Community Organisations: Vision and Mission Statements

Do you have a personal vision? An understanding of where you are going and what you want your legacy to be? Constructing a vision statement for your community organisation is a lot like formulating your personal vision.

A vision statement outlines what an organisation would like to ultimately achieve and gives purpose to the existence of the organisation. A well-written vision statement should be short, simple, specific to your organisation, and leave nothing open to interpretation. It should also have some ambition.

When drafting a vision statement:

• Define what you do as an output
• Define what unique qualities your organisation brings to the above outcome
• Apply some high-level quantification to the statement
• Add relatable, human, “real world” aspects.

For example, if we were making a vision statement for a country golf club, we might say “Our Club provides players with the best course and well-run games in the region”.

Turning to your mission statement, this statement outlines how you are going to achieve your vision. Some of the questions you can ask yourself when constructing your mission statement are:

• How can we make our vision a reality?
• What ethics and behaviour will guide us?
• What value will this create for our community?
• What image do we want to convey to the community and beyond? What partnerships or relationships do we want to develop?

Examples of mission statements are as follows:

• Boorowa Uniting Church: “In the community, with the community at heart”
• ACT Police: “Keep the peace and preserve public safety within the ACT”
• Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups: “To facilitate the development of Landcare in the region and represent regional Landcare with regional, Government and private industry stakeholders”

Your mission statement is something that should energise your members and provide common ground if the going gets tough.

• Topics:

• Community Groups