A Mission statement describes the organization’s:

• Values
• Target Audience
• Core Services
• Unique Attributes

A mission statement is a succinct statement that conveys your organization’s reason for being. Coming up with an effective mission statement is worth the time and effort. In many ways, it is a fluid version of your objectives in your statutes or by-laws. How can you directly transmit your purpose to the press, for example, or even to a fundraiser, in few words?

A very thorough guide on how to write a mission statement can be found at http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm

Three examples from the Steering Committee of RareTogether:

http://www.ecfs.eu/

http://www.debra.org.uk/about-debra.html

http://www.oife.org/home/index1-uk.html