Step 4: Your Giving Mission Statement: A Roadmap to Action

Identifying your values and interests and how they inspire you to give will help you translate them into a written philanthropic mission statement that will provide you with a roadmap in establishing your giving priorities and make your giving more meaningful – for yourself, your family, and those organizations that you support.

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Expert Tip: A mission statement is generally one to four sentences that puts the reasons for your giving into action.

To help you Get Started:

A Personal or Family Philanthropic Missions Statement Makes Your Giving More Fun, More Focused, and More Effective.

A charitable missions statement will help focus your giving by crystallizing what is most important to you in your philanthropic decisions. For example:

It will give focus to your giving by helping identify what you care about most and provide focus for your time and financial support.
Having a mission statement is energizing by putting your passion into action through words to provide a catalyst for taking concrete steps in achieving your giving vision.
A mission statement helps develops clarity of when to say “no” to those requests that do not fit your philanthropic plan. We all receive so many year-end appeals, solicitations and requests from friends and colleagues. While they may all be worthwhile to support, your mission statement provides a lens through which you can filter what is truly important to you. Set aside some money to support those things important to others at the end of the year but reserve the bulk of your giving power to those things that really matter to you and helps fulfill your charitable mission throughout the year.
Using your mission statement as your guide, you can have a greater impact over time by setting actionable goals for what you would like to accomplish with your philanthropy over the next one, five or ten years and beyond.

Back Next: Step 5