Was Someone Asking about Vision, Mission, and Values?

Oftentimes, we find that many of our clients ask the same questions at once. Recently, those questions have been around Vision, Mission, and Values Statements. The latest issue of the Duck Pond offers a basic explanation of each and when and where you might find them useful.

How specific Vision, Mission, and Values statements look and are used will vary from organization to organization. Below is one example.

Big Duck has been working with the Foundation for Jewish Camp for a number of years now, and we helped them develop their Vision, Mission, and Values statements. They use all three regularly and publicly.

Foundation for Jewish Camp

Our Vision

Summers at Jewish overnight camp turn Jewish youth into spirited and engaged Jewish adults, laying the groundwork for strong Jewish communities. The Foundation for Jewish Camp aspires to elevate the field of Jewish camp, conferring proper recognition and granting appropriate support to expand its impact across our community, so that camp can be a critical element of every Jewish young person’s education.

Mission

The Foundation for Jewish Camp unifies and galvanizes the field of Jewish overnight camp and significantly increases the number of children participating in transformative summers at Jewish camp, assuring a vibrant North American Jewish community.

Core strategies:

• Increasing awareness about the value of Jewish summer camps to families and communities.
• Expanding access to and intensifying demand for local camp programs through communication, outreach, and incentive/scholarship programs.
• Providing vital resources and cutting-edge strategies to enable the field to better serve campers and increase market share.
• Developing capacity by nurturing and creating new camp initiatives, models, and programs.
• Advocating to Jewish organizations, foundations, and thought-leaders on behalf of the field of Jewish camping.

Our Values

Results:

We operationalize our goals into measurable objectives, and we gauge our success through impact and accomplishments.

Integrity:

We integrate best practices in our daily work and conduct ourselves ethically, respectfully, consistently, and transparently in all of our activities and relationships.

Respect:

We embrace inclusiveness and respect the many approaches, ideologies, ethnicities, and denominations that make up our community.

Responsive leadership:

We identify emerging needs and opportunities and proactively develop new strategies to address the challenges facing the field.

Independence:

We function outside the influence of a single point-of-view and make objective decisions that encourage each camp to thrive on its own terms.

Optimism:

We confidently believe in the reality of a vibrant, engaged Jewish community, now and in the future.