The Importance Of A Non-Profit Mission Statement

by | Feb 27, 2013 | law

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If you are looking to start a non-profit organization, there are many things you need to consider. These include basic items that would apply to any new business such as personnel, location, mission statements, supplies and more. After those, there are a great many facets to a non-profit business that are unique to the non-profit sector that you will need to educate yourself about to ensure you follow all appropriate legal and financial guidelines. You will want to take the prudent step of searching through business lawyer in Harrisburg area for an attorney who works specifically in the non-profit space so that you can receive appropriate professional guidance as to how to move forward to successfully and legally establish your new entity.

Certainly there will be a mission and a cause at the heart of your desire to start a new non-profit organization. Along with this, the first thing you should do is to clearly define and establish the mission for your business. There are a few key questions you should ask yourself as you move through the process of identifying your reason and what you wish to accomplish or achieve. The first question you should answer is “Why does this organization exist?” This will tell everyone who interacts with the organization what you are about and will also help keep your own staff and board members focused. Non-profit Business lawyers in Harrisburg will be well versed in guiding clients down this path and can likely give you some information as to how to develop this. Your mission statement will likely end up having multiple formats and lengths, including the “full” mission statement and then some shortened versions for specific uses, including even a tagline that may be used with your organization’s name and/ or logo. However, it is important to keep even the “full” version to less than a half a page.

Business lawyers in Harrisburg will no doubt remind you about the main points to consider in crafting your mission statement. These include a focus on the main benefits you will offer to those that you will serve, a description of the clients that will benefit from your services, the values that guide the operation and management of your non-profit organization and how you wish others to view your organization or to be involved with it. Once you have ensured that these points are all covered in your mission statement, you are ready to move forward with the next steps in development of your new organization.

When starting a new non-profit organization, be sure to refer to appropriate Serratelli, Schiffman & Brown P.C. lawyer for counsel. You will be grateful for the guidance of business lawyers in Harrisburg as you will know that your non-profit corporation is appropriately set up.

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