It's been more than six months since the Council Partners, an umbrella organisation of five addiction-related charities, were officially launched on October 21, and the results, by anyone's standards, have been impressive.

In a typical example of the budding federation's success, executive director Mr. Gordon Johnson told The Royal Gazette , the Fair Havens Christian Care Association, a residential facility for drug-dependent women and one of the five partners in the group, has graduated ten former addicts since the autumn and continues to expand on the drug care it provides.

Furthermore, he said, several of the charities that were all but unknown to the public previously have been impelled by their association with the group to make public relations a priority, and their visibility has shot up as a result.

But perhaps the most important development since the Partners made their debut, Mr. Johnson pointed out, is the way in which the members, who run their organisations in the manner of a business and treat Bermuda's donors as if they were their clients, are effectively changing the way in which charities operate here.

Said Mr. Johnson, who spoke to The Gazette from a meeting room in the CP offices on Berry Hill Road: "We are trying to meet the community's needs as set by the donors themselves. After all, they are the ones that must ask: `How do I give?' And `how much do I give?' It is only right that they should determine the criteria, and in fact they are doing so.'' As a result of this new donor "empowerment,'' the executive director explained, the Council Partners, as some of the leading charitable organisations on the Island, have been compelled to adopt a "more business-like'' approach to the way they raise their funds.

And like a corporation, the Partners -- which consist of Fair Havens, the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Focus, Lions Quest and the Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education -- produce annual business plans both individually and as a group, though on the whole they work as a team to maximise effect.

"Trust,'' said Mr. Johnson, who occasionally even sounded like a corporation's chairman, "is a huge and very important commodity among the Partners.

"And flexibility -- the ability to remain flexible -- is also vital.'' In fact, a study of the Partners' fund-raising showed, the organisation has placed such a priority on its ability to adapt to the changing needs of Bermuda that it has allocated money to possibly share with or even give away to other charities if it feels that addicts would benefit.

Because the federation of the five charities has streamlined the way they operate and crystallised their objectives, Mr. Johnson said, charity budgets in some cases have actually decreased and the field for new initiatives greatly expanded.

As they currently conduct themselves, the Partners, which operate under the auspices of the National Drug Commission, will be allocated their annual operating funds during a period of negotiation with a committee that consists of representatives from the NDC, the agencies themselves and the community at large. (Please see chart below.) This year, which will see the inaugural negotiations take place in July, the Partners have projected a large segment of the money they expect to raise during their current fund-raising campaign for "future funding initiatives and allocations.'' These initiatives, Mr. Johnson told The Gazette , might include joint projects with organisations like the Women's Resource Centre or the Coalition for the Protection of Children, whose work in the area of physical abuse often goes hand in hand with addiction to drugs and alcohol.

"I think it's through the sharing of resources and data that you get at the root of these issues, which are often correlated,'' the executive director said. "And it's my understanding that many of (the Island's other charities) are beginning to realise this, because it is what the donor community wants.'' Another criterion that the donor community wants met, Mr. Johnson suggested, is more accountability, a greater indication from a charity that its funds have been well-applied.

Such a demand, in turn, has made communications an even greater priority of the modern charitable foundation, as a number of the Partners have learned in the past few months.

"Nowadays,'' Mr. Johnson said, "(donors) want to know how these programmes are working. They want to know how your graduates are doing, how many of them have had a relapse or not. They want, in short, to be involved.'' At the same time, the executive director noted, the charity of the late 20th century continues to face the traditional challenge of making those who actually need its services aware of its existence.

"Wanting to do good,'' he effectively summed up, "is not enough anymore.

These days, it is imperative that what you are doing is understood by those who are being helped and by those who are doing the helping.'' On the former score, the Partners have committed themselves, both collectively and individually, to boosting their recognition, throwing a large chunk of their resources behind the grassroots initiatives of organisations like PRIDE and co-ordinating their activities with the new community-oriented initiatives (Churches Against Drugs, Sports Against Drugs) of the NDC.

In terms of realising the public's newly emerging requirement for more accountability and involvement, the Partners, in another business-like act, have agreed in writing to put the needs of their services' users above their own as individual agencies, and they further plan to cement this relationship "symbolically'' by signing a "letter of understanding'' on their union.

"It takes time to negotiate the sharing of resources,'' Mr. Johnson admitted of the concept. "But they (the agencies) ultimately have to say, and they do say: `The philosophy of what we are doing is more important than our own agendas.'' He added: "Donors are finding that they have a lot more work to do, and so are we. The partnership (among the agencies) makes it easier, I think, but the challenges we face are also somewhat greater.

"These days, it's not just a matter of getting the right programme or the right service in place.

"Under the current reality, you also have to get the people in the community to understand it.'' MONEY FOR MANY -- Donations to the Council Partners, an umbrella organisation of five addiction-related charities, are distributed through a joint allocation committee after several negotiating sessions. As this flow chart shows, the Partners have projected a large chunk of anticipated funds for future funding initiatives -- possibly with other charities.