Everybody wins if we give some of our time or money

It’s National Giving Week and here in the f irst of a series of special articles, the chairman of Philanthropy Ireland makes a heartfelt plea to offer a little... and why it would help a lot

THE One Percent Difference Campaign is all about asking the Irish people to give 1 per cent of their time or income to a cause they care about to build a better Ireland.

It comes at a good time. There is a perceptible shift in the public mood, you can see it all around you.

People have a little more pep in their steps, they are looking straight head again after years of walking head down through the gloom of the worst and longest recession in Irish history.

That is not to say that we are out of the recession yet, but, people are finally beginning to believe that we will get out of it. As a people, we have gone on a long and painful journey but perhaps now we can start to think about the future again and the kind of Ireland we want to live in and pass on to our children.

I don’t think anyone wants a return to the values of the Celtic Tiger. We all want a decent standard of living for our people, but we also want to have a sense of pride in our country, a pride I think we lost through the excesses of the Tiger era.

We can choose our future or we can let others choose our future for us. The One Percent Difference is all about asking the Irish people to become engaged in building a better future by giving time and income to the causes they care about and the communities where they live.

This debate about our future is not an academic exercise. Nor one of t hese navel- gazing debates so popular among pundits and talking heads about what it means to be Irish. This is something real and vital.

Excesses

Ireland’s recovery is everybody’s business, it’s not just a challenge for the Government, politicians and the IMF.

The Government has a major role to play, providing essential services, a safety net for the most vulnerable and the environment in which honest business can thrive. However, the Government is only one of the three pillars that make for a successful society.

We also need businesses to create wealth and jobs – in responsible and sustainable fashion – and we need a vibrant civil society. This is when we all come together to provide the things businesses can’t produce or the Government cannot provide. Let me give you some concrete examples of what civil society is.

A few weeks ago I attended the All-Ireland Hurling final. It was a thrilling world-class sporting spectacle, but it was also the end product of a huge amount of voluntary activity.

For months the players had trained, honing their skills, their bodies and their minds for the challenge of the championship. The level of commitment of these men is just incredible.

However, their effort is only the tip of the iceberg.

Behind them is a veritable army of people whose efforts got these teams to Croke Park, from the mothers who drove them to training to the coaches who first taught them to hold a hurl, to the caretakers who tend the pitches.

All these people played a role in building towards one amazing match in September. The value is not just in the final product, however (though I defy anyone to attend an All-Ireland final and not come away proud to be Irish), the value is also in the way these voluntary efforts pull communities together.

The friendships built on the sidelines cheering on underage teams and the sense of achievement given to children as they compete for their communities and their schools cannot be quantified but it is valuable. The GAA provides Ireland with an essential social glue.

Traditional Irish music is also thriving, not only in Ireland but across the globe.

Incredible as it sounds, in the Fifties there was a real fear that our music was in such trouble that it might die out.

In 1951, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann was founded to promote Irish music and has played a huge role in doing so.

Every week, year in and year out, Comhaltas volunteers train the next generation of musicians, and host and play in competitions to promote traditional music and entertain us all.

As former president Mary McAleese rightly said: ‘Take Comhaltas out of the equation, turn back the clock and contemplate Ireland without Comhaltas and the sheer scale of what we owe (Comhaltas) is revealed.’

Ireland without its music is almost unthinkable, but it might well have happened without our army of volunteer musicians. Civil society in Ireland is not confined to sports or culture. Charities in Ireland do everything from supporting medical research to search and rescue. They forcibly remind the Government of its responsibilities to the most vulnerable and then do something practical to help these who need it most.

Nor are their efforts confined to Ireland. Wherever there is need, you will find Irish people doing their bit to make life better for people. As former US president Bill Clinton recently remarked: ‘Ireland is the only country in the world that has had somebody in some other country trying to keep innocent people alive every single solitary day since the UN was formed.’ He is right and we should be proud. The One Percent Difference Campaign is all about encouraging the Irish people to give 1 per cent of their time or income to a cause they care about and, in doing so, support the causes that contribute so much to Irish life.

There are huge benefits to all of us from doing so, and not just intangible benefits. The Irish not-for-profit sector employs more than 100,000 people in communities throughout Ireland – more than the ICT and Pharma sectors combined.

If we can increase the level of funding going into the sector we can create more jobs – jobs for people who don’t have science degrees and will never get work in Google or Facebook; ordinary people who will gain worthwhile employment and the chance to make a contribution to their community and their country.

Worthwhile

The not-for-profit sector has the potential to be one of the engines that helps to pull Ireland out of recession.

The goal of the One Percent Difference Campaign i s to increase the amount donated in Ireland f rom an estimated €500million to €800million a year. That may sound like a huge amount to ask a cash-strapped nation, but let me put it into context for you.

Every year, the average household in Ireland dumps about €750 worth of food – adding up to an astonishing €1billion every year. If we just looked at the sell-by dates more carefully and donated the savings to charity we would be well on our way to reaching our target.

Despite earning less, Irish women are far more generous than Irish men. Irish men give €100, on average to charity every year, women give €160. If Irish men could simply learn to match the giving of Irish women, it would have a huge impact on donation levels.

The benefits of donating and volunteering are not just confined to these who receive but also the donor. The l atest research shows clearly that donors and volunteers are happier, healthier, live longer and are better able to cope with stress and adversity.

Giving is good for you, as well as being great for the community in which you live.

So how can you become part of the One Percent Difference? First, visit our website, onepercentdifference.ie, and calculate what your 1 per cent is.

Then take a look at the more than 600 organisations that have signed up to the campaign and select a cause you care about, visit their website and donate your time or money.

Think about your giving – a small weekly or monthly donation is far more powerful than a large once-off donation. Donate more than €250 a year to a cause and the Government will add another 30 per cent.

Talk to your children about giving, let them see you giving and encourage them – and your friends – to do the same.

Think about setting up a giving circle, a pool of friends who combine their giving to support a cause. There are lots of things you can do make a real difference.

Ireland is a small country, there are no ‘they’, just us. The choice of what kind of a country we live in is not confined to politicians or the IMF. That choice ultimately belongs to us.

We can choose to build a better country based on solid values. We can choose to make a difference and help to rebuild and ‘reboot’ Ireland or we can stand on the sidelines and blame everyone else.

Every day, people working in charities and sporting and cultural organisations do wonderful work. With a bit more help from us they could do even more. Everybody wins, and we build a better, stronger, more connected country, a country we can be proud of. Be part of building a better Ireland.

What’s your One Percent Difference?