Organizational soul-searching

Recently I began a grant writing project to help raise funds for a local emergency services purchase.  The process got me thinking, what if every organization had to write a grant application every year?  What an organizational soul-searching process that would be.

Grant applications, I’ve discovered, really ask you to ask some hard questions and paint the big picture in terms of organizational responsibility.  Why does your organization exist?  What need does it serve?  How is success measured?  Why do you deserve assistance?  How will you make good use of money if it’s given to you?  If all you can say is that you exist to make a profit, then in essence you’ve got nothing to say.

I think every organization should have to answer questions like that periodically; not just organizations that are applying for government assistance, but every organization.  And they should have to answer the questions as if a very important cash infusion depends on the quality of the answers.

How would your organization answer?  Do you serve a need, or do you only exist to make a profit?