MEMBERS of the philanthropic Donor Forum collectively gave more than $10 million to the community last year, and a joint initiative with the Centre on Philanthropy has led to a meeting with Attorney General Larry Mussenden to strengthen and streamline charity laws.

In announcing the collective giving, Donor Forum chairman and Bank of Bermuda Foundation head David Lang said: "The Donor Forum recently completed a survey of its membership to ascertain the level of giving by the charitable community in 2003, and the results show that the 13 companies that participated in the survey gave a total of $10,285,818 to a broad spectrum of Bermuda's registered charities."

Mr. Lang said members were asked to anonymously provide figures in ten specific categories, ranging from the arts to health and human services. The 2003 results indicated that there was a total increase in giving of $1.3 million over 2002, and a significant increase in the amount donated to education and matching staff grants.

There was a slight decline in the total contributed to the arts. Mr. Lang warned that increasing demand from community organisations would affect the pattern of future contributions.

"Community demand continues to test the abilities of donor members, given that capital campaigns of as much as $150 million are known to be in process. This will lead to some prioritisation, which may result in smaller individual donations, and capital campaigns may take longer to meet their targets."

The Donor Forum is an association of local and exempt foundations and corporate donors which provides its members with networking opportunities and educational programmes. Its mission is to offer collaborative support for the benefit of the community.

Founded in 2002 by a group of 12 foundations and firms intent on improving the effectiveness of the members' philanthropy, the Forum now has 18 members who meet quarterly to discuss matters of mutual interest. The Forum also hosts public seminars such as the one held at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute in early May for the Centre on Philanthropy (COP).

It was at that event that the Forum and COP announced a joint initiative to bring together charities, the corporate community, volunteers, and Government in a communal effort to develop a formal support structure and accreditation service for philanthropic activities in Bermuda.

Cummings Zuill, the chairman of COP, said then that the spirit and energy of Bermuda's vast volunteer and charitable community should be harnessed to create, in philanthropy, a more effective 'third sector' of the island's economy.

"Increasingly in the developed world, this spirit has been growing impressively in a more organised way to the extent that it is now large enough to stand on its own as a vital third sector of every democratic country, with its own foundation, infrastructure and institutions."

Philip Butterfield, CEO of the Bank of Bermuda, said the involvement of Government was crucial in improving the effectiveness of the philanthropic sector.

"Their role in terms of regulatory support is vital. For example, we need to add teeth and substance to things like the charity registration process. This would be part of the overall process of getting charities to operate at a higher standard from (inception)."

Mr. Zuill has already met with the Attorney General to begin the process of improving the legislative framework for charities. "We had a meeting with Mr. Mussenden because the Attorney General is ultimately responsible for charities. We gave our views on the situation and he seemed very appreciative and supportive of the idea. He said he would give the matter some thought and we left it with him, and will need to get back to him at some point.

"We think that it might be easier to bring things up to date by starting with new legislation. The UK and Australia and other places have been trying over the last few years to update the laws regarding charities because things change over time.

"I'm not a lawyer but I think that there is no complete and all-encompassing charity law here as such. The rules seem to have been set by cumulative precedent. Charity is narrowly defined by law here, having reflected traditional giving to the church or for education, and does not recognise the much broader range of corporate philanthropy.

"That's what the UK and Australia are doing with their updating, and we should do the same thing. For one thing, charities are regulated by more than one ministry, which is not efficient, and if you want to sell raffle tickets, I think you have to go to the police for permission."

Mr. Lang added: "Collectively, the Donor Forum hopes to continue to work with the Centre on Philanthropy and with local charities to help them build better work models and to strive towards the highest standards of best practice as measured by international and other accreditation.

"Bermuda's 'third sector' is growing and maturing and in order to maximise community benefit, all constituent parts must work closely together."

The Donor Forum is actively encouraging new members and hopes that, going forward, it will be able to present an even clearer picture of Bermuda's philanthropic landscape.

Mr. Mussenden was not able to respond to questions by press time.