Special to Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 2:00AM EDT

 It might surprise you that the not-for-profit sector is larger and more important to Canada than the oil and gas sector. It might also surprise you that the not-for-profit sector is in the midst of a major identity crisis.

This crisis starts with the sector’s name. After all, what other sector of the economy refers to itself by what it’s not? Grocery stores don’t call themselves “not furniture stores.” It creates an expectation that we should not be profitable. This negative naming has created a severe disadvantage for us compared with the other sectors in how money is raised, how it gets spent and who gets to “profit” from success. A better name is the “social profit sector.”

If profit is a measure of value created, then the reality is that most charities are immensely “profitable” from both a net revenue and impact perspective. We need to raise more money than we spend in order to fund our missions and our causes. We deliver profit – value – to society through an extraordinary array of institutions, programs and services. So our net profit – analogous to the profit of a private company – is in delivering social value.

But current guidelines from the Canada Revenue Agency suggest a 20-per-cent to 35-per-cent target fundraising cost ratio. Imagine the government telling a bank or software company what its expense targets should be annually. But this is what happens in our “not-for-profit” sector. At best, this stifles a charity’s current operations and its potential for greater impact in the future. At risk is fundraising innovation, prudent risk taking, launching social enterprises, creating new initiatives, enhancing service, creating brand equity – the very things lauded in the other sectors. At worst, it focuses public and policy attention on a difficult performance metric and creates a very short-term view of “investment” and “return.”

The real value of a charity is in the value we create for society on a daily basis: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and, in the case of the Princess Margaret Hospital, searching for better treatments and conquering cancer in our lifetime. In order to deliver our social profit, we need to invest in our people, programs, places and, yes, even fundraising.

Our lotteries are the largest private source of funding for cancer research in Canada. Since their launch in 1996, more than $225-million has been raised, and 100 per cent is devoted to cancer research. This investment has propelled the Princess Margaret to be ranked third in the world in research performance as measured by citations in high-impact journals. This is our impact, and society is the beneficiary. This is our social profit.

So it’s time to rename the “not-for-profit” sector to what it really is: the social profit sector. Rethinking charities as social profit organizations will recognize our impact and the beneficiaries of our collective good work. It will allow for new ways of thinking about profit – financial and social – that combine the best of the other sectors for the benefit of all Canadians.

Rather than focusing on fundraising or overhead costs as the metric of choice, social profit organizations will need to develop a new set of high-performance measures that incorporates fiscal balance and social impact. After all, shouldn’t demonstrating impact and social value be the name of the game? A renaming will finally unleash a new way of thinking and working in the world of philanthropy that is so crucial to our long-term success.

The social profit sector is charity for the 21st century and a name that can make everyone involved proud.

Paul Alofs is president and CEO of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Toronto.

It is uncanny sometimes how life has a funny way of bringing people together to make a difference. That is how I feel now working at The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation with working Paul, and the other great people here, everyday! Paul and I first met about 20 years ago. He was working at a Marketing and Promotion Group and I was working at Nabisco Brands. Wow have we come a long way and our stars were clearly meant to align, again. Almost 3 years ago I got re-acquainted with Paul as I searched for something more meaningful to apply my skills to. At our first meeting in many years, Paul asked me to tell him my story. My story about my connection to the cause - Cancer. I told him about my journey with my mother, a 25 year Breast Cancer patient of Princess Margaret and how I had taken off 6 months to support my mother and my dad - in mom's final journey on this planet. I told him about the pain, the agony of watching someone you love slip away a bit each day, about why I chose to move in with my parents to support them and how it had changed me. We both had tears well up in our eyes. He said, "You must come and work with me." I said, "You are right." We hugged each other and I knew that I had found my destiny. To work as hard as I could to help in my way "To conquer cancer in our lifetime". Friends ask me how I like my work. Words cannot describe how unique and privileged I feel to be a part of this team. To help in my own way, to meet such engaged people at the hospital, to support those who want to help us. People of all ages and walks of life, who are passionate about the same thing I am. We are bound by our cancer journeys, we are fighting a good and a noble fight. We are still losing loved ones but we will and must not give up. Life is too precious, as are our memories of the loved ones we have lost to this disease.

Whether it is our WEBC supporters, our Riders in our Ride to Conquer Cancer, our lottery customers, our volunteers, they all care and they are making a difference.

My very good friends, Stan and Grazina, have both been diagnosed with cancer since I joined the Foundation. I have supported them in their cancer battle. They are survivors and we are closer than we have ever been. The care they received at PMH was unquestionably the best available. I am so proud of them and proud of the doctors and others who cared for them. You will know what I mean when I say - when cancer comes into your inner circle - you will know it and you will want to help.

So get involved - give of your time, give what you can - The Princess Margaret is the best cancer research centre I know - here you have real people - doctors, researchers, nurses, physicists, technicians and others all 100% focused on cancer and changing the statististics that we must not accept - for our daughters and our sons sake.

"An Inspired form of giving love breathes life into the heart and brings grace to the soul"

I read this quote recently and I must say it was a total relief to me. I have been volunteering at Princess Margaret for nine years now and I was always lost for words when it came to explaining how I felt about my work.

I am a Healing Beyond the Body Volunteer and work in Palliative radiation, Chemo Daycare and The Pencer Brain Tumor Centre. I sit with patients while they get their treatment or wait for their appointments. I get them juice or wrap them in warm blankets. I answer questions; help navigate them around the hospital and most of all give the much needed emotional support to them and their families.

Many people will comment on how hard it must be to be with people who are facing cancer and being surrounded by the emotions that go along with that. I always find people are surprised when I say I love it…it is my passion.

I am not a trained physchologist or social worker nor do I have any letters after my name. I am however an expert on caring for and loving cancer patients. I am an expert because of the people who cared and loved me, my family and my Dad while he was going through his treatment, and end of life palliative care. They taught me, cancer taught me, my Dad taught me and I am grateful for that education as it has truly enriched my life as crazy as that sounds. Cancer took my Dad who I miss everyday but it gave me life. I told my Dad before he died that I was now going to put him in my heart and we were going to do something together and this is what we do.

I am grateful for each and everyday I go into Princess Margaret and I get the privilege of a stranger opening up and sharing their life with me. We never have any walls to bring down, we don’t have anything to hide behind, and we know why we are both there. We just have ourselves and the present moment. All that matters are those feelings that belong to the heart. Whether they are fear based thoughts or they are loving grateful thoughts they are profound, honest and very real.

Being privileged to walk down the road of a perfect stranger’s life and to love them instantly literally…

Breathes life into my heart and brings grace to my soul.