Following the recipe

A fragrant chocolate odor emanated from our kitchen. Finally, I could relax. It had been a sprint to prepare our regular dinner in addition to the chocolate cake for my husband’s birthday. Our young daughters helped me to assemble the cake. I loved having them as sous chefs, although I could get distracted managing them and following a recipe.

The cake would take an hour to bake. Thirty minutes in, I checked on the cake. I opened the oven door, expecting to find a slowly rising chocolate mass. Instead, something dark was bubbling. It was not a solid, it was a liquid. What was going on?

Had one of my ingredients spoiled?

I pulled the chocolate goop out of the oven and read the recipe slowly. Eggs, check. Butter, check. Cocoa, check. Flour? Flour?

I had left out the flour.

Running a nonprofit organization is a little like making chocolate cake. Many ingredients are involved. It’s easy to get distracted by the process itself, by the many personalities that make up your organization, and by the dynamic environment outside your organization.

What can you do? You MUST keep reading the recipe. In the case of your organization, your “recipe” is the mission and vision of your organization and your strategic plan: Why you exist, who you aim to serve, your vision of how the world will be different through your work and your priorities as an organization.

What if you don’t have a clear mission and vision or strategic plan yet or your mission, vision and strategic plans have changed since they were written a number of years ago? Bringing board and staff together to come up with clear language that defines your work will give your organization energy and focus. It will help you to clarify your priorities, whether they be program or personnel.

My husband had to stop at the store and buy his own birthday cake that night. But we did not throw the chocolate goop away. It was a key ingredient in our chocolate pancakes the next morning. Similarly, you don’t need to “throw away” the valuable work that you’ve done to move your organization to where it is now.  On the other hand, you owe it to your staff and supporters to find a recipe that encompasses the power of your work.