Since 1948, the MS Society of Calgary has been hard at work fulfilling its two-tiered mission: finding a cure for MS and enabling people affected by the disease to enhance their quality of life. So far they’ve amassed eight Donner Awards for Client Services, two for overall excellence and the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Management. As a consistent contributor to MS research — $900,000 this year alone — the organization is proving itself a leader in every way.

Executive director Mark Wolff spoke with CharityVillage® about what drives them forward.

How are you able to fill the unique needs of those struggling with MS?

We have a mandate not to duplicate existing services. We offer unique social and recreational programs because this disability differs from someone who may have a spinal cord injury, for example. In our recreation program, we have a bowling program where there’s a special stand where the balls are placed and you line them up in the lane, and the person with MS gets it rolling down the ramp and off it goes. In the summertime, we partner with another agency and offer a disabled sailing program. We also have yoga and Tai Chi.

We have something called Crafts and Conversation so people get together and work on craft projects; it offers some social interaction. We have something called Coffee Break where people can play games. We have a Nintendo Wii too and last week someone brought in a karaoke machine. And we offer education events — there’s a “newly diagnosed” session for people looking for information — and annual research updates, where a researcher gives a talk on the newest stuff going on in the field. Finally, we offer counseling services: support groups and one-on-one support counselling.

What are the primary challenges you face right now?

The recent recession and shaky recovery has certainly been a challenge. It didn’t really have an impact overall on our fundraising but it really just affects people’s long-term confidence about what’s going on. Because we get very little government funding, we raise most of our money ourselves. And for our pledge-based events like the MS Walk and the Rona MS Bike Tour, you count on people to register and raise money by hitting up friends and family. When you have a recession, you wouldn’t expect a huge drop-off, but I remember talking to people who said donors who gave them 50 bucks last year, this year only gave 20. You get the trickle-down effect that comes through.

How are you dealing with the recessionary impact?

You have to remember to stay focused on the mission; you don’t want to get diverted from what your real purpose is. And you want to look after your existing donors so you have to stay in touch with them. We put an enhanced focus on our marketing efforts and are also trying to enhance our use of social media. It’s a work-in-progress. We’re on Facebook and twitter, but we don’t have the backbone to really go out there and use it the way Obama did when he got elected. But we’re trying. At least we’re aware and we’re plugging away. We try our best to communicate with past participants, our donors and our volunteers.

Talking about volunteers, they seem to be a tremendous asset at the organization.

Volunteers are critical to our success. Like most charities, we couldn’t do what we do without them. We have about 500 and they’re key. Some come to our bowling program, others are part of our fitness programs, a lot are used in our fundraising events and, of course, they’re on our board and board committees.

Coming from the for-profit sector, you bring a unique approach to your work, one that has given you high marks on Donner’s strategic management scorecard. Explain.

I’ve always tried to implement business practices that make sense in the nonprofit world. We don’t run like a business because we’re not one, but we do run in a business-like fashion. So we have an integrated planning process. We have an overall strategic plan and we have business plans that support that work. And then we have individual work plans that are all tied back to the business plans and the strategic plan. So everyone knows what we’re trying to accomplish and they all know where they fit in. They don’t feel like they’re just working in a vacuum trying to figure out why they’re doing something. Now they know why and how they fit into the grand plan. Having clear plans in place and goals and objectives really makes a difference.

How does being a part of the nonprofit versus the for-profit sector affect your work?

One of the challenges that some people have when they go from for-profit to the nonprofit sector is that in the for-profit world, every time you serve a customer you get paid. In our world every time you serve a client, it costs us money. You just need to be aware that you can’t bring some of the things businesses do to our side of the street because we have limited resources. If you’re a big company and you’re selling a product, maybe you can put some incentives in to increase sales or put in another shift etc. But we don’t have those options.

I think one of the challenges the whole sector always faces is that the only true asset we all have is our reputation. So you always have to keep that top-of-mind. And you have to remember that most of us are using money that people have given to us so there’s a huge trust factor that you always have to be aware of. And you have to make sure you’re not wasting people’s money and that you’re actually making a difference. One thing I really like about the whole Donner program is they’re focused on agencies to prove they’re making a difference.

The Donner Awards is Canada’s largest nonprofit awards program. An award valued at $5,000 is presented to a winning organization in each of seven different categories. One of these organizations is also granted the William H. Donner Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services, valued at $20,000. Learn more and apply this year at www.donnerwawards.org.

Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is also president of Elle Communications and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.

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