Toronto Youth Development

A year ago Brian Keaney embarked on a new challenge. After 25 years in the corporate world, he decided to take on the position of executive director of Toronto Youth Development (TYD), a non-profit charity that offers an academic and sports enrichment program for inner city, underprivileged kids in Regent Park, the poorest community of Toronto.

"I had been working with children on a volunteer basis for many years," says Brian, who previously ran sales and marketing departments for various corporations and also owned a direct marketing and business development firm.

"I love kids and my heart really goes out to children who are in need. The kids of Regent Park are very much at risk. That really bothers me. So when this opportunity came along I decided that I had done enough on the corporate side and the satisfaction of earning money wasn't enough. So I made the move and I have never been happier."

Toronto Youth Development runs a six-week summer day camp that teaches kids the value of athletic development, a good education and study skills, and provides them with opportunities to take part in fun excursions throughout the city. TYD also operates an afterschool program where children are given help completing their homework, tutoring in math and English, sports activities, mentoring, and nutritious meals.

In taking over the organization Brian was tasked with the challenge of dramatically expanding these programs so that TYD can help more children in the Regent Park area. His plan is to double participation in both the summer day camp and afterschool program to 150 kids each in 2008.

The organization is funded primarily by corporate sponsorship and donations, so growing these programs require an ambitious fundraising strategy. Brian decided to introduce an outbound fundraising call centre at the office to solicit new sponsors. This would require more phone lines and Internet services -- but at a cost a small charity could afford.

However, he quickly realized that his current communications provider was not able to offer the services he wanted at a competitive price.

"We didn't require the mass of communications services a big company requires and they didn't offer anything suited to our needs as a small business, in terms of services provided and the cost-effectiveness of these services," explains Brian. "As a small business I felt like we weren't big enough to be important to our communications provider."

So Brian called Allstream Small Business and the representative offered him the choice of four bundles, plus a list of add-ons, so he could build a package tailored to his specific fundraising call centre needs.

He chose Allstream's Small Business Phone + Net 2 Bundle which includes four phone lines (phone, fax, point of sale), two calling features, 2,000 minutes of North American long distance, business listing in yellow and white pages, high speed Internet with ten e-mail accounts, security (anti-virus, anti-spy and firewall software) and domain name registration.

"I am getting a lot of value here," says Brian. "The bundle system is very easy to manage and it is cost effective. And because you can customize the package I can build on the bundle as Toronto Youth Development grows and its communications needs change."

The Allstream package is a substantial cost savings over the competitor's pricing. But just as important, Brian points out that Allstream understands the needs of a small company.

"The other communications company was going to charge me separately for phones, Internet and each feature," he explains.

"Clearly they don't care about small businesses by making it easy on them. When you have a small staff you don't have time to deal with all these separate bills," says Brian. "With Allstream Small Business, I now get everything I need for one monthly fee, on one bill, and I had a dedicated business representative who responded to my calls right away. It is nice to have a corporate partner like Allstream Small Business to help me grow and expand this charity. They care about small businesses and most importantly a charity like ours that looks after at-risk children."