Walking Advocates

What’s Your Mission?

A mission statement says what your organization exists to do. If you can’t agree what you’ve come together to do, it will be hard to do it. You need a mission statement if you are applying for tax-exempt status with the IRS, or when you apply for funding from a foundation.

Your group has a mission — that’s why you organized in the first place. Now you need to find a way to state it. A mission statement tells who you are, what you do and where you are headed. A mission statement should be brief and elegant, and it should resonate with your constituency. It should be simple enough and convincing enough that every board member or staff member can repeat it whenever they talk about the organization. A mission statement can be augmented by a vision or values statement and/or a set of goals, objectives or action items that tell what you will do to carry out your mission.

What’s Your Mission (pdf)

Contents:

Arriving at your mission

Sample mission statement, WalkSacramento

More mission statements

Statement of Purpose, LA Walks

Declaration of the right to walk and roll