SUMMARY
A nonprofit’s shared vision matters for three key reasons: it provides hope by showing people a better future worth holding on for, it compels courage by inspiring action beyond people’s comfort zones, and it triggers a virtuous cycle where results spark even bigger dreams.
Why Does Vision Matter?
In our last article, we’ve been examining why your nonprofit’s vision matters. Last time, we examined what “vision” really is and why it matters so much. We also explored what your vision does and how it ignites both energy and action.
In this offering, we’ll list three most important reasons why your organization’s vision matters—and it can be a game changer for you and your charity.
Let’s ride.
Why Your Charity’s Vision Matters
Certainly, shared visions matter for a whole host of reasons, but there are three specific ones that stand out.
REASON #1: Shared Visions Provide Hope
As a nonprofit executive, it’s important to understand that you are in the “hope” business. By articulating a rich, vivid and inspiring vision, you provide others with hope—possibilities and potentials of better days, better circumstances, a better quality of life and a better world, just to mention a few. And, when people have hope they make the conscious decision to “hang in” and ride out the storm because they know that there’s something better waiting for them on the other side of setback. The more inspiring your vision is the more hope that you’ll instill in others.
REASON #2: Shared Visions Compel Courage
Once again drawing from Peter Senge’s wisdom and insight, shared visions compel courage. In fact, courage appears to be a direct bi-product of a great vision. Here’s how it works.
When people are inspired by your organization’s vision, they are moved to take action in an attempt to help others or to improve challenging circumstances—and the bigger the vision, the more action people will take. If your organization does not have an inspiring, breathtaking vision, it’s a sure bet that your constituents won’t be moved to get outside of their comfort zones, roll up their sleeves and apply themselves to moving your cause forward.
REASON #3: Shared Visions Beget Even Bigger Visions
Perhaps the greatest power of any bold, shared vision is that it prompts people to dream even bigger dreams. Consider this. When your constituents are moved by your vision, they take action. And when they take action, results materialize—and when results materialize, a whole host of actions and reactions begin to take place inside the brain. Specifically, people experience the powerful effects of certain neurochemicals like oxytocin and dopamine and these chemicals induce intense feelings of well-being and satisfaction. As you can plainly see, a virtuous cycle is then created where the dominos are pushed over, your vision starts to takes hold and your constituents begin to dream even bigger dreams.
And this, in essence, is the ultimate power of a shared vision.
Here's Your Challenge
In these last two articles, we’ve explored what vision is, what vision does and why vision matters. As you now know, your vision is vitally important to the success and impact of your organization. But here’s the rub. Very few nonprofits have an organizational vision statement that inspires the heart and moves the feet. And, as a result, very few nonprofits reach their full potential—which is tragic because others are depending on you.
Your challenge—should you choose to accept it—is to carve out time to dream big dreams. And although this sounds like a relatively easy thing to do, it’s going to require concerted effort and discipline on your part to make it happen. We all know that the “urgent” has a way of sneaking into even the best laid plans. If you hope to reach your full potential, both as an executive and as an organization, a bold and inspiring vision is the thing that’s going to get you there.
