The serious business of volunteering.

• Author: MILNE, JOHN
• Position: Brief Article

Milne stumbles into a vast and fascinating cyberworld where volunteers pull all the levers

It was a tiny mention in an e-mail from a listserve that caught my attention, a mere mention of a recent survey of Canadians' opinions regarding charities and issues affecting charities.

Not that charities are big news, but Web-based surveys about charities sounded intriguing, so I started to dig deeper in the data mine. The findings surprised even this old natural-born skeptic.

The survey was posted on a Web site belonging to the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, which publishes "The Canadian Directory to Foundations & Grants as a resource for charities and non-profits looking for financial support from foundations." Indeed, the cost of surveying nearly 4,000 Canadians between May and July of this year had been born by the Muttart Foundation from Edmonton, Alta.

The results, although interesting, were hardly surprising: 90 per cent agree that charities are becoming increasingly important; 79 per cent believe that charities understand the needs of the average Canadian better than government; 69 per cent think charities do a better job than government in meeting the needs of the average Canadian, and so on.

The stats motivated me to dig some more to see what these same good charities were doing on the Web. My big find was a Canadian site called "Charity Village," an innocuous concept with this fine print: "This online service centre is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and servicing Canada's 175,000 Canadian charities and nonprofit organizations and the millions of staffers, volunteers, donors and supporters who make them an important part of our national fabric."

The mind boggled, so I clicked on into charity nirvana to be greeted by another stupefying statement.

"You are on Main Street at Charity Village, Canada's supersite for the nonprofit sector...3,000 pages of news, jobs, information and resources, for executives, staffers, donors and volunteers...To date, our audience. has downloaded more than 105,004,310 files from Charity Village."

This is a site that would make any e-business wannabe drool with envy. Member foundations are classified into many categories (addiction, gay & lesbian, libraries, seniors, funding sources) as are learning institutions, research centres, jobs and careers, even opportunities for volunteers by province and city. A masterful job of organization and site-building.

Charity Village is in the business of delivering...