How Unum Group Volunteers Helped Mission Working Dogs Improve Their Accounting System Knowledge Through Common Impact’s SBV Programming

Mission Working Dogs is on a mission to help people with disabilities live more independently through the support of professionally trained service and therapy dogs. But behind the scenes, running a growing nonprofit with nearly 80 dogs and just two full-time staff members isn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially when it comes to financial management. That’s where skills-based volunteering comes in.  

In this interview, we talk with Lauren King, client and services coordinator at Mission Working Dogs, about her experience participating in a flash consulting event with volunteers from Unum Group, designed and organized by Common Impact. The volunteers brought financial and business expertise to help Mission Working Dogs tackle a long-standing challenge: making sense of QuickBooks and setting up sustainable systems to track their growing budget. 

Lauren shares more about Mission Working Dogs’ impact, what it was like to get one-on-one time with finance pros, and why other nonprofits shouldn’t hesitate to ask for (and accept!) skilled help. 

Going through a personalized and facilitated skills-based volunteering program like this one was valuable. 

What is the mission and impact of Mission Working Dogs? 

Our mission is to improve the lives of people with disabilities so they can live more independently. Many people see dogs as just pets, but with proper training, these dogs provide crucial support. The biggest thing we hear is that our service dogs help people re-engage with life by assisting with tasks and giving them confidence and security. 

For example, someone with PTSD might struggle to go to the grocery store. A service dog can help by creating physical space between them and others, easing anxiety and preventing triggers, and making outings more manageable. Our dogs also assist individuals with severe mobility impairments by performing everyday tasks like opening doors, retrieving dropped items, or helping with balance. We train two types of service dogs: those for PTSD and those for mobility assistance. Knowing that we’re giving people a new outlook on life and a companion to go through it with is incredibly fulfilling. 

Could you share a specific success story that highlights the impact of Mission Working Dogs? 

Christy Gardner, our founder, is the driving force behind Mission Working Dogs. She started the organization because of her experience with her first service dog, Moxie. After an injury that resulted in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, Christy was given a long list of things she’d never be able to do independently again. But with Moxie, Christy could reclaim her life in ways doctors never expected. With Moxie and now current service dog Doug by her side, Christy can comfortably and safely go grocery shopping and attend community events with confidence. 

One of our recipients, Josh, was able to take his family to the fair for the first time in years, thanks to his service dog, Eleanor. Trained to recognize signs of anxiety and hypervigilance common with military PTSD, Eleanor kept a watchful eye on their surroundings, created physical space in crowds, and gently redirected Josh when she sensed rising stress. With her by his side, Josh could focus on being present with his family and finally enjoy a day out as the dad and husband he wanted to be. 

Mission Working Dogs recently partnered with Common Impact and Unum through a skills-based volunteering program to tackle an accounting challenge. Can you share why solving it is important to your mission? 

We needed help improving our QuickBooks system. Since I don’t have an accounting background, managing the organization’s finances has been challenging. We tracked everything in a Google Sheet, which worked when we were a tiny nonprofit with a small budget and four dogs. But now, with 78 dogs and nearly half a million dollars in revenue, we need a more efficient system. 

Upgrading our financial tracking makes our operations run much more smoothly. It allows us to focus on quality interactions with our clients instead of worrying about whether we logged a gas purchase or missed a transaction. 

What were the most valuable insights or recommendations you received from the volunteers?  

We had a pre-meeting with a Common Impact engagement manager to discuss our challenges, priorities, and goals and bring them to the skills-based volunteers we would be working with on the day of flash consulting, the volunteers already had a solid understanding of what we needed and how to address our challenges, which made the process smoother. 

Overall, the volunteers were knowledgeable, helpful, and patient. One of the volunteers had experience using QuickBooks for a different type of business, and they emphasized that we should customize it to fit our needs. It was reassuring to hear that we wouldn’t “break” anything by experimenting. Right after our meeting with the volunteers, Christy and I spent a few hours playing around with the software to create customizations that fit our needs. With the rules we set for past events, expenses, and income from those are settled, which has helped my peace of mind and freed up time so I can focus on working with our clients.  

I’ve looked up QuickBooks tutorials on YouTube in the past, but it’s not the same as having one-on-one time with volunteers who have finance expertise and experience with accounting tools. It was incredibly beneficial to ask real-time questions and reference those notes later. We’re in the process of implementing the volunteer’s recommendations. It’s been a learning curve, but we’re progressing and getting more comfortable working with the system daily and feel confident that annual reporting will be more efficient.  

If another nonprofit were considering a skills-based volunteering project, what advice would you give them? 

If there’s a group of people willing to help you with something you’re not confident in, take full advantage of it. Don’t limit yourself when creating a project for the skills-based volunteering engagement. Think about what tool or knowledge would benefit your nonprofit right now.  

In our case, we worked with a Common Impact engagement manager to craft our project challenge and description, and Common Impact and Unum worked together to find volunteers with the right skills for our project. Going through a personalized and facilitated skills-based volunteering program like this one was valuable.  

I’d tell other nonprofits not to hesitate to work with professionals in an area they need help with. You’ll gain useful knowledge and fresh perspectives to help your organization grow.