CFI Brings Philanthropy To A Wealth Of Worthy Causes
The Community Foundation for Ireland connects philanthropists with thousands of non-profit organisations, writes Derek Nagle
Celebrating its 21st year in operation, The Community Foundation for Ireland works with donors including individuals, families, corporations, foundations and trusts to ensure monies received are used to the best effect. Its model of philanthropy revolves around partnerships with thousands of non-profit organisations. Since its establishment, the CFI has channelled over €75m to various worthy causes. Despite Covid, the Foundation says it disbursed over €15m in grants last year, its largest figure to date. Partnerships with RTÉ’s Comic Relief and Toy Show appeals in 2020 were very successful, with the two events yielding almost €13m in donations. Jackie Harrison, director of philanthropy at the CFI, says the Foundation’s reaction to Covid was swift. “We set up a Covid response fund in March 2020, for which about €2.5m was donated from existing and new donors. A number of trusts and foundations we developed connections with over the years decided to come on board. “Another funding source was US companies with operations in Ireland. Due to the pandemic, people who may have been travelling all the time are now finding themselves more connected to their local communities, and are seeing the strengths and challenges there.” The CFI oversees donor-advised funds, which are charitable funds set up by an individual, family, business or other entity. Harrison notes the increase in female philanthropists in recent years, with 16 female-led funds established in the past six years. Almost 100 donor-advised funds are currently managed by the CFI. The organisation’s latest annual report discloses that c.€8m in grants were distributed by the CFI through 2019. These grants were awarded through donor-advised funds (€7m), and through impact grants and open grant rounds which are funded by the CFI. Recipients are diverse, spanning education, penal reform, homelessness, tackling domestic violence and climate change. The average grant is c.€14,000. The donor funds in 2019 included the SAP CSR EMEA Fund, which awarded over €1.5m to a variety of recipients. In total, the CFI had 13 corporate funds in 2019 that granted almost €2.5m in Ireland and abroad. They included SMBC Aviation Capital, which is funding Belvedere Youth Club with €710,000 over a three-year period, and Kellogg’s, which provided €150,000 to school breakfast clubs operating in underprivileged communities.
According to Harrison: “Philanthropy is a really good way of keeping people’s feet firmly on the ground if they’ve done well in business or entrepreneurship, or indeed via inherited money. It’s almost like a moral compass in dealing with wealth.” Many individuals, families, businesses and organisations wish to donate anonymously, which can result in a lack of role models to encourage others to give. Harrison is also aware of a tendency to view philanthropy as the preserve of the very rich. “There’s great joy in giving and we all have issues we care about,” she says. “The satisfaction is not from being recognised. In most cases, people are very ordinary but find themselves with a lot of resources and decide to donate. Sometimes it’s better to give while you’re alive and a lot of people like to do that. Legacy giving is relatively low in Ireland so that’s an exciting potential future growth area for the CFI.”