Every organization worth building starts with a reason, but “why do we exist” is a hard question to answer cold. This worksheet breaks it into smaller questions that build on each other, the same way we’d walk through it with you in a conversation. Answer honestly, in your own words. By the end you’ll have a first draft of your purpose statement: something true, something yours, and something you can keep working from.
It takes about 10 minutes. It’s free, there’s no signup required, and you’ll have your draft by the time you’re done.
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Not “everyone” or “anyone who needs it.” Picture one real person or one real kind of organization. What’s true about them specifically?
Small business owners who are good at their craft (baking, coaching, landscaping) but have never had time to figure out their branding or website, and feel behind because of it.
Families in our county who’ve just become homeless for the first time and don’t know where to start or who to call.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
Think about the difference between before you and after you. What’s true for them after working with you that wasn’t true before?
Before us, they had a business they were proud of and a website that didn’t show it. After us, their online presence finally looks and sounds as good as their actual work does.
Before us, they were facing the scariest week of their life alone. After us, they have a caseworker, a place to sleep tonight, and an actual plan for next week.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
This is the part that’s yours alone. Is there a story, a moment, or something you saw that made this matter to you specifically, not just as a good idea for a business?
I spent years watching talented people undersell themselves because they didn’t have the design background to make their work look as good on paper as it is in person. That gap always bothered me, and I’m good at closing it.
I grew up in a family that came close to losing our housing more than once, and I remember exactly how much it helped that one person treated us like people instead of a case number. I want to be that for someone else.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
Strip away invoices, funding, and job titles for a second. What’s the piece of this work you’d find a way to keep doing anyway?
Sitting down with someone and helping them figure out how to describe what they do in plain language. I’d do that at a kitchen table for free and probably have.
Sitting with someone in that first scared phone call and making sure they know a real person heard them and is already working on it.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
Not a slogan, just true. What do you actually do differently, or care about more, than the alternatives your audience could choose instead?
Most agencies our size want to hand people a template and move on. We sit with the actual person’s story first and build the brand around that, even if it takes longer.
A lot of intake processes are built for the system’s convenience first. We built ours so the first conversation is about the person, and the paperwork happens after, not instead of, that.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
Be specific, not dramatic. Who’s counting on this existing, even if they’ve never said so directly?
The clients we’ve already told “we’ll make this look like you,” and the version of them that’s been waiting to feel proud of how their business looks online.
Every family who calls next month expecting someone to pick up, and the partners in our county who refer people to us because they trust we’ll follow through.
Answer this one to keep going, even a sentence or two is enough.
This came straight from your own answers. Read it out loud, change anything that doesn’t sound like you, and keep going until it does. This is a draft, not a final version, and that’s exactly what it should be right now.
You’ve changed an earlier answer since this draft was assembled. Refresh it to pull in the update, or leave it as-is if you’d rather keep your edits.
This box is fully editable. Smooth out anything that reads awkwardly, especially the first sentence, it’s built from your before/after answer and often needs a light touch.
Download your draft as a PDF and keep it somewhere you’ll actually look at again: pinned above your desk, saved in the folder where your other founding documents live, wherever you’ll see it. A purpose statement only helps if you come back to it.
You just did the hardest part on your own, and that’s worth something. If you’d like to send your draft over, we’ll read it, tell you honestly what’s landing and what might still be fuzzy, and talk through what a good next step looks like for you. No pitch, just a real read from people who do this for a living.
Got it, thank you for sending this over. We’ll read it and get back to you soon with an honest, no-pitch response.
If putting this into words made you want to build the rest of it, that’s what Forging Tomorrow is for.
The raw material behind the draft above, kept here for reference.