The Globe and Mail

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.