Canadian SPCA depends on fundraiser
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
MONTREAL––Ten months after losing the Montreal pound contract to
the for-profit firm Berger Blanc, the embattled Canadian SPCA needs to raise $1
million this fall––nearly triple last fall’s figure of $370,000––just to stay open.
For now, the CSPCA is struggling just to raise the capital to print and mail
appeals. As of late September, the staff hadn’t been paid in three weeks, while
executive director Alex Wolf had paid himself just $600 in the 20 weeks since he
assumed the position in a board coup––and was pinch-hitting at the adoption desk.
His immediate predecessor was paid $75,000 a year.
The 10th executive director in the past 10 years, Wolf has already sur-
vived two attempted ousters; the resignation of seven veterinarians; and the resigna-
tion of six out of 15 board members, including president Caroline Kipling, who had
served just four months. Another former board member, Pauline Maroulis, said the
resignations were “because we just couldn’t put up with Alex’s personality,” but the
many conflicts he inherited, among unionized and volunteer staff, board members,
and English and French-speaking personnel weren’t his doing.
“This is a classic turnaround situation,” Wolf said, “where you have to
make a lot of cuts, make a lot of people wait for money, and where you have to
reorganize without having resources.”
