Bermuda is a giving community. There’s not much doubt about that — witness the way we pull together in times of hardship or how we respond to misfortune that falls upon others around the globe. The spontaneous outpouring of good will towards our fellow men and women seems to be built into the Bermudian DNA.

Island residents give generously of their time and money. We have statistics to prove how many thousands of hours each year Bermudians give to the Island’s non-profit organisations: a study commissioned by The Centre on Philanthropy two years ago examined the level of volunteerism in Bermuda and found that 44 percent of the population gives of their time to non-profit organisations.

We also have a good idea of the funding donated to the non-profit sector. Corporate and individual donors give in excess of $75 million a year to support and sustain the valuable work done by Bermuda’s charities.

What we don’t know much about is what it’s like to be employed in Bermuda’s Third Sector.

There are hundreds of Bermudians who work full-time at non-profits but we know very little about their working conditions. What are their salary levels? What, if any, benefits do they receive? Do they have a sense of job security? What is the turnover rate?

There is still a sense among many of us that work done for a charity should indeed be charitable, meaning that the person doing the work should be paid very little for his or her work and not expect much in return. After all, it’s a charity, isn’t it? Shouldn’t all the money donated to the organisation go to help others and not to support staffing costs?

This is an interesting set of questions to ponder and is likely to form the basis of an ongoing dialogue about the manner in which a healthy and vibrant Third Sector is developed in Bermuda.

In an effort to put some facts around the discussion about what it is currently like, and what it should be like, to work for a charity in Bermuda, The Centre on Philanthropy has commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a survey on employment in the Third Sector.

The responses from this survey will benchmark current salary levels and benefits as well as personnel policies and compare them with those in other countries.

The data and input will help The Centre to develop recommendations and possible guidelines for quantifying salaries and benefits, linking them to job descriptions, goals, objectives and predicted outcomes.

The Centre’s Board believes that it isn’t possible to build a sustainable non-profit sector without skilled staff. We also believe that those staff have a right to earn a decent wage with job security.

Many of the Island’s non-profit organisations employ staff. In some cases, the staff bring highly specialised skills to their positions. While I have no idea how these staff are compensated, I would hazard a guess that they are paid below market wages.

This isn’t done to be punitive — it is driven by the well-intentioned objective of making sure as many donor dollars as possible go towards programmes.

But what effect does low pay and job insecurity have on the manner in which the Third Sector is able to attract and retain staff? This is probably a question you can answer quite easily.

Imagine the job description: “Wanted: dynamic, hardworking individual with managerial experience, willing and able to lead organisational change, with superlative communications skills and the ability to raise significant funds. Long hours, low pay and little financial security.”

If you were at the height of your earning power or contemplating the path of your career, how would you respond?

Expecting non-profit employees to work for low wages, receiving only basic insurance and pension benefits, narrows the potential labour pool considerably.

The unintended consequence is that an elitist work environment is created, one in which only those with a financial safety net can reasonably consider employment in the Third Sector.

While volunteerism is a critical component of maintaining Bermuda’s non-profits, volunteers are by definition a transient workforce. It is not possible to build and sustain a viable non-profit organisation using only volunteers.

A man or woman with time to spare fits his or her giving of that free time around commitments to which there is direct accountability — a full-time job, a family.

Volunteers can’t be held accountable for not showing up or procrastinating on a task or for performing poorly when they are donating their time.

The discussion about what it means to work for a charity reminds me of the reaction to the suggestion that parliamentarians should be paid.

It used to be that those elected to serve in the House of Assembly and Senate were paid nothing. They were giving their time and talent to their country and expected nothing in return.

What this meant, however, was that only a privileged few could consider running for parliament. For years, the seats in Bermuda’s Upper and Lower Houses were occupied by (mainly) men who were financially secure.

Their perspectives were often restricted to the affluent life they had either inherited or built.

A different type of logic about pay scales, but with the same unintended consequence of self-selection, plagued the teaching profession for years.

Because teachers are not in class on holidays and during the summer, the perception has been that they work a shortened day and have a lot of time off.

It’s generally accepted now that this view of what it’s like to be a teacher is wrong. Educators spend hours preparing lessons, managing extracurricular activities and attending professional development.

Our best teachers are lifelong learners themselves.

But to this day, pay for teachers lags woefully behind other professions. As a result, it’s likely that females, who are traditionally paid less than men anyway, make up the majority of the teaching profession.

Those governing the country and teaching our children should be among the best and the brightest.

They shouldn’t have to forego their passion for making a difference because they can’t earn a living doing it. This is no less true for those working for Bermuda’s charities.

Paid staff, who are accountable and expert at what they do, are necessary for the sustained delivery of quality programmes, both in the for-profit and non-profit workplace.

The playing field should be level whether working to improve a company’s bottom line or a community’s well-being.

While stock options, cash bonuses and other incentives typical of the corporate world have no context in the non-profit workplace, the basic components of financial security certainly do.

Another danger of building a sector on a staff’s ability and willingness to work for less than market value is that an organisation can be held hostage by the beneficence of those giving so generously of their time and money.

A non-profit built around the largesse of its staff is in the awkward position of being beholden to an individual’s personal circumstances.

While this can be a boon of magnificent proportions when the organisation’s objectives and the individual’s agenda jibe, it can create a truly dysfunctional arrangement when the two diverge.

There is no reason that the rigour and discipline that is applied to human resources in the private sector shouldn’t be applied to the Third Sector.

With professionalism and accountability come good management practices. And with good management practices come solid, well-functioning organisations, aligned in their vision of what they want to do, how they’re going to do it and how they will measure their success.

And what an exciting opportunity a Third Sector built in this manner would represent to the young people in Bermuda who would love to work in arts or sports administration or in the helping professions, but who traditionally haven’t been able to give this type of career choice serious consideration because they couldn’t live on the salaries being offered.

For those who feel paying fair wages would increase the cost of running non-profits in Bermuda and drive away donors, I say to you as an individual and corporate donor that I invest in those organisations who show me they know how to deliver and can prove that they can deliver.

In the long run, the cost efficiencies and organisational stability represented by holding on to staff, implementing a business plan and establishing credibility in the community are well worth the increased administrative expenses.

The results of The Centre’s Third Sector Manpower Survey will be interesting reading. I hope they stimulate an honest exchange about how best to nurture the philanthropic sector in Bermuda.

Ultimately, I feel they must lead to the establishment of personnel policies and procedures that are fair, equitable and beneficial to employees as well as to the community they serve.

The Centre will release the results of the survey at a public meeting today at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. For those interested in attending this lunch-time meeting, please contact The Centre at 236-7706.

Brian Duperreault is chairman of The Centre on Philanthropy