In Danya’s early years, our mission stated, “Danya strives to promote health and facilitate economic and personal growth around the world through the creative use of new technology.” At that time, we were developing a number of relatively small health education projects and Web sites, primarily funded by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Danya was a unique company from the beginning, combining health communications with innovative technology and evaluation research. It was during this time that we coined our company tagline, “Shaping Healthy Futures.”
We later modified our mission to say: “To be a global leader in health and education technology-enabled solutions.” This mission statement effectively describes the core work we do, but it is still difficult to sink one’s teeth into this somewhat abstract mission. We also articulated our vision statement, “Innovative solutions for social impact,” which provides a motivational punch to our mission.
Although our work environment was seen as excellent, our organization was developing, our business processes were improving, and we were exceeding our annual growth rate goals, we were concerned about making a difference in the world. Our senior management team, with input from staff, began a process to answer these questions: What are our major goals as a company? What do we really want to accomplish? How can we really make a difference?
This process—which was quite easy since it was only a matter of capturing what we were already doing—resulted in Danya’s Social Impact Goals:
We have now grown to a size and strength where we as a company, together with our government and private partners, can truly have a national and global impact on these goals. Since we have begun to communicate our goals throughout the company, it has been like an “Aha!” experience—“This is what we are doing.” “This is how we are making a real difference in the world.”
We ask you to embrace Danya’s social impact goals. With our combined talent, teamwork, and tenacity, we can make a difference!
