The Maidstone Group Home Society is once again gaining national attention as a nominee for a prestigious Donner Award.
Nominees were described as being "among the best-managed non-profit social service agencies nationwide" in a press release earlier this week.
"The Donner Awards honour Canadian non-profit organizations that maintain an unparalleled standard of excellence in the management and delivery of their services, despite the budgetary constraints all non-profit groups face," said Niels Veldhuis of the Fraser Institute. The Donner Awards were established to recognize non-profit social service agencies in 1998, encouraging best practices and increasing public confidence in the non-profit sector.
Award applications from 514 non-profit agencies from across the country were received this year. They were evaluated in 10 areas including the use of staff and volunteers, program costs and innovation. Twenty-one organizations received nominations in seven categories. The winner of each category will receive $5,000 while the highest performer overall will be presented with the William H. Donner Award for excellence and $20,000. There will also be a $5000 Peter F. Drucker Award for Non-Profit Management presented to one of the organizations.
The Maidstone Group Society is nominated under the category of Services for People with Disabilities with Community Living Peterborough and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada-Calgary and Area Chapter. The only other Saskatchewan organization up for an award is the Saskatchewan 4-H Council in the education category.
The Maidstone Group Home Society received nominations in 2006 and 2008 and representatives of the organization attended the awards ceremony in Toronto. They did not win the award, but met many inspiring individuals and have benefited both financially and through gifts in kind due to contacts made at the awards. This year only the winners will be attending the ceremony to be held on Nov. 4 in Toronto.
Celia Brendle, executive director of the Maidstone Group Home Society said the application process was a lot of work, but she is pleased with the nomination. She doesn't know who initially put the society's name forward but once an organization receives their first nomination they are invited to apply again.
She is patiently waiting for the announcement of the winners and said "we can't place any worse than third."
"I'm really proud of this organization, when the stats have come out we've had the lowest per capita cost numbers meaning we're able to look after people for a lot less than other organizations. We've also had the highest number of volunteers per capita than any of the organizations from across the country," said Brendle.
She added that in the first application the volunteer hours were equivalent to one hour for every woman, man and child living in Maidstone.
The growth and success of the Maidstone Group Home Society is obvious in the community and has proven it doesn't take a large agency in a big city to make a difference and be an example for organizations across the country.
