ALS United Ohio

The mission of ALS United Ohio is to provide comprehensive support and advocacy for people with ALS and their families, while advancing research for new treatments and an end to ALS.

To create a world without ALS.

Goal One: Increase the Chapter's capacity for growing patient caseloads by expanding access to loaned equipment, reimbursement grants, and expert case management services.

Goal Two: Upgrade fundraising and event systems and the website platform to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and expansion.

Goal Three: Collaborate with the Northern Ohio Chapter through the engagement of a lobbying firm to obtain chapter funding from the State of Ohio.

Executive Director and the Director of Philanthropy are members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Both attend virtual or in-person leadership conferences available from The ALS Association National Office. The Director of Philanthropy is also a member of the Central Ohio Planned Giving Council. The Care Services Director attends virtual or in-person care services leadership training from The ALS Association National Office.

After the turmoil of 2020, we thought that 2021 would have fewer external challenges for the organization. Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, COVID has continued to plague our programs and fundraising, and the economy is worse now than in the past two years. But, due to nimble and effective leadership we’ve not had to reduce patient services…in fact, we’ve added to them. This past year, our organization has become better at continuing to learn and adapt. We’ve learned to pivot quickly when things don’t work as expected. When the answers are no longer black and white, we’ve become comfortable working in the gray areas. We’ve made it a regular practice to come together to brainstorm to find new ways to provide services. And we’ve become adept at the cycle of planning, implementing, evaluating – and adapting. All with donor generosity as our only source of revenue. It’s only because of our careful stewardship of these donor dollars over the years that we have been able to weather the storm of COVID-19 in ways that other nonprofits could not. Our reserves, created from a generous estate gift in 2012 and enhanced with increased giving after the Ice Bucket Challenge, continue to build over time. Today, those reserves are putting money back in the pockets of our patients. This past year our Quality of Life Reimbursement Grant, which provides patients with annual reimbursements for disease-related expenses, has increased from $1,000 per person to $1,200. We’ve also added a program for patients to access free smart home technology, and we are adding a new part-time care services coordinator in October 2022.