Revisit Purpose to Get the Bus back on the Road

The drift away from action

I’m seeing more and more organisations caught in varying degrees of confusion and disillusionment.

It shows up in different ways. Some have well-meaning team members working hard on projects that don’t quite serve the purpose. Others have leaders stuck in inertia because they can’t get the right people “on the bus.”

These are great organisations doing incredible things to change the world. What they have in common is a quiet drift away from action. Time goes into refining the plan, adding another KPI or reworking the framework. Meanwhile the people who actually deliver the mission, and the people who fund it, are left wondering where they fit.

The stakes are high in Australia right now. Charities generated a record $239 billion in revenue in the 2024 reporting period, but expenses rose faster, and net income across the sector fell (ACNC Australian Charities Report, 12th edition). When resources are tight, energy spent circling the car park is energy the mission can’t afford to lose.

The destination usually isn’t the problem

Most for-purpose organisations have a strong vision: a clear picture of the world in a better state. That’s the destination, and it matters.

But no one plans a road trip by setting the destination, going to bed and hoping to wake up there. A trip needs a few other things too:

📍 Vision is the destination.

🚌 Purpose is the reason for the journey. It’s what gets people on the bus, and keeps them there when the road gets rough.

🗺️ Strategy is the map. It’s essential, but you don’t stop every 5km to redraw it.

📊 Measurement is the dashboard. Check it regularly, but stare at it and you’ll miss the road.

When organisations stall, it’s rarely because the destination is wrong. More often, the map and the dashboard have become the journey, and the reason for travelling has been lost along the way.

When the map becomes the journey

Strategic planning is valuable. But there’s a point where more planning produces less progress.

The evidence on strategy execution is sobering. In a multi-year study of more than 250 companies, researchers Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes and Charles Sull found that two-thirds to three-quarters of large organisations struggle with execution. Only half of the middle managers surveyed could name even one of their company’s top five priorities (Harvard Business Review, 2015).

The cause wasn’t a lack of communication. Core messages about strategy were often diluted by long lists of values, priorities, initiatives and competencies, leaving managers unsure what mattered most. The researchers also found that treating execution as “sticking to the plan” is a myth: changing conditions demand agility.

For a nonprofit, that picture will feel familiar. You may have a 40-page strategic plan, a framework on top of it, and a team who can’t say in one sentence what they’re there to do.

The solution: Keep the map simple enough to fold up and carry. A small number of clear priorities that everyone can name beats a comprehensive plan that no one can recall.

Staring at the dashboard

Measurement helps us know whether we’re on track. The trouble starts when the numbers become the point.

Jim Collins made a related point for our sector. In the social sectors, he argued, money is only an input, not a measure of greatness. Judging nonprofits on simple financial ratios confuses inputs with outputs (Bridgespan interview). For Collins, the critical question is how effectively we deliver on our mission and make a distinctive impact, relative to our resources.

Australian research shows what happens when the wrong measure dominates. The Paying What It Takes study by Social Ventures Australia and the Centre for Social Impact found that true indirect costs averaged 33% of a charity’s total costs, while funding agreements typically covered 10 to 20% (CSI, 2022). It also found that lower indirect costs don’t signal a more effective organisation, and that under-spending on core capability can reduce effectiveness (Philanthropy Australia). A narrow measure, applied with good intentions, ends up starving the very capability that delivers impact.

The solution: Measure fewer things, and make sure each one connects directly to the purpose. For every metric, ask: if this number improved, would the people we serve be better off? If the answer isn’t clearly yes, it’s cluttering the dashboard.

Purpose: the reason for the trip

If vision is where we’re going, purpose is why we’re making the trip at all. It’s also what makes people want to come along.

People want this connection. McKinsey research found that 70% of employees said their sense of purpose is largely defined by work. The same research revealed a striking gap: 85% of executives and upper management said they are living their purpose at work, but only 15% of frontline managers and frontline employees agreed (McKinsey, 2021).

That gap is where many organisations lose momentum. The leadership team can see the reason for the trip clearly. The people at the front line, who deliver programs, answer donor calls and support clients, often can’t.

Collins’ “getting the right people on the bus” matters even more for us. He noted that in the social sectors, where big incentives (or any pay at all, for volunteers) aren’t possible, the First Who principle becomes even more important (Collins, 2005).

The solution: Make purpose the first filter for decisions, not a line in the annual report. When a project or request comes up, the first question should be whether it serves the reason we exist.

Everyone on the bus needs a seat

A clear purpose does more than motivate staff. It gives everyone connected to the organisation a way to take part: staff, volunteers, donors, clients and board members.

Fundraising is where this shows up most. The landmark UnderDeveloped study by CompassPoint and the Haas, Jr. Fund surveyed more than 2,700 executive and development directors. It found high turnover and long vacancies in development roles, along with a lack of basic fundraising systems and of shared responsibility for fund development among board and staff leaders. Half the development directors expected to leave their jobs within two years (Haas, Jr. Fund).

The report’s authors suggested that building a culture of philanthropy can help break this “vicious cycle” (Gibson, 2016). In road trip terms, fundraising works best when the whole bus understands where it’s going and why, rather than one person driving while everyone else looks out the window.

The Australian opportunity is significant. The Australian Government has a goal of doubling giving by 2030, and the Productivity Commission’s Future Foundations for Giving inquiry was commissioned to support it (Productivity Commission, 2024). Organisations whose purpose is clear and shared across the whole bus will be best placed to benefit.

The solution: Help every group see their seat on the bus. Donors should understand the difference their gift makes to the journey. Volunteers and staff should see how their role moves the organisation forward. Board members should be ready to invite others aboard.

Getting back on the road

If your organisation feels stuck in the car park, here are five practical places to start:

Name the reason for the trip. Write your purpose in one sentence that a new volunteer could repeat after their first week.
Fold up the map. Reduce your strategic priorities to three to five that everyone can name. Everything else is a supporting activity.
Clean the dashboard. Keep only the measures that tell you whether you’re closer to the destination, and review them at a set rhythm rather than constantly.
Check the seating plan. Ask staff, volunteers, donors and clients where they see themselves on the journey. The answers will show you where purpose is and isn’t landing.
Leave some baggage behind. Identify one project or process that doesn’t serve the purpose, and stop it.

None of this requires a new strategic plan. It requires leaders willing to keep the purpose front and centre, and to trust their people to help steer.

Where to from here

The organisations I see thriving aren’t the ones with the thickest plans or the most detailed dashboards. They’re the ones where everyone on the bus knows where they’re going and why the trip matters.

What’s keeping your organisation in the car park?

References

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (2026). Australian Charities Report, 12th edition. ACNC.
Social Ventures Australia and Centre for Social Impact, with Philanthropy Australia (2022). Paying What It Takes: Funding Indirect Costs to Create Long-Term Impact.
Volunteering Australia (2024). Key Volunteering Statistics, 2024 update.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2025). Volunteers. Australia’s Welfare.
Productivity Commission (2024). Future Foundations for Giving, Inquiry Report no. 104.
Sull, D., Homkes, R. and Sull, C. (2015). Why Strategy Execution Unravels — and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review, 93(3), 57–66.
Muller, J. Z. (2018). The Tyranny of Metrics. Princeton University Press.
Collins, J. (2005). Good to Great and the Social Sectors. Boulder: Jim Collins.
Dhingra, N., Samo, A., Schaninger, B. and Schrimper, M. (2021). Help your employees find purpose — or watch them leave. McKinsey & Company.
Bell, J. and Cornelius, M. (2013). UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising. CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.
Gibson, C. (2016). Beyond Fundraising: What Does It Mean to Build a Culture of Philanthropy? Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

Title	Why read it
Sinek, S. (2009). Start With Why. Portfolio.	The most accessible case for leading from purpose, and a useful shared language for teams
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. Free Press.	The classic critique of over-planning, and why strategy emerges as much as it is designed
Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great. HarperBusiness.	The source of “first who” and getting the right people on the bus
Muller, J. Z. (2018). The Tyranny of Metrics. Princeton University Press.	Includes a practical checklist for when and how to use metrics well
Gibson, C. (2016). Beyond Fundraising. Haas, Jr. Fund.	A short, free framework for what a culture of philanthropy looks like in practice
SVA and CSI (2022). Paying What It Takes.	Australian evidence for moving boards and funders beyond overhead ratios