Let Us Pat Ourselves on the Back

A note from our executive director, Ann Fisher:

There are lots of ways to measure how effective we are. We get lovely responses on our client satisfaction surveys. We see how many cases we open. We review our training evaluations. We see the results of our advocacy in the Governor's budget. But one thing I'm always looking for is whether we do better for our clients than we do for ourselves. In other words, are our clients better off because funders give us support, rather than giving money directly to our clients?

You'll be glad to know the answer is "yes." I just looked at our case outcomes for fiscal year 2010. Even if we disregard all the wills and powers of attorneys we prepared, all the debt we got discharged or forgiven, all the Medicaid, Medicare or Illinois Cares Rx insurance coverage we got for people, all the clients for whom we secured Lawful Permanent Resident status, or indeed everything except our work for clients seeking Social Security or long-term disability benefits, our clients still came out ahead. Last year, as a result of our representation, disabled ALCC clients began receiving regular annual income totaling $657,168. In addition, our clients received retroactive benefits totaling $461,253 -- for a total amount of $1,118,421 to our clients. That's a heck of a lot more than we received from our funders.

Rah, rah, rah, team ALCC!