clean water water filters. Clean water is a significant issue in Haiti and it is, like in the United States and in most of the world, the number one complaint that we have when patients come into the clinic is their stomach hurts, and a lot of that in Haiti is due to bad water, because they don't have access to clean water. So we have these filters that we do, and it's at the home level, so these are filters that we put in people's home, and last year for a story that's way too long to tell we couldn't get filters delivered into Haiti, so we were not able to distribute any. But what we did with staff was we had them go out and we had them do surveys of people, homes that had received the filters in the past four years, and we did over a thousand surveys, and so we went into their home and asked them questions. You know, show me, show me how to maintain the filter, show me how to clean it. And then we asked questions about their, their results of using the filter, and we were really excited that 95% of the filters were still in use, which is a, an output. That's a. We did. We delivered the filter. The filter's still there. That's a metric that we can use.

Nathan Ruby : 22:04

But then the other questions that we asked was what are some of the impact that you are receiving from that? And some of the things that we found out were decrease in doctor visits. So we had people, patients that were our patients, who were not coming to the doctor as much because they weren't sick. We had another one that totally shocked us and that was it made a economic impact because they did not have to spend money out to go out and buy clean water because they had it in their own house. So those are two less doctor visits, more money in their pocket. Those are outcomes, those are mission fulfillment that is happening because of the program output of putting filters in people's homes. So those are the stories that you have to tell. We delivered X number of filters, but here's the outcome, here's just. You know, we don't. We just want to tell stories.

Tim Barnes: 23:02

We don't need metrics, you know, but. But those metrics help you know whether you're losing your vision, whether you are, whether the vision is leaking, because it it brings you back to focus on what you know why do you exist, what are you really trying to do? And so it doesn't have to be this super long document, it doesn't have to be a big book, but just pick out those three or four things that really show what, uh, how, we're carrying out our mission, and then measure them and you'll know whether you're on track or not with your, with your mission vision.

Nathan Ruby : 23:38

And then share that with your donors.

Tim Barnes: 23:40

Absolutely, absolutely.

Tim Barnes: 23:43

Number four and this is a little bit of what we shared already, but I want to put it in a different context and number four is to have visual vision reminders and I just want to come back to that again the whole idea of visual and how most of us, most of us as humans, are visual.

Tim Barnes: 24:05

When we see something, when we experience something, it stays with us and I would just encourage you to create some compelling visual representations of the mission, either in your physical or your digital space, either in your physical or your digital space.

Tim Barnes: 24:26

I have walked into some nonprofit organizations that you walk in and you see on the walls, you see pictures of people, you see pictures of places where this work is being done and when you walk in there, you have no doubt what their mission is, because it's right in front of you and I'm sure maybe, if you see it all the time, maybe you just blends in, but how important to catch the eyes of somebody that you're impacting from your organization because it's up there or in your digital space, on your website or on whatever you use on your social media. Make sure that you very tastefully but very clearly communicate through visual representation what it is you're focused on. Leave no doubt. Make sure that your donors and your staff and all those who are part of you can be reminded on a regular basis. This is our mission, this is what we're trying to do, and that's so important.

Nathan Ruby : 25:30

Yeah, that even goes to direct mail appeals. Second, what's bolded or underlined. Third, and they may skim the letter that you just spent hours and hours and days writing. They may read some of it, but it's the pictures, the graphs and what's bolded underlined. Oh, and lastly, is the PS? So that visual imagery? They will 100%, tim. That is, if you are not using pictures and video in all of your communication, you are missing the boat. So that is really important. And then the other side of that, tim I've walked into a few organizations before and you walked in and right behind the front desk is a big, almost life-size oil painting of the founder. If that's you, if you're the founder, please take your photo away from the front desk. And if you have an organization where the founder is there, maybe suggest that we replace that with a picture of the people you serve. So you know, oil paintings of the founders probably not the best use of that space.

Tim Barnes: 26:47

That's a great. That's a great comment, nathan. You know just just any. Any ways to to create visuals that remind you of the mission is so important. It can be even all the way from your logo. You know, maybe you need to take a hard look at your logo. What does it communicate? Does it communicate your mission? Visual representations help us stay focused on our mission and not lose sight of what we're trying to do.

Tim Barnes: 27:15

Our final point is what I would call mission integrated communications. So you include mission focused language in all your organizational communications. So when you're communicating externally, as Nathan talked about whether it's a newsletter, direct mail, the website, speaking engagements, any kind of promo you do make sure we're talking in mission language, that we're capturing and reminding all of those people what our mission is and how we're carrying that out. And the same goes for internal communication too. In your meetings, in your memos, in your emails, in your one-on-ones, anytime you have a chance to communicate, make sure that you are using mission language so we're reminded of what it is we're trying to do. If we do that, it's hard to let it leak. We plug those holes when we use language in that way.

Nathan Ruby : 28:25

Tim, I just I want to say this has been an excellent episode. I have got more notes that I've taken, listened to you talk than than I have in a long time. So this is really good stuff and I know this is hard and you know, every once in a while, tim and I talk that you know we do these episodes and it's like, oh, you need to do this. And then the next episode it's like, oh, you need to do this. And you add up all of the you need to do.

Nathan Ruby : 28:45

This is and it's. You know it stacks up all the way to the ceiling and you know there is so much in here. I would and we've said this a couple of episodes ago just go through this episode, grab one thing, go through this episode, grab one thing, one thing that you want to focus on, and then, when you get that mastered, then grab another one and focus on that, because there's a lot of stuff here and this is all so important and it will make a difference and it will keep you focused on your vision and mission and that is where you have got to be if you want to thrive and drive your nonprofit to be everything that it can possibly be.

Tim Barnes: 29:28

So let me put these points in simple language Tell stories, and then don't just tell stories, but experience the stories. Experience a mission. Create some easy ways to measure how your mission is carried out. Remind yourself, through visual entities in your physical or digital space, about why you're doing what you're doing, and always be talking about your mission. Let your mission flow out of every newsletter, every conversation that you have. Make sure you're talking in ways that reinforce the mission of your organization. So, whether it's busyness, difficult challenge, change in personnel or a host of other things, organizations and their leaders can lose sight of the vision and mission. Drip by drip, the vision and mission begin to leak out and the work becomes less focused and impactful. One of the main jobs of a nonprofit leader is to regularly and consistently keep the vision in front of stakeholders through telling stories, creating compelling visuals, regularly tracking and communicating the right metrics and providing opportunities for stakeholders to experience the work. All these help to plug the hole of the vision bucket.

Nathan Ruby : 30:56

Thank you for listening today. If you are benefiting from what is being shared on this podcast, could you do us a favor and leave us a review? On whatever platform you're listening to us on, let us know how the podcast is benefiting you. If you would like to get in touch with us, our contact information can be found in the show notes. That's all for today. Until next time.