It may (or may not) come as a surprise that most nonprofit leadership teams are operating at about 20% strong—even though, with simple processes and intentional leadership, they could be running at 80% strong or better. Strengthening the Six Key Components™ of your organization starts with the first and most foundational: Vision.
In the nonprofit world, vision isn’t optional. It’s the heartbeat of everything—your mission, your programs, your fundraising, your partnerships, and the community you serve.
But here’s the reality: your vision won’t take you very far if you’re the only one who sees it clearly.
If you asked each member of your leadership team where your organization will be in 10 years, would you hear the same answer? What about your staff? Your board? Your volunteers?
If people don’t clearly see the same vision, understand it, and feel deeply connected to it, your organization will struggle to gain traction.
8 Questions to Define Your Vision and Create your V/TO
Your goal as a nonprofit leader is to get your Vision out of your head and into a format the entire organization can rally around. EOS uses a tool called the Vision/Traction Organizer® (V/TO) to help leadership teams gain total clarity by answering eight essential questions:
1. What are our Core Values?
Core Values define your culture and how your organization operates—from how you treat donors and volunteers to how you make decisions with limited resources.
Core Values are not inspirational posters. They should be lived behaviors that guide how your team shows up every day.
2. What is our Core Focus?
This is your mission and your lane. Nonprofits can easily drift—chasing grants, saying yes to too much, or spreading themselves thin.
Your Core Focus keeps you grounded and ensures decisions align with your purpose, not distractions.
3. What is our 10-Year Target?
Think of this as your long-term, big-vision impact.What is the bold change you want to create in the world over the next decade?
Many teams underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years. When you define it clearly, you mobilize momentum.
4. What is our Marketing Strategy?
Nonprofits market too.
This is about knowing:
- Who you serve
- Who supports your mission (funders, partners, donors)
- What message resonates
- How you raise awareness and engagement
Clarity here helps you attract the right people and resources.
5. What is our 3-Year Picture?
This takes your 10-year impact and pulls it closer.
Where should the organization be in three years—financially, operationally, programmatically, culturally?
Define 5–15 specific, measurable indicators so everyone shares the same “mental picture.”
6. What is our 1-Year Plan?
What 3–7 goals must you achieve this year to move toward the 3-year picture?
This gives your team focus in an environment where priorities can multiply quickly.
7. What are our “Rocks”?
These are your most important priorities for the next 90 days—the mission-critical items that keep you on track.
Nonprofits face constant interruptions and urgent needs; Rocks give your team discipline and alignment.
8. What are our Issues?
Every nonprofit has obstacles—funding constraints, capacity gaps, unclear roles, board challenges, operational inefficiencies.
Rather than react to them, list them, discuss them, and solve Issues for the long term.
Craft Your Nonprofit Vision Statement
Once you’ve answered these eight questions with your leadership team, you have the foundation for a powerful nonprofit vision statement. Your vision statement should capture your Core Focus, 10-Year Target, and the impact you’re working to create—distilled into clear, compelling language that inspires action.
Strong nonprofit organization vision statements share common characteristics: they’re specific about the change they want to create, measurable enough that progress is trackable, and memorable enough that every team member can articulate them.
Sample Vision Statements for Nonprofits
Here are examples of how organizations have translated V/TO clarity into vision statements:
Youth Education Nonprofit: “By 2035, we will have provided 100,000 underserved students with access to quality STEM education, closing the achievement gap and creating pathways to high-paying careers in technology.”
Environmental Conservation Organization: “Within ten years, we will protect 500,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat and engage 50,000 community members as active stewards of our region’s natural resources.”
Healthcare Access Nonprofit: “We envision a community where every family, regardless of income, has access to comprehensive healthcare services. By 2035, we will serve 25,000 patients annually through our network of community clinics.”
Notice how each example vision statement for nonprofit organizations includes both the aspirational impact and concrete, measurable targets. This combination of inspiration and specificity gives teams something meaningful to work toward while providing clear markers of progress.
When your entire organization can recite your vision statement and understand how their daily work connects to it, you’ve achieved the alignment that maximizes mission impact.
Align Your Nonprofit Team for Success
Nonprofit leaders should revisit these eight questions every quarter. Your world shifts quickly—budgets, community needs, staffing, grant cycles—so regular recalibration keeps everyone centered.
Then, share your vision statement with the entire organization each quarter—staff, volunteers, board, everyone. Call it your State of the Organization. This level of transparency and communication builds unity and trust. When people see how their work connects to your nonprofit vision statement, engagement deepens and retention improves.
Because at the end of the day:
Vision without traction is just a dream.
And nonprofits don’t have the luxury of staying in dream mode—your community needs your work.
When your entire team is aligned, engaged, and rowing in the same direction, that’s when you maximize impact.
About the Author
Haley Patterson helps nonprofit leaders and their teams get more clarity, alignment, and traction—so they can amplify the impact they were created to make.
If you want to learn more about running on EOS®, call Haley at 480.202.0788 or email haley.patterson@eosworldwide.com.
Until next time, be good and stay focused.