Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask

Board and Mission

board and mission 4 why do we need a mission statement? what constitutes a good mission statement? A mission statement is the central management tool of any not-forprofit organization. The mission directs every action of the organization; it motivates the strategic plan; and it explains how the organization will measure success. It is easy to write the mission statement of a for-profit corporation: the mission lies in the words for profit. No matter what a corporation puts in its annual report or on its web page, every for-profit corporation has the same mission: to earn as much as possible for as long as possible, so that the stock price is maximized. Measuring success, therefore, is also easy. In the not-for-profit arts world, developing a mission and evaluating success are far harder to accomplish. All we know is what we are not for. But what are we for? The rationale for the existence of not-for-profit organizations is that they pursue goals that are not evaluated on the basis of financial return. Society is meant to benefit from these activities that are not financially motivated. That is why a tax deduction is offered to those who contribute to these organizations. Without a clear and memorable mission, however, arts organizations often secretly, or not so secretly, measure success by their financial results , reverting to the for-profit model, rather than by the organization’s achievement of its true artistic and educational goals. Why? Because board members, who typically come from the for-profit world, are far more comfortable measuring success in this manner. (In fact, some board members of arts organizations do not really believe there is a difference between for-profit and not-for-profit ventures, apart from an assumed lack of professionalism and realism among not-for-profit arts executives.) Many arts managers are also prone to measure success in financial terms. They are understandably fearful of the consequences of poor financial performance and are anxious to ensure fiscal stability. But while fiscal sta- board and mission 9 bility is a requirement for pursuing the mission of a not-for-profit, it is not the measure of success. This quandary creates tension in arts organizations and in all not-for-profit organizations. Those who work for a not-for-profit organization often do so because they get to select the goals of their organizations. They forego the financial rewards of corporate life to pursue their own life goals. So when a board acts as if the mission of the organization is really to achieve financial success, the staff can feel betrayed. They have sacrificed in order to work in a mission-driven organization, but the board does not seem to appreciate the mission. Lack of universal acceptance of the true mission creates other major problems. It motivates the organization to make poor resource allocation decisions. It encourages programming that sells well, rather than programming that achieves the organization’s aesthetic goals. It diverts resources from the most important projects to the most profitable projects, and it encourages less programming, rather than more. A not-for-profit arts organization that does not work actively to pursue its true mission has not earned the tax-exempt status offered by the state. And an organization that does not pursue its mission is virtually always going to suffer from rifts between the board and the staff, and between the artistic staff and the administrative staff. No matter how the board behaves , the artistic staff will always measure success by the organization’s artistic accomplishment, not by financial success. The real mission is ignored in favor of financial results, when the true mission is not believable or is too vague to be directive. Too many arts organizationshavemissionsthataretoogeneralandtoophilosophical .Mission statements like, “We want to bring the beauty of dance to the world,” are not specific enough to direct action or provide measurable goals. When a mission is unclear or unbelievable, most organizations revert to the profit motive, and the actual mission of the organization is lost. A good mission statement discusses who we are trying to serve, what we are trying to offer them, and where we hope to offer our services. These can change over time. It is not uncommon for an arts organization to rewrite its mission when it expands its services, or when it realizes it has overextended and needs to focus on only part of its mission. But this should be a rare occurrence. An organization...