
Alison Lyons and Paul Howes, president of Merck Frosst,
which is backing the Canadian Cancer Society's fundraising
drive.
If Alison Lyons ever had any doubts, they've disappeared.
For four years, Lyons sat behind a desk at the Bank of
Montreal sifting through petitions from charities and cultural
organizations hoping the bank would help them out.
This year, she's on the other side of the desk, trying
to convince Quebec corporations to give generously to the
Canadian Cancer Society.
"Oh yes," she said with a laugh, "it is
definitely easier to give money away than to get it."
And it's getting tougher. People involved in fundraising,
and those who watch it, said charities are faced with a
two-fold problem: there are more people chasing fewer dollars.
According to figures rounded up by the Canadian Centre
for Philanthropy corporate donations slipped to $481 million
in 1992 from $496 million in 1991.
Rose van Rotterdam, a spokesman for the centre, said the
Conference Board of Canada - which tracks corporate donations
- expects the 1993 figure will be down by about 5.5 per
cent.
The recession, declining profits and a lack of business
confidence left companies with less money to give. And,
van Rotterdam said, individuals - faced with increased
levels of unemployment - are no better off.
Number of donors slipped slightly
Statistics Canada said Canadians gave $3.2 billion to
charity in 1992, up 3 per cent from 1991, but the number
of people making donations slipped marginally to 5.5 million.
"Those who can give are digging a little deeper," she
said, but there just aren't as many who can give. And again,
she isn't expecting 1993 figures will show any improvement.
Throw in the fact that cash-strapped governments are also
cutting back on grants and other forms of funding, she
said, and you've got fierce competition for every charitable
dollar.
It isn't just the large charities and the large corporations
that are feeling the crunch. Zane Korytko, sales director
for the YMCA in Notre Dame de Grâce, said even very
local fundraising efforts are having a tough time.
There isn't much of an industrial base in NDG, he said,
adding that dozens of local groups "all with just
causes" are going after the same "mom-and-pop
operations."
Those little businesses are struggling these days and
don't have much to give, he said. In the past, the YMCA
would have had 20 to 30 business sponsors, he said, now
it's got only two or three.
So when the Y kicks off its fundraising drive this spring
it, too, will be looking for corporate help - specifically
from banks.
But Korytko knows there's fierce competition out there,
and he doesn't know how successful the Y will be.
To people like Alison Lyons, all this means one thing:
you've got to be good.
"Gone are the days when companies just write a cheque
and say, we're nice, this is cancer," she said. "They
expect something for it - they're entitled. It's quite
a business getting corporate sponsorship."
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Depended on individual
gifts
Lyons had an additional hurdle to cross. Although the
cancer society is a well-known charity in Quebec, it has
always depended on individual donations.
However, Nicole Magnan, executive director
of the society's Quebec branch, said individual donations
haven't been doing as well as hoped in recent years, so
it is entering the corporate field for the first time.
Lyons was hired to head that drive, and is focusing her
attention on one major event: the first Daffodil
Ball, scheduled for April 6 at the Chalet Mont
Royal.
It's a major undertaking, she said, and it has to be perfect.
It has to hold its own against another half-dozen or so
fundraising balls in the city, and establish itself as
a regular spring-time event.
So she's rounded up dozens of volunteers, including professional
decorators, to turn it into a beautiful event. Hundreds
of companies have contributed goods ranging from wine for
the meal to gifts for the guests.
But even if the ball sells out - that would be 400 to
500 guests at an average of $250 a ticket - it still won't
make enough money to justify the effort, she said. So she
and a team of about 30 volunteers have gone knocking on
doors.
It was here that Lyons' experience on the other side of
the desk came into play. You can't just approach companies
cap in hand, she said, you have to be able to convince
them they will get something in return - such as good publicity
or a worthy event to entertain clients at.
You have to present a business plan, detailing how the
money will be used and specifying that it will go to worthy
projects. And you have to choose the right companies to
target.
More than a dozen companies have agreed to be sponsors,
but the largest donations are - for the most part - coming
from companies in the medical field.
One of the first companies approached, and the first to
sign on with a healthy $10,000 donation, was Merck Frosst
Canada - a pharmaceutical company in Kirkland.
Al MacDonald, spokesman for Merck, said the company decided
to jump on board early to give the organizers a boost,
and because the request does fit in with Merck's strategy
for donations.
Companies have to have a donation policy, he explained.
They are inundated with requests from all over, and have
to decide what types of charities fit their corporate philosophy.
"For every ecstatic phone call, there are 30 form
letters saying we're sorry," he explained.
Merck isn't interested in high-profile, marketing-type
sponsorships such as a Grand Prix race, he said. It focuses
on medical research, which has seen significant cutbacks
in government spending.
The cancer society fits that profile because 48 per cent
of its funds go to research. Another 17 per cent goes to
education programs, 18 per cent to patient services and
only 17 per cent to administration costs.
MacDonald said Merck also makes most of its donations
in Quebec, although it does sometimes support projects
elsewhere. It recently donated to a hospital in Newfoundland
since "everybody knows what their economy is like
right now."
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