At one of my previous organizations, I was sitting in a meeting with top leadership, and a question was asked. Do you have to have a personal connection to the mission to be successful in this position? As it was an open question technically up for deliberation, I thought about it for a minute. As the reader, you should pause and think about your answer before you read on. 

In my professional career, I’ve worked for several nonprofits to which I didn’t have a direct personal connection to the mission. I knew my answer right away to the question was no.  However, as I remained silent, every other person around the table said without a doubt that they had a mission connection to the organization and that they felt they wouldn’t be effective in their positions without it. I stayed silent as I watched and listen to each leadership member around the table agree with the individual’s response before them including the Deputy Executive Director. All believed that a nonprofit professional needed to have a mission connection in order to be successful. I stayed silent the remainder of the meeting, questioning what I believed and not wanting to draw attention to myself for disagreeing. Was a mission connection really needed to be successful in a nonprofit? How could each and every person have a direct connection to this organization? 

My answer still remains a hard no. In all my years of working for nonprofits, I had never been directly asked what my specific connection to a particular organization’s mission was. For example, I could work for the March of Dimes even if I wasn’t a mother or had experienced first hand a premature baby. I could simply apply to work for an organization because I liked the mission, believed the organization was doing good in the world, or because it offered professional development. I knew my skill set could and would make a difference. I was successful working for organizations that I didn’t have a direct connection to. So why did these individuals believe they had to have a specific connection?

 Let’s compare it to the corporate world.  Assuming that an individual needed to be connected to a for-profit company. That would be like AT&T or Apple, asking to see your cell phone to prove you’re an AT&T customer or that you have an iPhone to work for them. The reality is that isn’t what happens during the hiring process. We are fortunate that our nonprofit work brings our mission to us every single day. Our volunteers, board members, and constituents all have an amazing passion for that mission and share their stories about why it’s important. Staff members don’t need a story to tell because of the amazing volunteers we put as the face of the mission. Our volunteers tell stories and lead the organizations in our communities. If there is ever a moment that you as a nonprofit professional aren’t excited about the work that you are doing, spending just 5 minutes with one of your volunteers will change your mind. Referencing back to my past peers, perhaps these individuals lacked that experience or didn’t know how to pitch the organization’s mission without telling their own stories? 

As nonprofit professionals, we’re expected to have a wealth of knowledge about strategy, cultivation, creating revenue streams, and business development. An organization doesn’t expect every employee to have a mission connection. Rather, in interviews organizations ask “can you be excited about our mission?.” Yes, that’s our job, to get excited about the organization’s mission that we work for regardless of our own personal mission connection. Using those volunteers’ passion and stories to continue to fuel and expand those connections. 

From an organizational standpoint, can having staff members with mission connections pose a threat to operations? An incoming staff member may accept a lower-paying salary, a lower title, work additional hours, or perform duties outside of their normal workload. What are the issues if an organization isn’t diversifying in talent and only hired staff based on the individual’s mission connection status? The organization would be looking for the wrong qualities in an individual and could be passing up individuals who are more qualified. They would be doing their donors a disservice by not ensuring that those dollars are spent on the best talents to continue to keep the mission moving forward. Having the soft skills to share your organization’s mission and putting your volunteers forward can be difficult, contact me for help or staff training.