The job of a nonprofit is to create a supporter.

Years ago, I came across a quote from Peter Drucker that stood out to me: “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

As an entrepreneur, this frame really resonated with me: The collective services our company offered created a customer—a buyer focused on innovation and technology, growing their business, and increasing engagement and market share in specific industries. Instead of relying on a product or our services to do the work, we focused on how we could serve someone, better understand their needs, and deliver consistent value over and over again.

Over the last few years, I’ve explored and adapted this concept of “creating and keeping a customer” with nonprofits in two ways.

The first is a focus on creating supporters for a future that belongs to everyone. It involves taking a holistic look at the brand (where decisions are made about the organization), audiences (understanding the supporters an organization needs), and communications (how those decisions are delivered to people). How does an organization serve its supporters as well as the people it works on behalf of?

The second—keeping a customer or supporter—is about exploring how they can create a future in which their organization is irrelevant and no longer needed. In other words, widespread support should ultimately lead to the end of a nonprofit’s existence, and that’s the purpose of a nonprofit. Like it or not, every nonprofit is pursuing this purpose in some way. It’s counter-intuitive, but it’s a frame that’s worth exploring.

It’s a duality that’s hard to ignore. And yes, it’s much more of a thought exercise than a concrete destination. (Although it could be, and I’m always interested in building new models for nonprofit brands.) When I’m working with nonprofits on a mission statement or a long-term vision, there’s one question that I like to explore together: What needs to be true in the world that will make your organization irrelevant and unnecessary? Often, this is an easier pathway than trying to decide what the world looks like, how it acts, what it says, or how it feels based on a set of values and services. If you can determine what must be true, you’ll easily be able to articulate your vision and what the future looks like that you’re working toward.

If there’s ever been any doubt about the uniqueness of the nonprofit sector, this exercise cements it. No other sector says: “Let’s be so successful that we put ourselves out of business.” It’s also one of the most interesting aspects of working with nonprofits. Try it for yourself: What needs to be true in the world that will make your organization’s existence unnecessary?