Corporate donations are the backbone of many programs and events run by non-profit groups that allow those organizations a profile they might not afford otherwise.
But the nature of financial relationships with corporations can raise questions and conflicts, especially when donors sell products that clash with, or profit from, a charity's message.
Some of the uncomfortable questions that go along with corporate ties confronted the Heart and Stroke Foundation earlier this month when Canadian director and actor Sarah Polley announced she was pulling her name from a short film supporting the foundation up on learning it was sponsored by Becel margarine.
In a statement announcing her decision, Ms. Polley indicated that she felt misled about the nature of the film and the fact it would be used as a promotional tool.
The incident points to the risks non-profit advocacy organizations can face when aligning with for-profit entities.
"It's a very fine balance between staying true to your mission and trying to get change to happen and not being compromised in the process," said Alex Gill, principal of Mendicant Group, a consulting firm to the non-profit and charitable sector who also teaches corporate citizenship at Ryerson University in Toronto.
It's a challenge faced by virtually all non-profit groups that rely on donations.
Take the Heart and Stroke Foundation's commitment to eliminating cardiovascular disease and promoting healthy living. In January, the group released a report warning that Canadians, and young people in particular, face growing risks of cardiovascular disease and stroke due to a range of factors, including obesity.
But one of the Heart and Stroke Foundation's biggest donors is the Boston Pizza Foundation, the fundraising arm of the restaurant chain whose signature meals contain generous amounts of fat, calories and sodium. On Valentine's Day, the restaurant made heart-shaped pizzas and promised partial proceeds would go to Heart and Stroke and two other charities. Two slices of the restaurant's medium pepperoni pizza has 400 calories, 14 grams of fat and 900 milligrams of sodium.
The Canadian Cancer Society, meanwhile, has become increasingly vocal in recent years about the need to protect the population from potential environmental carcinogens, such as chemicals in the air, water or soil or potential toxins in everyday consumer products.
Yet, the society's list of corporate donors includes oil and gas producers such as Suncor Energy, Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc., which have been criticized by environmentalists for polluting the environment and releasing carcinogens through the burning of fossil fuels.
It also accepts significant donations from Procter & Gamble Co. and Johnson & Johnson Inc., even though several of their products have been flagged by environmental groups. For instance, a report released last year by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a U.S. non-profit group, found that many types of popular children's and baby bath products sold by those companies, and several others, contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and 1,4-dioxane, a probable carcinogen. Formaldehyde is released as a preservative in the bottles over time. Although 1,4-dioxane is not allowed to be added to personal-care products sold in Canada, it's found in many goods as a manufacturing byproduct. Health Canada said last year it is safe at those trace levels.
The Canadian Diabetes Association, like many other non-profit groups, offers a range of medical research grants funded by a handful of pharmaceutical companies who produce diabetes drugs. Although the grants are "unrestricted" - meaning the drug company has no say in how research is conducted - some members of the medical community have long criticized such approaches because they say they foster a subconscious bias.
It's difficult to know the total amount of funding non-profit groups receive from corporations, since they don't publicly release that information. All the charities contacted declined interviews.
In an e-mailed statement, the Canadian Cancer Society said it follows a policy when dealing with corporate partnerships to avoid conflict of interest and other ethical issues. The policy states that corporate donors must be a good "reputation match" and that the cancer society won't explicitly endorse a product. The statement said six per cent of the group's donations in 2008-2009 were from corporations, a figure that does not include corporate sponsorships of events or other activities.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation said in an e-mailed statement it approves each corporate donor on a case-by-case basis and is grateful for all financial support. The statement noted that corporate money has helped pay for 500 automated external defibrillators in Canadian communities.
But observers say non-profit groups need to carefully consider the message they're sending when they lend their name to a for-profit company or take funds from a corporation that clashes with its goals.
"It may end up convincing people that that name represents something healthy or positive when it doesn't," said Chris MacDonald, a philosophy professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax and author of the Business Ethics Blog. "If I were a key stakeholder of a health charity and found out it was aligning itself with an unhealthy product, I'd worry about the stability and the future of that charity and for its reputation."
The problem, according to Mr. Gill, is that few charities know how to properly harness relationships with corporations in order to further their cause. Instead of simply taking donations or sponsorship dollars, non-profit groups should engage with the corporate sector and challenge their practices, he said.
World Wildlife Fund Canada regularly works to change the behaviour of some of its corporate partners. Last year, the group secured a promise from Loblaw Cos. Ltd. to procure all seafood sold in its grocery stores from responsible, sustainable sources by 2013. The company also donates money and part of the proceeds from its five-cent plastic bag fee to the organization.
"[Businesses]are part of the problem and part of the solution," said Hadley Archer, vice-president of strategic partnerships at World Wildlife Fund Canada. "We really feel that engaging the business sector is fundamental and critical to tackling some of the conservation challenges we have in front of us."