Nonprofit Core Values Examples, With What Each Looks Like in Practice
Nonprofit core values are three to six commitments that say how an organization behaves while pursuing its mission. Good ones are written as observable behaviour: not 'integrity' but 'we disclose conflicts before every decision'. Below are 40 examples for ten types of nonprofit, with how to write your own.
Nonprofit core values are the three to six commitments that describe how an organization behaves while it pursues its mission. The mission says what you do; the values say how you do it, and what you will not do even if it would help. Below are examples for ten kinds of nonprofit, each with the behaviour that shows the value in practice, followed by how to write your own, the common mistakes, and where to use them.
Values, mission and vision: the difference
- Mission: what you do, for whom and why. See mission statement examples.
- Vision: the world you are working toward.
- Values: how you behave on the way there, including when it is inconvenient.
A useful test: a value should sometimes cost you something. A food bank that values dignity will spend more on letting clients choose their own food than on pre-packed boxes. If a value never makes a decision harder, it is decoration.
Nonprofit core values examples by type of organization
Every example below was written for this page, rather than copied from a real organization’s statement, and each is paired with what it looks like in practice. Borrow the structure, not the words: your values should come from how your own people already work.
Food bank
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Dignity | Clients choose their own food, and nobody is asked to prove they are hungry. |
| No waste | Every donated item is sorted within two days, and what we cannot use goes to partners, not landfill. |
| Reliability | Pantries open at the advertised time, every time, including in bad weather. |
| Partnership | We plan with the churches and schools that host pantries, not for them. |
Youth mentoring programme
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Consistency | Mentors commit to a year, and we match no one we cannot support for that long. |
| Safety first | Every volunteer is screened and trained before meeting a young person. |
| Youth voice | Young people help choose activities and sit on the programme committee. |
| Belief | We talk about what each young person can do next, not what they lack. |
Arts organization
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Access | Every season includes free and pay-what-you-can performances. |
| Artistic risk | At least one new work each year, even when it will not sell out. |
| Local roots | We hire local artists first and pay them on agreed dates. |
| Welcome | Front-of-house staff greet first-time visitors and explain what to expect. |
Health clinic
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Respect | Patients are seen as people with lives outside the clinic, and asked about them. |
| Equity | Fees are set on a sliding scale, and no one is turned away for inability to pay. |
| Evidence | Treatments follow current clinical guidance, reviewed every year. |
| Privacy | Health information is shared only with consent or where the law requires it. |
Environmental group
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Science | Our positions are based on published evidence, and we say when it is uncertain. |
| Long view | We judge projects by their effect in twenty years, not by this year’s headline. |
| Shared ground | We work with landowners, farmers and businesses, not only with people who agree with us. |
| Action | Every campaign gives supporters a specific thing to do. |
Animal rescue
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Every animal counts | Each animal has a named carer and a written plan. |
| Honesty with adopters | We tell adopters about health and behaviour issues before they decide. |
| Care for carers | Fosters get a check-in call every week and a number to ring at any hour. |
| Responsibility | We take in only as many animals as we can care for properly. |
Advocacy organization
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Led by those affected | People with lived experience of the issue sit on the board and lead campaigns. |
| Accuracy | Every claim we publish is sourced, and we correct mistakes publicly. |
| Independence | We take no funding that comes with conditions on what we say. |
| Persistence | We stay with an issue until it is resolved, not until the news moves on. |
Faith-based social service
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Hospitality | Everyone who comes in is welcomed by name, whatever their faith or none. |
| Service without conditions | Help is never conditional on attending worship or sharing our beliefs. |
| Stewardship | We account for every gift as carefully as we would want our own money handled. |
| Hope | We plan with each person for the next six months, not only for today. |
Adult literacy programme
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Respect for learners | Adults set their own goals, whether a driving test, a job form or reading to a grandchild. |
| Patience | Learners progress at their own pace, and nobody is moved on before they are ready. |
| Confidentiality | We never tell anyone who is learning to read without the learner’s permission. |
| Results | We record each learner’s goal and whether they reach it, and report the results every year. |
Volunteer-run community group
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Open door | Anyone who lives here can join, and meetings are held when working people can attend. |
| Shared work | Jobs rotate, so no one carries the group alone. |
| Transparency | Accounts are shared with members every quarter. |
| Fun | We celebrate what we have done together, at least twice a year. |
Words that make weak values, and stronger versions
| Weak | Why it fails | Stronger |
|---|---|---|
| Excellence | Every organization claims it; it guides no decision | We publish our results each year, including what did not work |
| Integrity | Too abstract to check | We disclose any conflict of interest before a decision, and the person concerned leaves the room |
| Passion | Describes feelings, not behaviour | We follow up every enquiry within two working days |
| Innovation | Often means nothing changes | We test one new approach each year and keep it only if the results justify it |
| Community | Unclear who or how | Programme decisions are taken with the people who use the programme |
| Teamwork | Says nothing about how | Staff and volunteers plan together, and volunteers are invited to every planning meeting |
The pattern is the same each time: replace an adjective with an observable behaviour. “Integrity” is a word anyone can claim; “we disclose any conflict of interest before a decision” is something a board member, a donor or a journalist can check. Your conflict of interest policy is where that particular value becomes a rule.
How to write your organization’s values
- Start from stories, not words. Ask staff, volunteers, board members and, if you can, the people you serve: tell me about a time this organization was at its best. Then: a time it fell short.
- Find the patterns. What do the best stories have in common? Those are your real values, whether or not anyone has written them down.
- Draft three to six. More than six and nobody remembers them; fewer than three rarely captures how you work.
- Write the behaviour for each one, in a sentence starting “We…”. If you cannot, the value is not ready.
- Test them against a hard decision. Take a real dilemma from the last year, such as a donor with conditions or a cut to a programme. Would the values have helped decide it? If not, revise.
- Have the board adopt them, with staff involved in the drafting, and record the vote. See nonprofit board of directors.
- Review them every few years, ideally with the strategic plan.
A fill-in values template
Copy this for each value and complete it with the people who will live by it:
[Value in one or two words]. We [the behaviour, in one sentence a newcomer could check]. That means we will [one thing you will always do] and we will not [one thing you will refuse to do, even when it would help]. You can see it when [an everyday example].
Fill in all four parts and the value will be specific enough to guide a decision. Leave out the “will not” and it usually is not.
Format options
- A list of single words with a sentence each, as in the examples above. The most common and the easiest to remember.
- “We” statements only, such as “We tell adopters the truth about every animal.” Harder to shorten into a poster, but harder to ignore.
- Value plus “what we will not do”, which makes the trade-off explicit: “Independence: we will not accept funding that comes with conditions on what we say.”
Where to use your values
- Hiring. Put them in job adverts and ask interview questions about them; candidates read them. See nonprofit jobs.
- Volunteer and board recruitment. They tell people what joining will be like. See how to recruit volunteers and how to recruit board members.
- Policies. Each value should show up somewhere in your policies, and the newest ones, such as an AI use policy, are a good test of whether they guide anything.
- Funding decisions. Values decide which money you will turn down. Write that down before the difficult offer arrives.
- Grant proposals and the annual report, briefly, with an example of each in action. See grant proposal template and annual report template.
- Communications. Values shape tone as much as content; see nonprofit marketing plan.
- Donor relationships. How you thank and report to donors is a value in action; see donor stewardship.
Common mistakes
- Copying another organization’s values, which tells everyone you did not do the work.
- Picking words that sound good on a website and guide nothing.
- Writing them without the people who do the work, so nobody recognises them.
- Listing ten, so none stands out.
- Never mentioning them again after the launch, so they are forgotten within a year.
- Values that conflict with what the organization rewards, which teaches people to ignore them.
A short exercise for a board meeting
If you have twenty minutes on a board agenda, give each director your current values and ask two questions: which value did we live up to best this year, with an example; and which did we fall short of, with an example. Collect the answers and read them out. The values with no examples on the good side are the ones to rewrite or drop, and the ones with examples on the bad side are the ones to talk about. It is the fastest way to find out whether your values describe your organization or only your website. For examples of how other charities describe themselves, see nonprofit organization examples, and if you are still shaping what the organization is for, start with a theory of change.
Questions people ask
What are core values for a nonprofit?
Three to six commitments that describe how the organization behaves while pursuing its mission, each best written with the behaviour that shows it in practice.
How many core values should a nonprofit have?
Three to six. More than six are rarely remembered, and fewer than three seldom describe how an organization works.
What is the difference between mission and values?
The mission says what you do, for whom and why; the values say how you behave while doing it, including what you will not do.
What are examples of nonprofit core values?
Dignity, reliability, safety, access, equity, accuracy, independence and transparency are common, but each is only useful with a sentence saying what it looks like in your work.
Who should write a nonprofit's values?
Staff, volunteers and board members together, ideally with people the organization serves, and then adopted by the board.
Should values be in the bylaws?
Usually not. Bylaws set governance rules; values belong in the strategic plan, policies and hiring materials, where they can be reviewed more easily.
How often should nonprofit values be reviewed?
Every few years, ideally alongside the strategic plan, or when the organization changes significantly.
How do I make values more than words on a website?
Write each as an observable behaviour, use them in hiring and decisions, and ask the board each year where the organization lived up to them and where it fell short.
Can we copy another nonprofit's values?
Use others as inspiration for the format, but write your own from how your people actually work, or nobody will recognise them.