There is no doubt that many religiously affiliated nonprofits no longer relate to their founding community of faith in the same way that they did in the founding years of the organization. There are many reasons that the structures and meanings of affiliation change over time. It is a well-accepted “truism” that if faith-based nonprofits and the communities of faith don’t consciously work at the relationship, over time the dynamics of disaffiliation tend to create distance. In time, being faith-based may mean that faith and church affiliation are a relic in the corporate museum.
Recently I was working with a nonprofit with deep roots in a particular religious tradition. Over the years they have served an increasingly diverse marketplace. They hire hundreds of staff from many different faith/worldviews. The board is still comprised of a majority of individuals from the founding religious community of faith. The questions were—how do we frame our mission, values, and vision to serve effectively a diverse market in the 21st century? We worked together as a full board, senior leadership, and task force on this question. The work has matured. The new words on a piece of paper—nearly sing!
But the work was incomplete. As we reviewed the nearly final work we were aware that the material lacked any linking of vision, mission, and values to a faith or religious worldview. Upon deeper reflection, we recognized that while all the words were good words, they needed a theological or “churchly-grounding”. Without that, the words were aspirational but not rooted in a source. The final framing of mission, vision, and values will clarify the source or grounding.
Speaking of Nonprofit Boards 