This week we are thinking about Mission and Accountability. It is one thing to have a thoughtful idea to help people and another thing to do purposeful research about who else or how else people might access the desired goods and services. Moreover, those desiring to provide these goods/services must be accountable to those they hope to serve, their staff, the board, donors and other nonprofits or for-profits that may be doing similar work. Before starting on this assignment, please watch the video by Dan Duncan embedded below which introduces how non-profit accountability to the community it serves can be compartmentalized a bit:

Mr. Duncan offered five questions in that video providing a methodical yet simple way of assessing one's accountability to the community it serves in the non-profit context. This week, I would first like you to consider what non-profit accountability can look like in a real-world scenario as we consider naming or creating a nonprofit's mission..

In order to form truly beneficial and community-accountable non-profit ventures that will be using donated money and resources that are in short overall supply, we must take the time to consider if the charitable service WE hope to provide via nonprofits and/OUR new startup non-profit. Is it truly needed and beneficial to the community?

To clarify what I mean, please consider this example:

After finishing grad school and working in publishing for 4 years, I moved back to KC to pursue my master's degree in public administration and nonprofit management. I made this decision after volunteering as a Big Sister for some girls, one of whom was HIV positive. After 3 years of volunteering with them, I decided the world needed a nonprofit that would serve women and children with AIDS/HIV. My reasons were good ones, real ones and passionate ones. The truth is that while completing grad school at UMKC I got involved in the local AIDS/HIV organizations and learned that they felt there was no competitive room for an organization as specific as mine. The vast majority of folks needing services for this disease were gay men, not women. On top of it the disease was stigma-based. They did not feel there was competitive room or enough need for someone to specialize their mission to women and children. They were right. I needed an ego check and perspective. I never started that nonprofit but instead volunteered to help many navigating AIDS/HIV

and went on to work with many other nonprofits with excellent missions.

Giving-up this dream was hard on me after quitting my great job in NYC and going back to school. However, it was the correct thing for me to put my own ego aside and focus on what the community needed and what the community could support.

Above all, remember that while non-profits must stay financial viable, the greater responsibility to be accountable for social impact is far different from what many think of in the competitive for-profit business world.

Using this as a jump-off point, your Forum #6 assignment is as follows:

Consider Dan's questions, consider mission and choose a mission. You may choose the mission of an organization that already exists or create one that you believe would be valuable to the community. (Think about goods or services that are not currently available that you believe should be. Would a nonprofit organization be able to deliver this with the right mission? Then create a minimum 300 word essay forum post that addresses the following points: