National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS)

The Mason Group's founder, Joan Mason, CFRE, was asked to become fundraising counsel for the New York/Denver based national organization that raises money for programs and research for the NMSS.

Introducing private sector gift income into the mix

Joan became the Annual Campaign Director and the goal was to broaden the base of funding and provide a balance between gift income generated from special events and broaden the base to include the private sector of corporations, foundations and individuals.

The NMSS is the major organization serving over 350,000 persons and their families who suffer the affects of the disease each year. They raise operational, program and research money nationwide and are the leading advocates for curing the disease.

The organization was decentralized into over 90 chapters nationwide with the National Office being located in Manhattan and the Training Center in Denver, Colorado. Joan was located in Denver at the training center and her first task was to develop a staff to begin the effort. She very quickly hired an associate director, a prospect specialist and a planned giving specialist plus support staff and we were off and running!

The challenge appeared to be daunting due to the heavy dependency and culture that had developed around special events, however, once we began to look at the incredible resources of transitioning the people who participated in the events nationwide, it looked doable!

Training of the NMSS staff nationwide

A curriculum that Joan had taught extensively at The Fund Raising School at Indiana University was adapted and the 800 chapter employees began to receive this training as an integrated process within the context of their in-service training when they were hired. Additionally visits to each chapter were planned to enable training on site for the staff and board's of directors. In the four and a half years that we provided counsel, over 450 people received the fund raising fundamentals training. Additional courses were developed in major gifts and planned giving as well as prospect research. Each person that completed the four-class series was given a Certificate of Fund Raising Excellence.

As the training was going on, the Annual Campaign staff directed by Joan out of the Denver office began to utilize the major donors from the extensive direct mail campaign run out of the Denver office and the $500+ donors became major gift prospects.

During the time that we provided counsel to NMSS, the Annual Fund Campaign grew from $8 million annually to a $20 million. After the assignment was completed, we continued to provide training for the chapters across the country and through the Training Center in Denver.

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