People

Kara Byron, Social Impact & Operations

Julia Kang, Advancement & Development

Meaghan Barakett, Founder & President

Hats Worn

Design Strategist

Workshop Designer

Workshop Facilitator

Copywriter

Context:

One Girl is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New York City dedicated to building a collective of women committed to discovering purpose and creating meaningful impact. Through wellness programs, leadership initiatives, and community events, they create spaces where women feel inspired, supported, and empowered. Despite their impactful work since founding, like many mission-driven organizations, their focus on delivering programs had left little time for strategic messaging alignment—creating inconsistencies in how they communicated their purpose and values to stakeholders.

The Challenge: To develop a cohesive and authentic organizational foundation for One Girl's brand and communications in order to reflect the power of their programs and impact.

One Girl was already creating significant impact through their wellness programs, leadership initiatives, and community events. However, like many mission-driven organizations, they had focused their energy on delivering high-quality programs rather than refining their strategic communications. With growing opportunities for partnerships and funding, they needed mission, vision, and values statements that would clearly communicate their purpose and effectively convey their unique approach to women's empowerment.

My role was to help translate their existing work and implicit values into strategic language that would strengthen their position with stakeholders and create a solid foundation for future growth.

Project Goals:

Phase 1: Discovery & Opportunity

A strategic analysis of One Girl's existing messaging revealed opportunities to strengthen how the organization communicated its purpose and impact. The organization had developed various versions of their mission statement but lacked a formalized vision statement to articulate the world they were working to create. Additionally, while One Girl clearly operated according to implicit values evident in their work, these values hadn't been strategically defined or communicated—limiting their ability to build consistent messaging, guide decision-making, and effectively convey their unique approach to women's empowerment to potential donors and partners.

Effective nonprofit mission statements typically contain several key elements that work together to communicate an organization's purpose:

• A clear statement of the social challenge or need being addressed – why does the organization exist?

• An articulation of the organization's core action or approach

• Identification of who benefits from the organization's work

• Description of the intended impact or change created

• Active language that conveys agency and effectiveness

The strongest ones balance conciseness with clarity, using active voice and specific language to inspire stakeholders while providing strategic direction.

MISSION STATEMENT:
Deconstruction

Breaking down the original mission statement into its functional components showed both strengths and opportunities for improvement.

As shown on the right, I identified several areas for refinement. It:

• Lacked context about the social challenge being addressed

• Used passive voice in key impact statements

• Contained vague terminology that didn't fully communicate the organization's unique approach

Phase 2: Co-Design Workshop

Following the analysis, a highly structured 60-minute workshop was designed to engage One Girl's leadership team in co-creating their mission, vision, and values. It became clear that a collaborative approach would be essential for developing authentic strategic language. The leadership team possessed deep knowledge of their organization's purpose and impact, but needed a structured process to translate this implicit understanding into explicit strategic statements.

1. OPENING: SETTING THE STAGE
Superpowers Icebreaker (5 minutes)

The workshop began with a purposeful icebreaker asking participants to identify One Girl's "superpowers." This was more than a warm-up—it was strategically designed to:

• Establish a positive, strengths-based mindset before tackling challenging strategic questions

• Reveal how the team perceived their organization's unique capabilities and differentiators

• Create metaphorical language that could inform more formal strategic statements

The responses —"vision catalyst," "flying - moving forward," "empowerment amplifier," and "connector"— revealed important themes about how they understood their work. The "empowerment amplifier" metaphor highlighted their focus on magnifying women's existing potential rather than "fixing" perceived deficiencies. "Connector" pointed to their belief in the power of community as a vehicle for transformation. "Vision catalyst" suggested their role in helping women see new possibilities for themselves, while "flying - moving forward" conveyed a sense of momentum and progress. These rich metaphors provided a foundation of authentic language that would inform subsequent exercises.

2. FUTURE HEADLINES:
Envisioning Impact (15 minutes)

Building on the superpowers exercise, participants were guided to project into the future through a "Future Headlines" activity. This exercise was intentionally positioned early in the workshop because:

• It freed participants from current constraints to envision bold possibilities

• Headlines require concise, impactful language that captures attention

• The format naturally encourages thinking about external recognition and objective impact

Participants were asked to envision news articles about One Girl 5-10 years in the future, focusing on headlines that would announce their greatest accomplishments. I emphasized that these should represent meaningful change rather than merely organizational growth.

When participants shared their headlines, patterns emerged that revealed previously unarticulated aspirations:

• Global Reach: "One Girl Celebrates Annual Symposium On Every Continent" revealed ambitions beyond their current NYC focus

• Innovative Programming: "One Girl's Daily Meditations Series Adopted Across North American Libraries" and "One Girl's Innovative InnerAction Program Adopted by Fortune 500 Companies" highlighted desires to develop distinctive, replicable approaches

• Prestigious Recognition: "United Nations Recognizes One Girl for Pioneering Approach to Women's Empowerment" indicated aspirations for external validation of their unique methodology

• Individual Transformation: "One Girl's Wellness Retreats Transforms Lives: 'I Found My Purpose,' Says Participant" emphasized the importance of personal stories and transformative experiences

3. VISION STATEMENT DEVELOPMENT:
Finding the Right Framework (20 minutes)

Basic Template: "In [timeframe], One Girl will [action verb] [target audience] to [achieve what] through [how]."

• Purpose: Offered a straightforward, action-oriented framework that emphasized concrete goals

Aspirational Template: "One Girl aspires to be the [adjective] [noun] for [whom], where [what happens] and [what is achieved]."

• Purpose: Focused on organizational identity and distinctive positioning

Transformational Template: "We envision a world where every woman [experiences what], enabling them to [do what] and ultimately [achieve what broader impact]."

• Purpose: Centered on the changed world their work would create rather than the organization itself

Community-Centered Template: "Together, we will create a [adjective] community of [whom], united in [shared goal] and empowered to [action]."

• Purpose: Emphasized collective action and community building

Working collaboratively, the leadership team filled in each template, drawing directly from language that had emerged in their headlines. When completed, the templates were displayed side-by-side for comparison and evaluation. Using dot voting, the team identified which statements most authentically captured their aspirations.

4. VALUES IDENTIFICATION:
Articulating Guiding Principles (15 minutes)

With clear insights about their vision, the workshop transitioned to identifying core organizational values. This exercise was carefully designed to:

• Distinguish between values the organization was currently embodying vs. aspirational values

• Identify principles that genuinely guided decision-making rather than aspirational buzzwords

• Create a manageable set of values (4-8) that could be effectively communicated and remembered

The discussion around values yielded important insights that went beyond simple selection:

• When discussing "diversity," the team noted that while they valued inclusivity, they needed to develop more concrete ways to embody this value in their programming

• A conversation about "learning," "openness," and "curiosity" led to the decision to combine these under "curiosity" to emphasize continuous personal development

• "Joy" was identified as an often-overlooked but essential element of their approach to women's empowerment

These rich conversations revealed that values identification wasn't just about selecting words, but about articulating the principles that made One Girl's approach distinctive. The team recognized that truly living these values would require specific actions and commitments—insights that would inform how the values were ultimately described in their final statements. Together, we drafted and finalized value statements for each.

5. STRATEGIC REFINEMENT:
Crafting Language with Purpose

The rich insights gathered during the workshop provided the foundation for developing comprehensive strategic language. This wasn't simply about polishing word choice—it was about crafting statements that would authentically capture One Girl's purpose, aspirations, and guiding principles while addressing the gaps identified in the initial analysis.

Each statement was carefully refined with specific strategic enhancements:

Mission Statement:

• Added context about the social challenge

• Expanded inclusivity through more comprehensive language

• Specified the organization's methodologies

• Strengthened active voice

• Clarified both personal and community impact

Vision Statement:

• Maintained consistency with the mission's inclusive language

• Incorporated purpose discovery as a central theme

• Added language about holistic empowerment

• Emphasized the journey aspect of personal growth

• Reflected global aspirations from the workshop

Values Statements:

• Developed each prioritized value into a comprehensive statement

• Used active language that conveyed commitment

• Included specific manifestations of how each value appears in action

• Created descriptions that connected to One Girl's programs and approach

The screenshots below show the detailed refinement process, with annotations explaining the strategic reasoning behind specific language choices.