Importance of Missions and Values to the Success of Non-Profit Organizations - Coursework Example

Nonprofit Sector Module Paper 1 Vidal The global society faces a wide range of problems and needs including poverty, diseases, climate change, insecurity and conflicts. Despite the role of governments in addressing such problems and needs, nonprofit and social-oriented organizations have emerged as the most effective in confronting these issues especially in the developing nations. Nonprofit organizations focus on advancing collective responsibility towards improvement of the society through addressing common problems as well as provision of basic needs out of reach to some people.

Drucker(2004), views nonprofit organizations as human change agents whose common objectives revolve around improving human life. The success of these organizations depend on several factors including volunteering, donations or donor funds, articulation of its missions, goals and objectives as well as upholding of certain unique values. This paper discusses the importance of missions and core values to AHA, its volunteers and donors, and the success of nonprofit organization. According to Vidal, Valls and Grabulosa (2008), the success of nonprofit organizations highly depend on the values that guide their day-to-day operations.

Integration of the values guiding non-profit organizations with its mission highly influences their capability to accomplish their goals and objectives in the society. Non-profit organizations have been generally recognized as mission driven, focused and values based. Importance of Mission and Values to Donors and Volunteers Clear mission statement serve to motivate the people working with non-profit organizations as well as influencing the decision making process in such organizations. Mission statements serve as a reminder to the nonprofit organizations as to why they exist which many case is to meet the needs of the community or promotion of society general well-being.

The values based concept in non-profit organizations refers to the set of core values that inspire and guide the actions of board members, donors and volunteer in the organization. The integration of organizational mission with core values would form the framework for AHA involvement in community activities, the organization’s investments and sustainability. Ducker (2004), argues that non-profit organization begin with execution of their mission while other public and private organizations start their operations by planning about their potential financial gains.

In this argument Drucker tries to emphasize on the importance of mission statement in the operations of non-profit organizations. The cores values and missions of non-profits organization serve as one the key factors differentiating them from other public and private organizations hence setting out AHA from other firms in its area of operation. Successful non-profit organizations establish core values closely tied to its mission in order to facilitate decisions involving prioritizing the activities that the organizations should focus on in the community.

Without values to guide implementation of the organizational mission, some of the activities undertaken by the organizations may deviate from its mission in favor of individual interests at the expense of community interests. Vidal, Valls and Grabulosa (2008), assert that values are important because they determine the activities of the organizations, the manner in which the activities ought to be carried out and finally the general functioning of the organizations. Another great role that could be played by the established values in AHA includes the promotion of high internal participatory levels and the formation of a sustainable organizational culture.

Since most nonprofit organizations’ core values emphasize on community service, such values influence the organizations’ stakeholders to adopt the culture of prioritizing community and social interventions. In many cases, such values are transferred from the founders’ individual values guided by the zeal to see a better society. In this case, the managements in charge of non-profit organizations are expected to share the organizational values to new members as well as constantly making them known to people working with organizations.

According to Vidal, Valls and Grabulosa (2008) , a study conducted to establish some of core values in non-profit organizations reveals values such as independence, nonprofit, solidarity, participation, accountability, equality and sustainability the most frequently emphasize by majority of the firms, which AHA should consider. With the mission statement of the organization capturing the activities of the organization, it plays an important in attracting and persuading donors to finance different activities carried out by the organization (Oster, 1995).

Since nonprofit organizations depend largely on donors to finance their programs, the mission statement must be coined in a way the captures the attentions of donors interested in promoting the well being of the society. Missions and organizational values play an important role in influencing the attitude of volunteers, where every volunteer prefers to work with organizations that support certain values such as trust, commitment in assisting the less fortunate in the society and accountability.

According to Waters & Bortree (2007), nonprofit organizations that promote significant social accountability always have a greater chance of attracting and retaining volunteers for longer periods to help in advancing their mission. Therefore, the management or board at AHA should notice that volunteer are greatly persuaded by organizations’ core values and missions since volunteerism must be accompanied by self-satisfactions in whatever activities the volunteers choose to undertake with the non-profit organizations.

The key motivator for volunteerism lies in the ability to see the organizations address a problem in the society that is of interest to volunteer (Waters & Bortree, 2007). Importance of Missions and Values to the Success of Non-Profit Organizations Non-profit organizations obtain their funds to finance their programs from well-wishers and donors who subscribe to the mission and values of such organizations. According to Oster (1995), many non-profit organizations that experience financial constraints always retreat to re-evaluate their mission statement to match with current issues affecting the society.

Some of the non-profit organizations fail due to the tendency of clinging to outdated missions which most donors remain reluctant to invest in. Therefore, the mission statement of a non-profit organization must be continuously reviewed to reflect current issues that affect the society in order to convince donors to dedicate their resources in support of the mission. Additionally the integration of the organizational missions with appropriate core values such as financial accountability, social accountability, trust and commitment plays a crucial role in the success of non-profit organizations.

This is because the integration not only influences the financial support from donors but also determinants the aspect of participation and volunteering that are crucial in the success the organizations. In order to gain the support of donors and the community they serve, nonprofit organizations must depict strong values and a mission statement committed towards improvement of the societal welfare. Nevertheless, the organizations’ missions and core value further requires a set of goals that not only support the mission, but also compatible with the prevailing economic condition, political and the social setup.

Conclusion Missions and values occupy a central role in the success of non-profit organization with integration of the two concepts highly influencing activities of such firms. Drucker in his own words describes nonprofit organizations as agents critical in promoting the wellbeing of the society. However, the success of these organizations significantly depends on their stated purpose and values advanced in their operations. Missions and values determine the ability of nonprofit organizations to attract and retain volunteers as key catalysts in the achievement of their mission, benefits that could be transferred into AHA through establishment of appropriate missions and core values.

In addition, donors use organizational missions and values to evaluate the visibility and viability of the activities undertaken by the firms before committing their donations to facilitate accomplishment of certain missions that match their interests in the society. Finally, nonprofit organizations’ managers must constantly review their missions to ensure that they reflect issues currently affecting the society to advance their sustainability and success. References Drucker, P. (2004). Managing the non-profit organization.

New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Oster, S. (1995). Strategic management for nonprofit organizations: Theory and cases. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vidal, P., Valls, N. & Grabulosa, L. (2008). Values as a distinguishing element in nonprofit organizations. ISTR 8TH International Conference. Retrieved from http://www.observatoritercersector.org/pdf/ponencies/2008-12%20LaiaGrabulosa_Values.pdf Waters, R. & Bortree, D. (2007). Measuring the volunteer- nonprofit organization relationship: An application of public relations theory.

The international Journal of Volunteer Administration, 24 (6), 57-66.