Charities in Bermuda will now benefit from a Donor Forum after more than 50 donors met for a Symposium breakfast yesterday.

The aim of the Donor Forum is to help charities to lay out better financial projections, become more organised and learn how to ask for what they really need to keep them going.

One of the organisers said it is the right thing at the right time.

One of the speakers at the Symposium was Peter Karoff, founder and chairman of The Philanthropic Initiative, Inc. (TPI). The TPI is a not for profit organisation that assists charities and donors with consulting services, offering innovative and strategic approaches to philanthropy.

Mr. Karoff said: "Charity is usually the essence of a chaotic response, or a rising of issues, people want to do something and out of that comes a foundation.

He said the Donor Forum was a way of coming together with a systematic analogy and effectively promoting philanthropy.

Mr Karoff said: "September 11th had a programmed impact on people and if you were not global before, you are now. At present there are 40 Donor Forums in the US combating issues that cannot be ignored like systemic poverty.

"Organisations and people are now more interested in philanthropy and connecting with other people - something shifted within themselves.

"I am delighted by the Donor Forum. There is more and more awareness and we are looking at a positive sign."

The other guest speaker was Donald E. Craig, president of Donald E. Craig & Associates, Inc. a consulting firm headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Donors here in Bermuda, outside of the Sunday collection, donate more to charitable causes than anywhere else, per square mile, in the world and 80 percent of that goes to six or seven main focuses," he said.

His advice to Island charities?

"Get a bank to look at a proposal, go to the board of your company for help. Campaign masses of people and if it there is a gift of $100, perhaps the company can match it - it's about self help and compassion being rewarded.

"On a day to day basis there is a general need for the ascetics in the Bermudian community, and even on a small island it is about family unity and the aquarium, art and music help."

Mr. Craig added: "The Donor Forum offers information and invites donor participation and advocacy in accountability, thus offering a different dichotomy between corporations and banks."

Director and secretary of The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, David Lang has been working on the Donor Forum for a year.

He said: "The Donor Forum plans to bring groups together that donate to charities so that they can pool their collective expertise.

"We find that many deserving charities are sometimes not getting the financial yield they are looking for because they don't know how to present the necessary budget proposal."

Mr. Lang spoke about companies getting involved and giving staff time off to put something back into the community.

"The Bank of Bermuda staff will often buy loads of paint, brushes and rollers and paint a nursing home for a weekend," he said.