Canadian Cancer Society turns around finances after cutting excess fat post-merger

‘We really pushed ourselves to re-examine every type of cost’

The Canadian Cancer Society says last year’s merger with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation has paid healthy dividends, taking the charity from running a substantial deficit to a solid surplus.

The charity was carrying a $24.8-million shortfall on its books prior to the Feb. 1, 2017, merger.

But the revamped organization, which operates under the Canadian Cancer Society banner, has posted a nearly $8-million surplus as of Jan. 31 for the year after it joined forces with the Breast Cancer Foundation.

“That is really the result of a tremendous amount of efficiencies and savings that we’ve done through a series of tactics throughout the year, primarily in the area of operating and fundraising costs,” said president and CEO Lynne Hudson, who previously held that title with the foundation.

To attain those savings, the amalgamated charity moved to a consolidated business model, creating a national board of directors with representatives from each province and centralizing operations like IT, human resources, communications and marketing at head office, instead of having those functions organized separately in multiple regional offices, as was the case premerger.

The charity also targeted redundancies in the combined entity, cutting a quarter of staff — going from about1,060 to just under 800 — and closing 27 offices.

The reduction has left it with 65 offices across all 10 provinces.

“We did not want to lose that pan-Canadian grassroots and community presence,” Hudson said of the organization’s commitment to provide services and programs in all parts of the country.

“We feel that passionately, as cancer patients are coming to us and looking to us for support.

“It’s where our volunteers work and operate.”

Sara Oates, executive vicepresident of finance and operations, said the charity had to take a hard look at itself in order to turn around its financial picture.

“We really pushed ourselves to look at the organization differently and really re-examine every type of cost,” she said.

Like many others in the philanthropy sector, the charity found itself contending with dwindling revenues as a result of falling donations — a phenomenon dubbed “donor fatigue” that arose in part from the proliferation of health charities competing for benefactors’ dollars.

“Last year, obviously, we weren’t living within our means,” Oates conceded.

“We were running a deficit ... We were spending 112 per cent of what we raised last year, and it’s really not sustainable.”

Still, just a year after the merger, the charity was able to bump up the percentage of how much it designated for “mission costs.”

The proportion allocated to funding for research, services and programs for cancer patients and their families and advocacy efforts rose to 58 per cent — up three percentage points from the previous year.

“The 58 per cent represents a total of $103 million,” said Oates, with 47 per cent of that money going to research and 50 per cent to programs and services.

“And that’s an increase we’re really, really proud of.”

The CIBC-sponsored Run for the Cure — an event started by the foundation — brought in about $17 million last year.