Island's top charity supporters said this week.

Mr. Richard Gorham, who represents nearly one fifth of Bermuda's 109 charities, said the economic recession had affected the number and amount of donations to good causes.

At the Hamilton Rotary Club's weekly luncheon, guest speaker Mr. Gorham said the island's economic position had deteriorated alarmingly. At one time, he said, companies had a pool of money set aside for charities. But now that their incomes had decreased donations were down.

Mr. Gorham said charities had particularly suffered for the recession-time loss of expatriate workers and their families.

The Board of Immigration was issuing fewer work permits to non-Bermudians, with the loss to date of more than 4,000 residents.

Bermuda will no longer benefit from the money these families would have spent here, he said.

Mr. Gorham estimated more than $150 million a year had been lost.

"I am here to let you know we are going through a very recessive period,'' said Mr. Gorham, "We have to have cooperation among the people in order to survive.'' Another recession problem buffeting charities was the expensiveness of local merchandise.

Mr. Gorham said retailers had to mark up the price of goods to cover the high cost of importing and customs duties. Higher sticker prices, he said, left families and companies with little money to give away.

Mr. Gorham recommended that a solution to the problem lay with the establishment of a monthly unit fund.

Such a fund would allow a family to deposit a certain amount of money into a bank account each month with the money collected going to charitable contributions.

He said the fund, which is used in England, is very effective. A person can easily afford to deposit $5 or $10 a month, without their pay cheque being stretched to the limit.

In practising what he preached, Mr. Gorham announced he was donating $1,000 to the Rotary Club to start off its own monthly unit fund.

MR. RICHARD GORHAM -- Recommended a monthly unit fund to help raise money for local charities.