Note: This guest post is from Laurel McCombs of the The Osborne Group. Thanks, Laurel!

My colleague Bob Osborne and I have been fortunate to conduct several presentations this year on how to create an anti-racist fundraising program.

As I reflect on these sessions, I want to use this post to emphasize an area that many organizations treat as an afterthought. This oversight is holding them back and keeping them from fully embracing the important work that must be done.

I’m talking about values: good old-fashioned, organizational-management-101 values.

Values-driven: It’s a good thing

Combined with a compelling mission and vision, values are arguably the most important driver of community engagement, commitment, and change. They are core to understanding the expectations you have for everyone in your nonprofit family.

When used effectively, values are a key element in recruiting and hiring staff, engaging board members, attracting and retaining donors and volunteers, and solidifying unity and common cause throughout the organization.

As you take on the important and challenging work of building an anti-racist fundraising program, it’s crucial to refine and articulate your values.

Using values to manage pushback

Perhaps, like us, you’ve had these experiences or heard these stories.

• Donors pushing back on organizational stances around racial justice and equity
• Board members feeling uncertain about how to move forward
• Staff feeling unsupported and frustrated as they delay needed changes due to the potential reactions of stakeholders

While values alone won’t solve these problems, they create the foundation for tackling tough conversations and establishing clear expectations. Once you’ve discussed your values and vetted them with key stakeholders (including your board), you’ll experience a lot less ambiguity about where your organization stands.

And – while we aren’t trying to push anyone out – clarifying your values provides an opportunity for those who disagree to move on to other ventures.

Clarifying your values, step by step

How do you create and articulate values that are meaningful and support your organization in committing to racial justice and equity? A few things to keep in mind:

1. Bring all voices to the table. Include all types of stakeholders, especially those who have felt marginalized in past. Design an inclusive process – seek input on the process itself from diverse stakeholders – and execute it by keeping those people engaged.

2. Make your values relevant to your mission and vision. Not all values statements are created equal. Yes, integrity, teamwork, generosity, and kindness are appropriate, but they could apply to any organization.

What specific values are central to achieving your mission and vision? Why? Choose values that not only underline your commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, but also connect the dots by showing how that commitment helps to fulfill your mission.

For example, courage – the courage to challenge norms and speak one’s truth – could be a relevant value. Another (especially for those who typically hold power) might be humility.

3. Apply and integrate. This is the real work: living your values in everything that you do. Express them clearly in your communications. Incorporate them into your hiring procedures. Make them a vital part of board recruitment and on-boarding. Map a plan for communicating them to donors and volunteers.

Your values aren’t simply a statement or an attitude – they are a useful tool.

4. Define accountability. As you work on developing or refining your values, discuss with stakeholders how you will hold the entire organizational community accountable. Consider and agree on how you will handle members who are unwilling to embody these values.

Every situation is different. While it’s impossible to anticipate every potential scenario, create policies for how situations will be handled and how the organization will maintain commitment to its values when faced with challenges.

Yes, this takes work

If values are going to play their crucial role in making your organization more equitable, inclusive, diverse, and anti-racist, you need to invest the effort to make them relevant to your mission and vision, and meaningful to the people currently in your community – plus those you wish to bring into your nonprofit family.

This is also a collective effort across the nonprofit community. Once we’ve clarified our values, we should stand proud of who we are; hold each other accountable for the values we share; and embrace the understanding that strong, clearly articulated values can lead to a bigger impact, both individually and collectively.