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Duperrault takes over the Centre on Philanthropy chairmanship

After more than a decade as chairman of The Centre of Philanthropy, Cummings Zuill yesterday handed over the reigns to ACE Chairman, Brian Duperreault.

The announcement was made following a meeting of the Centre?s Board of Directors during which time the Centre?s second report from The Urban Institute, ?A Portrait of Charities?, was released.

The Urban Institute is based in Washington D.C and the report consists of information collected in Bermuda ? from publicly available sources and from questionnaire responses from Bermuda charities during 2003 and 2004.

The purpose of the report was to present a descriptive portrait of the sector and the Urban Institute found the current data was much more robust than the data used in the first report 2002.

The Urban Institute found a substantial increase in useable financial data with 335 of the 345 registered charities participating ? compared to 206 charities in 2002.

Questionnaire results from just over half of these charities provided updated information on staffing, use of volunteers, programmes offered and management problems.

The report found the 335 charities who filed financial data have total annual revenues of $84 million, total expenses of $71 million and total assets of $213 million.

This updated report excludes the Bermuda Hospitals Board with expenses of $120 million annually and also excludes the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust because it was newly created.

Some of the key findings in supporting charities vs. operating charities found that 21 charities were identified as supporting and provided funds, or grants to other charities to operate programmes. These include foundations.

These supporting charities had a total revenue of $23 million, expenses of $18 million and assets of $69 million.

Expenses for operating charities totalled about $53 million.

Of the 345 operating and supporting charities that participated, 111 were classified as human services, 60 as educational, 59 fell under ?other?, 50 were classified as public and societal benefit, 35 as arts and culture and 30 as health.

There was a wide disparity between the types of charities and their sizes, as measured by annual expenditure.

32 percent of the charities were classified as Human Services, however, they only represent 21 percent of the total expenses in the sector.

Education organisations represent 17 percent of Bermuda charities and reported 24 percent of total expenses in the sector.

The report also found a large disparity between the number of charities and their sizes, as measured by annual expenditure.

Half of Bermuda?s charities are small with annual expenditures of less than $25,000 and of these, over half are very small with expenditures of less than $5,000.

Only 18 organisations report over $1 million in expenses ? these report 63 percent of all expenses in the sector.

Sources of revenues also varied by size.

Individual donations are more important for the smallest charities who had annual revenues of less than $500.

Corporate and Foundation donations are more important for mid-sized charities with annual revenues of $5,000 to $25,000.

While fees and dues and individual donations are more important for large charities with annual revenues of $25,000 or more.

These large charities reported the most revenue from Government grants.

As far as employment, the report found 85 out of 159 survey respondents, or 53 percent, reported having no paid staff while 74 had paid staff employed almost 700 people.

Of these 60 percent were full-time, 30 percent were part-time and ten percent were seasonal.

Charities with $25,000 or more in annual expenses employed 90 percent of this figure and this workforce was found to be overwhelmingly female with only 25 percent of all charities reporting having men on staff.

However 95 percent of the 113 survey respondents reported using volunteers.

There are an estimated 3,200 volunteers in Bermuda, with an average of 25 per charity.

The biggest management challenges facing the charity sector were recruiting and retaining dependable volunteers and fundraising.

In conclusion The Urban Institute found the charity sector in Bermuda to be of great importance to the quality of life and that the data made available since the first report in 2002 had greatly improved.

This data will be used by individual donors, Government and foundations, policymakers, volunteers, programme beneficiaries and the charities themselves.

The goals and objectives of The Centre of Philanthropy are to gather input from the community on the potential future direction of the Centre and based on this input, develop a clear vision, goals and strategy for the Centre.

The Centre currently provides workshops and training, answers questions via its help desk and its extended web site which offers a directory of registered charities and donors, volunteer matching and publications.

The Centre also coordinates summer student volunteers, conducts research projects on charities in Bermuda and offers to review the Charities Act, provides a library and publishes quarterly newsletters.

Mr. Duperreault said yesterday he believed in a Bermuda where effective and efficient charities collaborate with the private sector and Government to enhance the well-being of the community.

It was the Centre?s mission to lead the community in building an effective, efficient and sustainable charity sector by advancing knowledge, fostering effective partnerships, increasing the number of volunteers and creating a unified voice for change.

The Centre is currently completing research of Bermuda?s volunteers and is expected to release their findings next month.

Mr. Duperreault said he was excited about the future of philanthropy in Bermuda, but humbled to be following in Mr. Zuills? footsteps.

?He has stayed true to the charitable spirit for more than a decade and has been driven by a commitment to best practices and to raising the level of understanding of the benefits of volunteerism as well as the size and scope of the philanthropic sector in Bermuda,? he said.

The Urban Institute report is available on the Centre?s web site at www.charity.bm in the publications section.