Click here to read the complete article 92 – October, 2025 By Andy Vance, MBA, CAE Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly-Effective People, taught leaders to “put first things first.” Or, as he put it more memorably: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. For a nonprofit organization, the “main thing” is expressed in its mission statement—the reason it exists in the first place.