'MO - October 2008 - (Page 10)

community Click here to comment on these stories. ‘MO BIZ A Monthly Business Proﬁle Sponsored by the GSBA MGS Consulting Services: Saving the World, One Organization at a Time By Bryan Ochalla When Barbara Grant graduated with a degree in international relations from the University of Notre Dame in the mid-1980s, she had one goal in mind: Save the world. She and her partner in business and in life, Maureen MacCarthy, have been trying to do just that since they started MGS Consulting Services Inc. eight years ago. As principal consultants at the South Seattle-based ﬁrm, Grant and MacCarthy help individuals, small businesses and corporate and non-proﬁt organizations “connect with the wider community,” as Grant puts it, through executive coaching and consulting, meeting evaluation and facilitation and strategic analysis and planning. PHOTO BY SHERRY PALMITER Maureen MacCarthy and Barbara Grant of MGS Consulting. Grant and MacCarthy also help their clients give back to the wider community by donating a percentage of their fee income to environmental groups around the world (thanks to a partnership with 1% for the Planet, www. onepercentfortheplanet.org). “We built philanthropy directly into our business model,” Grant says. “Whenever we’re working for a client, we’re also working for all of the non-proﬁts we donate to.” MGS Consulting Services’ clients don’t subsidize those donations through inﬂated fees; on the contrary, many of the ﬁrm’s clients pay less than market value for the services offered by Grant, MacCarthy, their two full-time employees (Organizational Consultant Kari Hanson and Program Assistant Liz Read) and a handful of independent consultants collaborators. Clients are shown a sliding fee scale, Grant says, and “we ask them to pay what they think we’re worth and what they can afford.” That’s appealing not only to the ﬁrm’s smaller clients—such as Explorations in Math, a Seattlebased non-proﬁt that has just a handful of staff members—but larger ones—like Grant’s former employer, Microsoft—as well. “They know that by working with us and paying at the top of our scale they’re helping support a number of non-proﬁt organizations and small businesses that otherwise couldn’t afford our services,” Grant says. MGS Consulting Services is philanthropic in other ways, too. For instance, Grant says, “one of our main goals is to increase the capac- ity of the people we work with so they don’t have to call on us again for the same advice or assistance.” Grant suggests MGS Consulting Services is “like that mechanic who sends you away when you don’t really need your brakes ﬁxed and who never has a shortage of cars in the shop because of repeat customers who refer that mechanic to all of their friends.” The analogy seems to be a perfect ﬁt given the ﬁrm’s longtime association not only with Microsoft, but with the Greater Seattle Business Association, the Pride Foundation and many other Puget Sound-based organizations (MGS Consulting Services also has many national and international clients). “We owe our success to our clients and all of the other people who have supported us throughout our careers,” Grant says. “We’re very fortunate. We’re fortunate to live in a city and county and state that not only have allowed two women to build a business together but have respected our civil and human rights as well,” she adds before bemoaning the fact that she and MacCarthy also live in a country “with a limited form of democracy.” Still, the couple, their colleagues and their many clients are doing what they can to make that country—and the world—a better place to live and work. “Our goal,” Grant says, “has always been to help people make a difference.” Visit MGS Consulting on the Web at www. mgs-us.com, or call 206.760.1051. For more about the Greater Seattle Business Association and its other proud members, go to www. theGSBA.org. Bryan Ochalla is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in DiversityInc, Seattle Sound and The Advocate. 10 celebrating seattle’s gay community http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org http://www.mgs-us.com http://www.mgs-us.com http://www.theGSBA.org http://www.theGSBA.org http://www.bowman4law.com http://www.smith-law.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 'MO - October 2008

'MO- October 2008 Contents Letter From The Editor Voices ’mo-BIZ: MGS Consulting Services GLAAD To Be Aboard Pet Project Instant Activist Sports: Jet City Hoops Tips Off Pro-Equality Candidates Philadelphia Is All About The Love Parenthood Form & Function: Strip It Off For The Holidays Gay City Health Project: Gay Men’s Health Summit The 13th Annual Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Capitol Hill Guide SceneOut: People@Places Q&A With Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark ’mo-Single Q&A

'MO - October 2008

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