The Centre on Philanthropy announced on Monday it plans on carrying out its own version of the Human Genome Project by mapping and categorising all of Bermuda's 350 registered charities.

The `Portrait of Charities in Bermuda' will be created using a survey that the Centre is currently test-driving to collect data such as financial information (which is already a matter of public record) as well as what programmes the charity runs, who the beneficiaries and donors are, and what people can do to volunteer.

"You don't really have a big scope picture on who's here, who's doing what, what's being offered," pointed out Linda Lampkin, the programme director for the US National Centre for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) who is working with the Centre on Philanthropy on this project.

"You have 350 registered charities but we don't really know that much about them."

And although financial information is supposed to be made public, there is no standard or regulation for that, meaning there is an entire spectrum of records ranging from photocopied bank statements and handwritten reports to audited financial statements.

Ms Lampkin, speaking to representatives from several charities at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, said that volunteers from PriceWaterhouse Coopers collected as much information on public record as they could about Bermudian charities in November.

From that effort, the Centre made two conclusions: firstly that more financial information and a standard financial reporting form was needed, and secondly that a survey would be useful to get other information out that people need to know about the charities. "It's really a census," said Ms Lampkin.

"We hope to set up a baseline answering important questions such as the mission of the charity, what programmes they run, who the beneficiaries are, employees and volunteers, and problem areas.

"Hopefully we'll get people here enthusiastic about its use - it should be good for everyone."

The charity representatives present each thought the survey was an excellent idea. However they were concerned about incentives for charities to fill out the surveys, even though it was clear the more readily accessible information about a particular charity is, the easier it is for people to donate or volunteer.

But, "You know how things are on the Island," observed one woman.

Several incentives such as putting "Have you filled out the survey?" on grant applications were suggested. "We are appealing to self-interest," said Ms Lampkin. "This gives charities the opportunity to put their programmes out there, which is what they want to do."

And chairman of the Centre on Philanthropy Cummings Zuill added the survey would form a foundation from which other, more targeted surveys could be conducted.

Estimating the survey, which PriceWaterhouse Coopers will be putting on the web, would take only minutes to fill out, they also said help was available either online at www.charity.bm or at 292-5320. They hope to finish test-driving the survey this week and release the official survey in about four weeks, with the data to be analysed within two or three months.