• Mission defines why your organization exists—its core purpose.
• Vision describes the future you hope to achieve through your work.
• Values reflect the principles and ethics guiding how your organization operates.
• Strategy involves setting goals and priorities, determining actions to achieve the goals, and aligning resources to execute the actions

When boards actively engage with their mission, vision, and values, they ensure that decisions consistently align with the organization’s purpose and priorities. This alignment helps build stronger connections with stakeholders by reinforcing trust and transparency. Moreover, it fosters a shared sense of direction and commitment among board members, creating a unified focus on achieving the land trust’s goals.

Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements

Crafting or revisiting your mission, vision, and values is a crucial step in ensuring your organization stays focused on its purpose and that board members are consistent in how they describe the work to others, including potential board members and supporters. These foundational statements provide clarity, inspire action, and guide decision-making.

Many excellent resources are available online to help you through this process. One particularly valuable resource is the Land Trust Alliance’s guide to developing a good mission statement, which provides step-by-step instructions and examples. You can access it here: Land Trust Alliance – Developing a Good Mission Statement.

Clarifying Strategic Goals

Understanding the organization’s current and planned areas of focus and priorities help clarify board and staff roles, how people should direct their time and energy, and how financial resources will be allocated or developed. Processes for creating strategic plans vary by organization, but generally include:

1. Reflecting on accomplishments, internal strengths and weaknesses, external threats and opportunities
2. Assessing the organization’s strategic position and what makes it unique
3. Determining what the organization will keep, stop, or start doing within the scope of its mission and capacity to achieve its vision
4. defining and agreeing on priorities and areas of focus, and how the organization will navigate change.

Steps to Align Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Goals

Aligning mission, vision, values, and strategic goals is a dynamic process, and one that can be regularly integrated into many aspects of governance and operations. Here are a few practical pointers to get you started:

1. Revisit Your Organization’s Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategy: This is a first step toward ensuring alignment across all board activities. Begin by thoroughly reviewing these statements, and asking yourself and the board if they remain relevant and reflective of the land trust’s current purpose and desired community impacts..
   • Example: A board may realize that its mission does not reference climate change, prompting updates to reflect a greater focus on climate resilience.
2. Incorporate Them Into Board Activities: Once clarified, these guiding elements and your measurements of success should become embedded into all board activities. Incorporate them into budget, work planning sessions, decision-making processes, and routine meetings.
   • Example: A land trust may start each board meeting by revisiting its mission and having one or two directors share a “mission moment” – a brief anecdote about how they recently experienced or witnessed the impact of the organization and its mission in alignment with its strategic goals
3. Evaluate Alignment: Periodic evaluation is key to maintaining alignment and developing a culture of accountability. Reflect on whether board actions and decisions continue to reflect the mission, vision, values, and strategic goals. Celebrating alignment reinforces good practices, while identifying gaps provides opportunities for growth, process and behavior changes, and course correction.
   • Example: A land trust might be approached about collaborating on a new program, and reviews the opportunity through the lens of its mission, vision, values, and strategic goals to determine their level of commitment.
4. Communicate With Clarity: Make your mission, vision, values, and strategic goals a visible part of everything that you do, including in orientation materials, board manuals, landowner outreach, fundraising materials, and public messaging.

We’re Here to Help!

The Connecticut Land Conservation Council is committed to supporting land trusts in all phases of board development, including developing organizational mission, vision, values, and strategy. Contact us to learn more about our programs and how we can assist your land trust in achieving its goals. Whether it’s a Boardroom Briefing or a tailored visioning session for your land trust, CLCC is here to help.

Return to the Board Development Toolkit >>