The three little words that REALLY matter....mission, vision, values.

There are three little words that often get glossed over in the day-to-day chaos of running a small charity:

Mission. Vision. Values.

They’re the kind of words that appear on websites, in strategy documents and Board reports.

But here’s the thing: these three words are far more than corporate-sounding concepts. For small charities, they’re everything. They’re not “nice to have.” They’re your compass, your rallying cry, and your moral grounding—all wrapped into one.

Let’s be honest—when you’re a small charity leader, you don’t have time for fluff. You’re spinning plates, chasing funding deadlines, supporting your team, delivering services, responding to crises, and figuring out why the printer isn’t working again. In the middle of that whirlwind, it’s easy to say, “We know what we do. Why do we need to write it down?”

But that’s exactly when mission, vision, and values matter most.

Mission: the beating heart of the work

The mission isn’t just a sentence on your website—it’s the pulse that keeps your work alive.

It reminds you why you get up and keep going, even when funding is thin, energy is low, or the impact feels invisible. It’s the thing you return to when the external noise gets too loud or when a shiny new idea tempts you away from what actually matters.

A clear mission doesn’t just guide—it anchors. And when you're small, you can't afford to drift.

Vision: the dream that keeps you moving

If the mission is about now, the vision is about next. It’s the view from the mountaintop, even when you’re still halfway up and climbing on tired legs.

It’s easy to forget your vision when you're stuck in spreadsheets and service delivery. But it’s your vision that lifts your head. It’s what reminds you that you’re not just keeping things running—you’re building something better. Not just for today’s beneficiaries, but for the world they’ll live in tomorrow.

Small charities are driven by big dreams. Vision is the permission to say: "This is the world we believe in."

Values: the way you walk the path

Your values are how you show up. They’re in the tone of your emails, the way you talk to clients, the decisions you make when no one’s watching.

They’re especially important when you’re small—because culture isn’t something you inherit, it’s something you create every day. In every staff meeting, every volunteer induction, every tough call.

Values aren’t just words—they’re felt. They shape how people experience your charity. They create trust, or they erode it. They create belonging, or they don’t.

In a world where trust in institutions is shaky, small charities have something powerful: proximity. And when your values are lived, not laminated, people feel it.

Why it all matters (especially when you’re small)

The truth is, being a small charity doesn’t mean your mission, vision, and values are less important than the big players. It means they’re more important—because they’re often the only structure you’ve got.

You don’t have a 5-person comms team to shape your narrative. You don’t have layers of leadership to filter decisions. You’ve got a small group of people with a lot of heart, and very little time. And when the path gets hard—and it will—these three words are what you fall back on.

They are how you say:

• This is why we’re here.

• This is where we’re going.

• This is how we’ll get there.

Final thought

Mission, vision, and values are not buzzwords. They’re your quiet engine. Your backbone. Your deep breath before another full inbox.

They won’t solve everything. They won’t make the printer work. But they will remind you, and everyone around you, that this work—this hard, beautiful, necessary work—is rooted in something real.