Mission, Effectual Resources, Growth

Human survival depends on access to:

Oxygen (minutes until death)

Water (days)

Food (weeks)

Your nonprofit survival depends on:

Mission (a month)

Effectual Resources (a year)

Growth (a decade)

An all-volunteer Meals on Wheels program, serves 50 lunches per day from a donated kitchen. Three board members coordinate 24 drivers and the meal preparation, six days per week. With so few active board members, a borrowed facility, no strategic plan and no staff, they were critically short of effective resources. With any significant setback, they faced the real possibility that they would failed to provide vital food to frail elderly people.

While they had a clear mission (Priority 1,) they desperately needed to shore up their effectual resources to ensure their survival (Priority 2). Instead, a board member called to request help to obtain funding to increase the daily meal service to 100 meals per day (Priority 3.)

Your survival depends on mission, effectual resources and growth, in that order and only in that order. Keeping your priorities straight means you live!