Charities Strategy and Impact Report 2021
4.2 Aims
Key findings
Over 600 distinct aims were set across the
five-year period - an average of just over 15
unique aims each for this timeframe
The largest charities by income set a higher
number of ambitious, high-level aims
Low-level aims made up around 86 per cent
of those set over five-years
45 per cent of all charities set at least one
high-level aim within the five-year period
The number of aims set per year varied greatly across
organisations, with many charities operating on medium
or long-term strategies where consistent aims were
carried over year-to-year. But this longer-term approach
to goal-setting and strategic direction did not prevent
these charities from occasionally introducing additional,
usually short-term, objectives into their broader plans.
Big hairy audacious goal
A big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG
(pronounced bee hag), is defined as
a clear and compelling target for an
organisation to strive for.
An example of a BHAG
The term was coined in the 1994 book Built to Last:
Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim
Collins and Jerry Porras. A BHAG is a long-term goal
that everyone can understand and rally behind.
BHAGs are meant to excite and energise people in
a way that quarterly targets and lengthy mission
statements often fail to.
The most powerful example is President Kennedy's
1961 declaration that "this nation should commit
itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is
out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to earth," which led to the historic moon
landing in 1969.
Collins has since developed the concept of a BHAG.
Because they are supposed to pull people out of
short-term thinking, the time frame for a BHAG is
supposed to be at least ten years, if not more. The
BHAG should have a reasonable chance of being
achieved, be action-oriented and exciting, and pull
a team together. By thinking big, it should push
people to achieve something that wouldn't have
been possible without the shared commitment.
In the commercial sector BHAGs have a proven
record of motivating businesses to achieve success.
In the charity sector, having a BHAG has been
cited as a way of driving charities to take risks, and
energise fundraising. A high-profile example is
NSPCC's goal to end cruelty to children in the UK and
its subsequent Full Stop campaign in the late 1990s.
By 2009 it had raised £250m as well as significantly
raising awareness of child abuse. An early example
of a charity explicitly stating a BHAG was SolarAid.
In 2014 it stated its ambition to eradicate the
kerosene lamp from Africa by the end of the decade.
Having this near-impossible goal helped the charity
to double its income in the following year. The idea
is that by taking a step out of their risk-averse
comfort zones, charities can achieve their objectives
more quickly and efficiently.