Founded in 1981, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of British Columbia (ALS BC) aims to provide support to people affected by ALS and their families to ensure they have the best quality of life. ALS BC is one of eight independent charities that belong to the ALS Societies across Canada. The charity states that roughly 3,000 Canadians are currently living with ALS. The disease slowly paralyzes people by preventing the brain from communicating with muscles. Over time, people living with ALS will lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow, and breathe. In F2020, ALS BC helped 498 people. The charity has three main programs: Support Services, Research, and Outreach and Public Awareness. 

Support Services is ALS BC’s largest program accounting for 70% of program spending in F2020. This program contains eight subprograms: equipment loan, transportation support, support groups, psychological treatment services, day of caring for caregivers, Camp Alohi Lani, care connections, and mobile clinics. The charity loaned 1,344 pieces of equipment to ALS patients in F2020. The charity has recently begun purchasing lower-cost equipment for patients instead of loaning to avoid expensive delivery charges. In F2020, 85 support group meetings were held for people affected by ALS. ALS BC provides free psychological support counselling to ALS patients, their families and caregivers. The program supported 35 families with 241 sessions in F2020, a 23% decrease over 315 sessions in F2019. To combat covid-19 restrictions the charity also made 484 phone calls to patients in F2020. ALS BC’s care connections program connects caregivers to patients that need assistance with services such as meals and rides to appointments. 41 families used this program in F2020. ALS BC’s mobile clinics provided virtual treatments to patients who have travel concerns. Lastly, ALS BC runs camp Alohi Lani for youth who have a parent or grandparents living with ALS to allow them to meet others in similar circumstances. In F2020, the camp was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Research accounted for 21% of program spending. The charity reports giving $203k to research through ALS Canada. ALS Canada funded 11 research studies in F2020. In F2020, ALS BC launched ALS BC PROJECT HOPE, a research endowment fund aimed to provide access to ALS clinical trials in BC through a partnership with the University of BC. 

Outreach and Public Awareness accounted for the final 9% of program spending in F2020. ALS BC published three articles that generated over 50,000 impressions each. The charity also had five interviews on ALS research and aired a short infomercial on TV and radio to promote ALS Awareness month in June. 

ALS BC has donations and special event revenues of $3.4m in F2020. The charity received $1.1m in government funding, representing 20% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 5% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 6% of donations and special events. This results in total overhead spending of 11%. For every dollar donated, 89 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

ALS BC has $7.5m in funding reserves, of which $1.9m is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover 635% or over six years of annual program costs with current reserves.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of British Columbia for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on August 18, 2021 by Brenleigh Jebb.