Area Women in Business: Gail Benson, Non-profit

Gail Benson

Born: Gladewater, Texas, 1951

Education: B.S from Lamar University, Texas, Masters in Education – Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas

Business: Executive Director - Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley

Community volunteering: Member, First Presbyterian Church Session (council), Member, Theatre B Board of Directors

From working with children as a special education teacher, teaching education at the college level to co-founding Penny & Pals (educational presentations with music and theatrics) and currently as the Executive Director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley, Gail continues to work at making the world a better place for kids. Gail has been leading the local Ronald McDonald House Charities for 10 years.

Gail came to Fargo in 1990 after being asked to do Penny & Pals presentations (musical and theatrical educationsal presnetatins) in the schools. Eventually she started to do development work on a part time basis for the Ronald McDonald House in Fargo and the job turned in to a fulltime executive director position. She says the position is a fun blend of working with adults and kids to make the world a better place for kids.

Ronald McDonald House Charities exists to provide families (sometimes traveling great distances for medical help) with housing when their child is ill in the hospital or receiving medical care. When a child is critically ill, the last thing parents want to think about is where they will eat and sleep at the end of a day after being at the hospital. The two area Ronald McDonald House locations offer a quiet and comfortable place for families to relax, sleep and share with others going though the same worries.

To lead the organizations efforts to meet the needs of families, a typical day for Gail usually includes reading and sending emails and making phone calls first thing in the morning, and then working on the most urgent project which many times is an upcoming special event to raise awareness or funding for the nonprofit. As the day continues, she checks in with her staff and then follows up with more phone messages.

Gail is also in charge of the organizational details of the nonprofit organization from interviewing prospective employees to writing grants. With constant demands on her time and attention during the work day, Gail finds that be able to set priorities every day and being flexible enough to reassess and reset priorities is important for her to do to be affective in her position. Throughout the days and weeks, Gail draws on the inspiration that her father conveys – steady going, encouraging, keeping things in perspective….

Besides overseeing the operations of the Ronald McDonald house Gail is in contact with the families staying at the House who are going through very difficult situations with their children’s medical needs and offers a calming, compassionate and caring kindness to those families. Everyday, Gail lives her favorite saying, ”Kindness grows.”

To continue to provide a solid foundation for the caring organization the current trends that Gail sees in the nonprofit world are that the small to medium size organizations are being operated more like a business with an emphasis on more involved strategic planning, and continuous expanding goals and new horizons being pursued for the charity.

Across the world (245 Ronald McDonald Houses in 26 countries), Ronald McDonald Houses are increasingly operating in a very sophisticated fashion with the latest technology and a high degree of accountability to the families they serve and the donors that help support the mission. Locally, Gail works diligently to identify needs of the organization and works to meet them. Some of Gail’s future goals include furthering the depth of the organization’s strategic plan to launch a broader vision that will enable the organization to make things better for kids beyond the current services.

Continuous learning takes place through the local workshops that Gail attends. She actively networks with other Ronald McDonald House executive directors and enjoys the noncompetitive sharing of information between locations. She attends regional and international House conferences for specific charity information as well as presentations on nonprofit operations. All of Gail’s efforts adds up to helping to make the world a better place for kids.

Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner