Canadians often view social services as the government's responsibility, so when Chilliwack Community Services—a social service agency in Chilliwack, British Columbia—decided to expand their fundraising program, the decision brought some interesting reactions—and results.

Chilliwack—a community of 70,000 located sixty miles east of Vancouver, BC—is bounded by agricultural areas and mountains that give it a separate and distinct feeling. But Chilliwack has all the normal problems of any community, which is why Chilliwack Community Services has such an important role to play. This broad-based agency serves the needs of all residents—from pregnant mothers to young children, the mentally ill, the disabled, the unemployed, and senior citizens.

Chilliwack Community Services has been around for eighty years. When they started, they had no government funding. Now, 50% of their funding comes from government contracts and 25% comes from fees for services.

However, the government doesn't fund preventive programs for early childhood development, and more funding is needed for family intervention and youth services. Also, people often fall through the cracks in social service support, like one middle-aged woman with a mental disability who didn't know how to fill out forms to get government assistance or the man with a substance abuse problem who couldn't access his worker's compensation benefits. With the help of Chilliwack Community Services, this man got access to his benefits, enrolled in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and was retrained for a new job as a flag person.

The agency, whose mission is "changing lives...for life," sees about 20,000 people a year—some just once for information they need and others multiple times as they participate in ongoing programs.

But when people in the community gave to charity, they often didn't think of giving to Chilliwack Community Services, said Heather Rollins, the community relations director.

A new strategy was needed. After attending a Benevon 101 Workshop, the social service agency started offering tours to the public, which caused people to look at the organization in a whole new way. "What we heard from 90% of people was, 'I never knew you did so much,'" said Dale Cuthbertson, the executive director.

At their fundraising Ask Event^™, Chilliwack Community Services raised $75,000 in gifts and pledges from 166 people, including a dozen who gave $1,000 a year for five years. "It was a great surprise to us," said Rollins of the results. "Even right up until the end, I was thinking this may not work."

Cuthbertson said it was a real leap of faith for the agency to use this fundraising system since Canada generally has a less direct fundraising style than the U.S., but he was of the opinion, "Let's try it."

"For any given agency, it may or may not work, but you won't know until you try," he said. "For us, there was no downside because of all the people we were communicating with."

He said that while the system is simple, it took a lot of "blood, sweat, and tears" to pull off. "If someone's going to try this model half-heartedly, it's not going to work," he warned.