How Sad is your Mission Statement? The Moderating Effect of Mission Statement Polarity on Performance

We examine the impact of the emotional polarity of a nonprofit organization’s mission statement on fundraising success. We confirm that spending more money on fundraising correlates with more funds raised, then demonstrate that this relationship is moderated by the emotional polarity of the organization’s mission statement. A nonprofit mission statement with more positive sentimentality correlates with an increase in overall fundraising revenue for dollars invested in fundraising – as long as fundraising expenses remain below approximately $1.25 million. For an organization that spends even more on fundraising activity, the relationship reverses. Our study explores this phenomenon in nonprofit organizations in the United States serving the homeless population