Alex McQueary This post was refreshed on 4/3/2020 to include new examples and tips.
Mission and vision statements capture the essence of your organization’s beliefs and values and define its place in the world. A vision statement explains the overall goal of your organization looking into the future, while the mission statement outlines the present plan to realize the vision.
Well-crafted mission and vision statements can inspire people to engage with your organization and deserve a well-thought-out place on your website. While the mission and/or vision statement may show up in other places on the site, it’s a good idea to give the two a home of their own where visitors can learn more in depth about what the current and future goals are for your nonprofit. Aside from noting each statement, use this opportunity to explain how your work is moving toward your mission and vision and teasing the impact you’ve had so far.
Consider designing your mission and vision page in a way that draws visitors in and makes it both easy and interesting to learn about the foundation your organization is built upon. Make your page stand out with photos showcasing how you serve your community. Or, create a video that tells viewers what drives your nonprofit and why you do what you do everyday.
Mission and Vision Pages
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are 10 examples of nonprofits with well-designed, compelling mission and vision pages.
Center for Community Change
Center for Community Change includes a prominent infographic on their mission page to present their goals in an eye-catching way. It’s accompanied by a more traditional text description, which is great for accessibility.
Special Olympics
Special Olympics’ mission of empowering children and adults with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for them to develop physical fitness and confidence is clearly communicated through their Mission page. We applaud their use of video, a great way to call attention to their purpose in an easy-to-grasp way.
Love 146
Love 146’s mission page offers a simple yet captivating design, allowing you to quickly gain understanding of who they are. The page features a captivating photo of two young children alone in the street, clinging to each other with hearts for footprints. This powerful photo connects with their mission and values, setting the stage for you to learn more about how they work to accomplish their mission. As you scroll down, buttons point you to recommended reading to learn more about them.
The Trevor Project
While The Trevor Project doesn’t include epic photos on their mission page, they certainly know how to grab your attention with typography. These bold headings and bright colors (accompanied by a refreshing amount of white-space) make their mission and vision page easy to navigate and intriguing to look at.
Bright Pink
Bright Pink’s mission page not only includes their vision, but also their strategy, approach, and values. Their mission and vision are front and center with examples, giving you a clear picture of what the organization does. But aside from that, their choice of photo and the fun, optimistic tone they adopt through the content matches their message and audience of young women. Wrapping up the page with the story and quote from their founder was a nice touch to give their values and approach context.
Core Knowledge
Core Knowledge gives readers a chance to get to know them through images and well-crafted text. They go further than simply listing out each statement and are able to explain their vision and connect it to their overall approach to education. And it doesn’t hurt that they follow formatting best practices in the process.
Partners in Health
Partners in Health (PIH) opens their page with one succinctly powerful line:
We go. We make house calls. We build health systems. We stay.
They then go into more detail through the rest of the page, complete with relevant calls to action in the sidebar of the page. By giving viewers a direct line to donate or sign up for the e-newsletter, PIH has a higher chance of engagement.
KIF1A.ORG
We love the photo on KIF1A.ORG’s mission and vision page. It connects to a site-wide theme that children with KIF1A disorders are superheros. They take their inclusivity a step further with Google Translate in the sidebar, connecting with their claim to be a global nonprofit. Through simple details, the organization is able to prove they’re cohesive and solidified in their beliefs.
Mission and History Pages
Some organizations choose to combine their Mission and History on one page to connect their past to their purpose for the future. This method can show potential supporters why your nonprofit was founded in the first place and what impact the past is making on your future.
Main Agricultural Land Trust
The first thing you see on Main Agricultural Land Trust’s (MALT) Mission and History page is the farmland they fight for. Directly underneath the photo, MALT shares about the history of their organization, backing it up with statistics. The first line says it all:
Across the country, we lose a staggering 175 acres of farmland every hour. But here in Marin, we’re writing a different story.
By combining their history and mission pages, MALT gives a cohesive picture of who they are and why they fight for farmland.
Mission and Values Pages
Mission and Values pages share the belief system of an organization, providing insight into how they are working toward their mission. This approach is ideal for organizations who live and breathe by a value system that connects back to their mission and vision.
American Red Cross
The fact that an organization as large as the American Red Cross was able to condense their mission and values into one page is quite the feat. They set the page up nicely by featuring a new and old photo side-by-side to establish their long history without using even one word.
Are you feeling inspired to breathe new life into your mission and vision page? Good! Your Mission and Vision page is one of the first stops for visitors new to your organization and learning about what you do after your awareness-building efforts prove to be successful. Such an important page deserves to not only say something great, but look great as well.
Need to spread the word about your mission?
Building awareness for your cause is no easy feat. But you can put your organization on the fast track to growth with successful digital marketing strategies.
Do you have other organizations in mind that have awesome mission and vision pages? Do you have any questions about improving your nonprofit’s page? Tell us in the comments below.
Ms. McQueary,
I am 48 years old and I live in Kentucky, USA. It has taken me twenty plus years to finally push myself to begin to start to create a Non-Profit Organization for Children, Young People & Adults, Families, Older Generation and the Homeless. I have listened and met so many wonderful people like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Gandhi, Marianne Williamson, Tolle and so many more… . I might be reaching out to you for some advice, thank you for your wonderful ideas. My philosophy is ” It is my job to bring out the goodness in people” Thank you Alex.
Sincerely,
Tim Gehlbach
timgehlbach@yahoo.com
Face Book Account
Hi Tim,
I’m so glad to hear you’ve found this post helpful! Best wishes as you build your nonprofit. It sounds like a great organization! Thanks so much for reaching out.
Alex
great job you have to do , it is better to give than to receive ,please join my homless foundation in RWANDA, email; tuyisengetheo@gmail.com
I find this page as a opener to the forum I want to create.i will require more counsel from you on how to form the mission statement.thanks
Pastor Chrisrty
Thanks for reaching out, Pastor Chrisrty. Here’s an article we wrote about leveraging your mission statement on your website: https://wiredimpact.com/blog/mission-statement-on-website/ Hopefully this will help you on your way to a great mission statement!
This is an awesome forum to move my dreams for my organization to realizing it’s objectives.. It’s an empowerment organization for widows, aged and youth as well as vulnerable children in the society. My problem is gettin my vision and mission statements clear and concise. Can you be of help?
Thanks so much for the comment! It sounds like you’re working for a wonderful cause. We wrote an article with some tips on writing a mission statement: https://wiredimpact.com/blog/mission-statement-on-website/ The article contains some examples and an informative video as well. I hope this helps you craft a mission statement you love!
Hi Alex,
Hope you are fine!
My name is Sajad and a resident of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province of Pakistan. Recently we came up with an idea of registering NGO with a name Aghaz Integrated Development programme.The NGO aimed at eradicating poverty by building the the capacity of the target communities so that they may able to stand on their own feet. This page helped me shaping the vision and mission statement a lot. what i need now is to how communicate with the potential donors. Kindly guide me in this regard by mailing or calling me if possible.
thanks and with best regards;
Sajad Ahmad
Email Address# sajadmphildspide@gmail.com
Cell No# +92 345 4400987
Hi Sajad,
Thanks for reaching out! Best of luck as you work toward registering your NGO. We wrote an article about how to maintain relationships with donors using the internet. This could be a great place for you to start! We also created a fundraising guide, which could be helpful as you begin connecting with donors.
Good luck, and I hope this helps!
Alex
Hi Alex,
Hope you will be fine,
My name Sajid Habib,I am from Nowshera Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. Recently I have stablished a foundation named by RASTA.I am a teacher also. My vision is to provide assistance in education and health for those who unable to get quality education and have no access get health facilitiesy.My vision is to empower the local talented poor people and wants to give them a hope for leading a successful life.For this I am working to set the targets to achieve the goals.But I don’t know how to start this difficult task?How to rais fund for it?How to register it?please I need your guidance. Because here in our lacality e situation of education and health is not good.So plzz guide me in this regard.
Thanks
Hi Sajid,
Thanks for the comment! While we do not work with actually registering nonprofits, you might find some helpful tips here. I’d also suggest looking up requirements for registering a nonprofit where you’re located, if not in the USA. We have written some articles about how to gather online donations, and we’ve also created a downloadable guide to online fundraising that might be of some help. Best of luck starting your nonprofit!
Alex
Hi dear! My name is Nasir Malik from Islamabad. Wonderful work. We want to fund-raise online by selling our messages and slogans.
Hi Nasir,
We created a free downloadable guide for online fundraising that could be helpful as you’re gathering and nurturing donor relationships. Hopefully the linked resources will help kick-start your online fundraising efforts!
Alex
Hello,
My name is Tiff Mukasa, i am from Uganda in East Africa, we registered an organisation called Child and Elderly support Initiative (CESI) http://www.cesiafrica.wixsite.com/uganda purposely to support Children and the elderly.
We empower them with practical skills to sustain themselves and we have done this since 2014.
Currently we are in need of partners to work with, to guide us, to support us and also share knowledge on how best we can change people’s lives.
You can email us: cesiafrica@gmail.com
Hi Tiff,
It sounds like you’re working for an amazing cause! We’ve got a bunch of free resources and blog posts all about online marketing for nonprofits. Start by downloading our free marketing guide for nonprofits. We’ve also written a ton of blog posts that may be helpful for you on topics like writing website content, online marketing strategy, social media, and more. I hope this info is helpful as you continue changing people’s lives.
Alex
This is a great forum to enhance the dreams for my organization to realizing it’s objectives. It’s a charity organization to identify, contact, train and empower commercial sex workers, visit prison and psychiatric inmates, provide maintenance allowance for widows, aged, students in higher institutions and poorly paid Pastors in the society. My problem is getting my vision, mission and objectives clear and concise.
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for the comment! Check out this post we wrote about mission statements. Hope this helps and good luck!
Alex
Halo..its Dennis
Am from Uganda, we have a small charity we started off in 2012 when we were still in high school called Magical Touch Uganda and its geared towards empowering youths irrespective of their background and sex. We share learned skills of Entrepreneurship, Leadership and we have embarked on charity walks that are slowly cutching up.. We therefore seeking to partner, grow and atleast boost the lives of many children and youths of Uganda especially those from the less previledged societies.
Ssenyange Dennis.
Hi Dennis,
This sounds like a great mission! We have some resources that can help you increase traffic to your website, as well as increase your online fundraising. Read over our guides How to Increase Traffic to Your Nonprofit Website and 31 Ways to Boost Your Nonprofit’s Online Fundraising. Hopefully the linked resources will help you reach more supporters and jump-start your online fundraising efforts!
Alex
Hello Am Sheena from Ghana it has been on heart to start a charitable organization for Children especially those who have issues with their cognitive development .i would be much appreciative if I get the privilege of being advised by you.
Hi Sheena,
This sounds like a great idea for a nonprofit! At Wired Impact, we work more on the marketing side of things once an organization gets up and running. We do have an article with some tips on how to write a mission statement, and many more articles and guides with marketing tips once you get to a point where you’re working on a website. Good luck and hope this helps!
Alex
I am thankful that you are dedicated in helping who are in need. We have common goals to help others.
Hi good evening. My name is LP from SC, USA. I have started a Non-profit organization for Children in a gang infested area of our City and has been recognized by the State as a NON-Profit on April 24,2017, à fairly new organization, a faith based that dedicatedly serve this community with kindness and compassion. I have at least 30-50 African-American children, youth and adult. 10 Volunteers. We are looking forward to apply for a 501c3 but I have hard time completing the paper works, I have children Ministries in the Philippines that I have been mobilizing with my own expense but very limited. I need help to revise our mission statement and any other advises to promote communication to reach those who have the heart to help. Any suggestions in creating a website? Thank you for your help….GOD bless you.
Hi LP, thanks for your questions! As far as your mission statement goes, we recommend that it be a concise and straightforward description of what your nonprofit does. For example, We do ____ for ____ so they can ____. Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Nonprofit Website Content for some guidance on writing content for a website.
As far as creating a website goes, we’ve developed a powerful website platform just for nonprofits, which you can find information on here. A good resource for information about getting your organization up and running is The Nonprofit Collective. They’ve got some great information more geared toward getting a nonprofit started.
I hope this helps!
Hie Alex,
I should believe that you are doing Great. I am Gracium Munthali from Malawi, i registered an NGO in the year 2016 with the Name “Community Empowerment for Sustainable Development Organisation” abbreviated as CESDO. But up to this time around am still trying to sharpen my vision and Mission statement. i found this platform important to help sharpen my vision and mission statement. i believe you will assist me in doing so.
our vision
We envision a healthy, productive and vibrant society where vulnerable groups, youths and under served communities are equipped with knowledge, skills and resources that can enhance them to become self-sufficient in Malawi.
our first mission statement
We aim at creating a healthy and an enabling environment for underserved communities, youths and vulnerable groups to develop to their full potential so that they can be self-sufficient, contribute significantly to personal and sustainable development of the area and be an active participant in development effort of the nation thereby improving the social well-being of the society as well as raising the living standards.
I have been trying to change the mission statement and below is the one i changed recently.
Mission statement edited
The mission of CESDO is to support communities and facilitate community development to achieve sustainable economic development and livelihoods through innovations, works, community involvement, and strategic direction towards sustainable development.
Thanks for the comment, Gracium! Overall, it sounds like you’re headed in a good direction here. Your vision in particular is really inspiring. We’re not able to get into what exactly your mission statement should include, but we do have a resource with some tips as you continue to edit. Best of luck as you finalize your vision and mission statements. It sounds like you’re off to a great start!
Alex
Hello,
My name is Sonia Walia, I am from India in New Delhi, we registered an organization called World Culture Forum (WCF) http://worldcultureforum.org.in/ based in New Delhi our mission is redefine the term ‘culture’ variously by spreading the awareness globally towards in achieving the peace and happiness in every society. We aim at promoting culture at the international level by organizing cultural exchange programs and Award functions internationally.
Currently we are in need of partners to work with, to guide us, to support us and also share knowledge on how best we can do more.
You can email us: info@worldcultureforum.org.in
Hi Sonia, It sounds like you’re working toward a great cause. You can access many resources on our site to help you with your online marketing efforts. We suggest browsing around our blog for nonprofit marketing topics that interest you. We have also created a number of free guides that might be helpful for you.
Thanks for reaching out and hope this helps!
Alex
I would like to say congratulations to Alex McQueary for providing very useful information to all of us. It was nice reading your blog I would like to add one more NGO working in India towards the healthcare of underprivileged children in India. The name is Child Heart Foundation being founded by seven parents who have gone through similar situations and have gotten over with their tough part of life and now want to “give back” to the needy families. Read more about the NGO visiting the website.
Thanks for sharing, Sunita! We’re glad you found the post helpful.
Hello how are you, hope all is well.
Am called munira from Uganda have just started up an NGO this year and its fully registered. I started up the organization because of what life thought me. I remember it was 31st December 2018 preparing my son’s birthday party when I left home to buy things for the party I came back home and didn’t find my son. Looking for him for hours we found out he was killed and the killer throw his body in the septic tank. So I started up an NGO in his name to help the needy children, street children, youth and girls who are forced into early marriage. And I found your page so helpful
So far I have 58 children we are taking care of and I hope to get people to advice us and teach us more
altonlifechangingorg@gmail.com for more
I’m glad you found this post helpful, Munirah! It sounds like you’ve created an inspirational organization in your son’s honor.
Hi, I’m Debby from Northern Nigeria, for the first time want to take my Organization to the next level with the vision of: Making the world Habitable for Everyone.
Mission:
Protecting the rights of Children
Fighting against Child defilement,abuse, molestation and rape
Skills acquisition programs. Etc
I do hope you would help with some more tips on how to go about this. Thank you
Hi Debby,
It’s exciting to hear that you’re looking to grow your organization. Here are some related links and resources that might help along the way:
— Leveraging Your Mission Statement On Your Website
— Nonprofit Capacity Building: 4 Ways to Create Capacity With Your Website
— Nonprofit Growth: 8 Strategies to Get Started
— Nonprofit Operational Manual from Nigeria Network of NGOs
Hi Alex,
It was good reading this blog of yours.
Well this is MJ from Uttar Pradesh State, India. I am about to start my NGO.
Mission Statement- Utilizing e-waste for Imparting IT & Technological knowledge to the students from the weaker sections of the society. The said technological upliftment will bring about a positive change in their lives thereby bring in more advanced aspirations and opening more avenues for their livelihood. Secondly, working and promoting the mantra of “Going Green” across the society.
Vision Statement: Technology reaching the bottom of the pyramid and the adaptability of the “Going Green” Mantra across the society.
Kindly share your thoughts on the above, help me out for possible reading related to the above and suggest changes if needed.
Best
MJ
You’re off to a great start, MJ! It can be tough to know if anything is missing from either statement, but I can offer a few tips that I’ve seen work well for others based on what you have here. The mission statement should answer the “why” and “how” components of your organization. You might say something like: “We believe that IT and technological knowledge open up opportunities and should be within reach for all students.” You can follow it up with a few bullet points to note how you are making that possible.
For the vision statement, think about your ideal world that would not have a need for your organization. For example, “We’re working toward a greener world where all children have access to the technology they need to be successful.”
Adding, expanding on and reworking your mission and vision statement as your nonprofit and programs take shape is totally normal. Just make sure you’re using it to impart your values, hopes for the future and a path to get there. I hope you find our tips helpful. Good luck with your new organization!
Hi Very touched with what you guys are doing! I am inspired to help my community and would love to follow in your steps. I myself live in very infested poor gang area in Cape Town, South Africa. The government has so miserably failed us here and children are hopelessly abandons. I am thinking of helping our children . I already have 12 children of ages 5-11 that I assist with motivation, health eating habits, home works…ect. We sing and dance to keep our spirit up. But I know that not enough. As i am writing matric this year(final grade 12 high school exam), all activities are on hold….these kids are missing me! I want to be able to something constructive for them…
Thanks for commenting, Leah. It sounds like you’re helping the kids in your community a lot already! If you decide that creating an organization to better serve them is the right path and have questions about the mission or vision statements, I’d be happy to offer a few tips. Best of luck!
Hi my name is Maimbo from Zambia
I wNt to start up a foundation to help vulnerable children in my community and beyond.
Mission statement: to put a smile on every childs face by providing basic needs to the vulnerable children.
Vission:to give evry child an opportunity to a successful life.
What do you this about the mission and vision? Any advice
Hi, Maimbo. It sounds like you’re having a big impact for kids in your community! To distinguish your mission and vision statement, you might think of the mission statement as the way in which you’re helping your community – To put smiles on children’s faces by providing for basic needs and opening up opportunities for success. For the vision statement, you might zoom out a bit to show what your ideal world looks like, a world where your services are no longer necessary.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your new organization!
Assalmualikum.
Very much attractive and immperasive informations i have got from this blog you guys are doing very well.
I am inspired to help my people’s (middle class and poor needy persons) and would love to follow in your steps. I myself live in karachi pakistan belongs to middle class family facing and struggling from poor financial issues but want to help the community as i am suffering from these problems trying to give easy and reasonable reach to others how they come out from these situations i have decided to registerd an ngo (foundation) with the vission “we help we teach we traine we built for your survival and success”
With the name of AADAM & AISHA Foundation I am doing some walfare working in my community with some donner friends on small scal now trying to spand this working in a larger span, so hoping from your side yours kind and beautifull prayers and wishes also give me the idea or suggessions regarding this start.
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reaching out, Aijazz. It sounds like you’re doing some great work in your community. Typically, your vision statement explains the overall goal of your organization looking into the future. For example, your vision might be a world where your community members no longer struggle financially and have the support they need to thrive. Your mission statement should then outline the plan to realize that vision. I hope that’s helpful for you as you continue to hone your organization’s mission and vision statements. Best of luck!