Question
In the context of philanthropy, a mission is the overarching direction or purpose of an organization. It is a broad, long-term view of what the organization wants to achieve. On the other hand, an objective is a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goal that helps the organization to achieve its mission. Objectives are concrete steps that the organization takes to reach its mission. They are more specific and short-term than the mission.
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In philanthropy, stakeholders often confuse the mission, which is directional, with the objective, which is the set of concrete steps to engage in to know how you're going to get there. At its launch in 2000, The Gates Foundation was a $20 billion startup. Within two years it scaled to the point that it needed a more structured form of goal-setting. The Foundation implemented OKRs with its grant reviews, which allowed the team to judge whether a proposal had clear goals and fit the Foundation's objectives. For instance, the Foundation set an ambitious objective to eliminate Guinea worm disease, then set quarterly and annual key results to prove they made progress against the goal. After a series of grants from the Foundation, programs have reduced the incidence of Guinea worm disease from 75,000 in 2000 to just 22 in 2015.
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