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."

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."