(Adopted by the Board of Directors, March 15th, 2001)
Introduction
Breast Cancer Action Montreal (BCAM) recognizes that the effectiveness of our work in public education, advocacy and coalition-building depends on the organization's credibility, particularly in the eyes of its members and the people it serves. The funding sources of any advocacy organization can appear to affect its political legitimacy, particularly in situations where corporate support raises the possibility, inference or perception of a conflict of interest.
BCAM's corporate contributions policy aims to reconcile the need to ensure the long-term financial health and longevity of the organization with the desire to avoid potentially real or perceived conflicts of interest related to corporate giving.
Guiding Principles
The following principles will, therefore, guide BCAM's corporate fundraising strategy:
- In order to provide unbiased information about the primary prevention of breast cancer, its diagnosis and treatment, BCAM must be free of any appearance of conflict of interest. Accordingly, BCAM will not accept financial support from corporate entities whose products or services are known to BCAM to include cancer diagnosis or treatment.
- BCAM advocates the precautionary principle that calls for acting on the weight of the evidence that links environmental carcinogens to breast cancer and other cancers rather than waiting for absolute proof of cause and effect. Consistent with this position, BCAM will not knowingly accept funding from corporate entities whose products or manufacturing processes directly endanger environmental and/or occupational health or may possibly contribute to cancer incidence, nor will BCAM knowingly accept donations from corporate entities that work to weaken or circumvent environmental and occupational regulations that would protect the public health and might decrease cancer incidence.
- BCAM cannot endorse organizations or events that accept funding from sources unacceptable to BCAM, but is willing to cooperate when goals are similar.
Unacceptable Corporate Contributions
Based on these guiding principles and BCAM's mission statement, BCAM will not knowlingly accept funding from the following categories of corporations. (The following list is not necessarily comprehensive and may be modified.)
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Chemical manufacturers
- Biotech and agri-business
- Oil companies
- Tobacco companies
- Private cancer diagnosis and treatment facilities
- Companies that develop and market cancer-related technology
This policy does not require BCAM to engage in exhaustive review of every corporation in order to trace the sources of income, but recognizes that the activities of many corporations change rapidly , and that BCAM will periodically need to evaluate new information about corporate donors and the implications of that information. We encourage our members and others to provide information about corporate activities that they believe have a bearing on this policy.
BCAM will continue to focus its fundraising efforts on individual giving, either through direct contributions or through workplace giving programs, as well as corporate donations from industries other than those listed above. This policy shall not be construed to prohibit BCAM from accepting: (a) matching gifts from corporations that are initiated by donations from an individual corporate employee or a group of corporate employees, or b) corporate contributions made in memory or honour of someone, at the request of the honoree, or of the deceased or her/his family.