3rd December 2025
Community Foundation Ireland is celebrating and reflecting on 25 years of philanthropic giving, partnership, innovation, collaboration and, real impact on keys issues in Irish society and internationally.
Our anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate our achievements while also reflecting on how we use our collective experiences, knowledge and expertise to meet the challenges our people, communities and planet faced yesterday, continue to face today, and to help us prepare for tomorrow.
Partnership is at the centre of everything we do at Community Foundation Ireland.
And our beginnings are themselves rooted in such an approach – an idea originating from Government led social partnership discussions of the 1990’s. The introduction of a community and voluntary pillar in those talks providing the driving force.
Match seed funding from Government together with an ability to draw on the experience of the international Community Foundation movement – in particular in North America – leading to the establishment of what we now know as Community Foundation Ireland.
From the very beginning, the work of the Community Foundation (as it the wider global model) – was informed by the insight’s voluntary, community and charitable partners/leaders and their on-the-ground experiences.
Today we continue to work with about 5000 organisations and communities across the Island.
This work and knowledge is then supplemented with best in class research as well as data drawn from our grant-making.
We then match these insights with visionary donors and this approach enables us to diagnose challenges, identify opportunities, agree on potential solutions, and work collaboratively to achieve them
That combined approach offers our communities and our society, emergency assistance when it is needed – as well as the opportunity and space to take a broader view to identify solutions and implement them.
This is what we mean when we speak about strategic giving and philanthropy. At its most powerful it not only addresses and solves long-standing challenges but also helps to identify new and emerging ones. And that ability to spot and resolve challenges has stood the test of time.
It remains as important today as it was over 25 years ago – and particularly now as we live through a time which has so many uncertainties.
Uncertainties for families and individuals, uncertainties for entire communities and even uncertainties about the future of our planet.
We confront each of these by drawing on the strength of our partnerships.
Looking to the passion, vision and drive of donors, the foresight of thought-leaders informing our next steps and of course the volunteers and workers who provide frontline services, gather the evidence which informs and allows possibilities for change.
Responding to every-day need is a hallmark of our work. We also saw emerging in those early days an ability to take a wider view and to initiate change for those who were up against it in our society for a range of reasons, denied the same chances as their peers.
Early grants for the LGBT community, Travellers, quickly followed by migrant rights. Also a focus on children and young people – from early years to teens – those up against it and looking to provide all with equal opportunities.
Every act, every grant, every project rooted in partnership. From our early days, we wanted to be more than just a funder but a true partner listening to the experiences of communities on the ground and using those to inform future actions to create long-term solutions – the beginning of a strategic approach which continues today.
These early years also saw the growth of an Endowment Fund – allowing the Foundation to identify and work on issues which were yet to find a place in the public conscious.
An endowment fund which through prudent investment and is now over €50-million – the benefits of which not only allow additional grant-making into priority areas – but provides comfort to donors that the legacy they seek is protected in perpetuity.
A fund that can support urgent needs now and safeguarding resources to tackle future challenges. Funds that can use the income from investments to address current priorities while reinvesting the principal to grow for the long term.
These initial years of growth then led to strategic grant-making informing the development of a structure for longer-term investment and testing the power of sustained funding in both direct service delivery and policy influence.
At this time, Partnerships focussed on equality, children’s welfare, and communities up against it as well as the rights of women, older people and minorities were to the fore.
From this work, we were able to support significant social changes in the country, as Ireland entered a period with a renewed focus on equality.
Support for key moments of change – The Marriage Equality Referendum and the Gender Recognition Act in 2015 were both milestones in extending rights and visibility to LGBT+ people, and the Children First Act 2015 which put child safeguarding on a statutory footing.
With this work, we learnt that linking evidence, voice and action could have real impact, and showed us a maturing Foundation.
Increasingly our approach was more than a set of stand-alone projects but a jigsaw of connected interventions.
At this time, an increasingly diverse range of donors, including individuals, families, corporates, trusts, and foundations, offered new opportunities to advance an equality mission.
A rich mix of donor engagement, honed in this period, continues right up to today driving the Foundation forward, uniting donors around innovation, tackling challenges, and creating lasting social change for a fairer future.
When it is written the story of the 2020’s will be one of uncertainties, a pandemic, the impact of an international war coming close to home, the cost-of-living crisis and of course all against the backdrop of the biggest crisis of all – climate and nature.
Each a direct challenge to our equality mission – each a challenge to people, place and planet.
Despite these uncertainties Community Foundation Ireland could call on the international expertise of the global Community Foundations in their responses, our own experience, and thankfully a hard-earned but well-deserved reputation for trust and reliability built up over two decades.
The latter through recognition of our wonderful staff, and experts on our Board and Committees which continue to provide deep expertise, influence and competencies across our work.
Who will forget during this time – The Covid crisis? This provided context for Community Foundation Ireland to demonstrate the agility and the ability of our form of Philanthropy.
With the support of donors an emergency response saw grants channelled directly into areas of greatest need in the very early days of lockdown.
Generating €6-million the huge generosity seen through RTÉ Does Comic relief not only demonstrated the potential when public fundraising, philanthropy and Government act together in partnership – but gave a framework for big public fundraising initiatives.
Putting in place a digital infrastructure for the delivery of vital services in locked down communities was an important focus – an infrastructure which in many of our partner organisations is still called on today during severe weather.
Core funding into a sector which was trying to pivot and continue to support those most in need.
As Covid slowly moved on, it was to be replaced with the uncertainties of war.
Through the ‘Ireland for Ukraine Fund’ the Community Foundation partnered with leading media brands, philanthropists, sporting organisations, broadcasters, Government and others.
Through our partner organisations we identified need not just for families huddled together sheltering in bunkers in Ukraine but also support for those fleeing to seek safety and shelter in foreign lands including communities here.
Significant funding has seen support channelled into the warzone, and also addressing needs here.
Clothing, food, language classes, access to school, training and work were all delivered, often through community level organisations and groups. A civic society forum was established to ensure Ukrainian voices and human rights advocates were heard.
Community Foundation Ireland has developed a role as a convenor, another aspect of the global model. Community foundations act as convenors because they bring people together to solve key challenges.
As trusted, neutral organisations, we connect donors, non-profits, businesses, and government to share ideas, pool resources, and collaborate on solutions that no single group could achieve alone.
By hosting conversations and building partnerships, community foundations strengthen civic engagement and ensure that diverse voices shape the future of their communities. These also provide opportunities to reflect on new and emerging problems and trends, opportunities to resolve.
One such example has been over the past few years, where our partners find themselves in the frontline of this division and hate.
Targeted by those seeking to not only undermine the progress we have achieved to grow inclusivity and equality – but to create new divisions in our communities and our country.
Divisions which would see our minorities targeted and isolated with the finger of blame pointed at them for ills not of their making. As a Foundation we convene thought-leaders, civil society leaders as well as researchers, academics and others to share knowledge which informs new approaches and ideas.
We have also done so on areas such climate, gender-based violence, democracy and others – often we are the sole host in our role as a philanthropic hub and on others co-hosting with partners. These gatherings not only serve as a source of knowledge, they also grow resilience by growing networks of support.
We also began to work in an in-depth way, on embedded issues. For example, the cost-of-living crisis has seen the Community Foundation and partners such as the members of the Children’s Rights Alliance and the experts at the Economic and Social Research Institute put child poverty top of the political agenda.
In communities across our country children are tonight going to bed hungry, trying to stay warm and for some in emergency accommodation not knowing where they will be sleeping tomorrow night.
Our work has shown a quarter of a million children live in the shadow of poverty.
Our donors and supporters respond by helping to ensure essential services are in place, but also to make the case for change with pioneering work like the research of the Child Poverty Monitor as well as the ESRI.
Hot school meals for every child, pilot holiday hunger programmes, increases in universal supports and the establishment of a special unit on this crisis at the centre of Government are just some of the policy initiatives informed by our actions and evidence.
We also see many of our partners working directly with families, children and young people and older persons – all experience the impacts of poverty on their lives.
The ability to be able to participate in ways that others take for granted. The amazing work that many of the leaders here today do – to ensure that families can eat, be educated, go to work, play, participate in society and be who they can be, despite many barriers in their way.
The leaders that constantly and consistently, remove those barriers – large and small on a daily basis.
This winter we have seen the impact of the crisis in climate and nature. Severe weather events are becoming more frequent, a pattern of swinging from drought to floods and back again puts a huge drain not just on resources but on people and communities.
Our wildlife, plants and nature are in crisis. Protecting and restoring habitats, supporting species recovery and empowering communities to become stewards of their natural environment are key components to develop a resilient ecosystem.
In Community Foundation Ireland we recognise that our equality mission cannot be achieved without ending this crisis. As a philanthropic hub we have been partnering with communities, landowners and experts to restore nature through meaningful actions.
Community Foundation Ireland recognises that we all need to live in clean, natural environments to ensure equality.
Our partnership approach is delivering results – 250 local groups and organisations now have action plans to promote and protect local plants, wildlife and habitats.
Awareness is being raised and action taken to protect endangered landscapes, bats, birds, butterflies and so much more. Donors are protecting land, investing in rewetting of bogs, planting trees, rewilding land and protecting dark skies from light pollution.
Here we also work with experts, from top ecologists to a partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. We partner with organisations which seeks to ensure agriculture and nature live in harmony and are looking for big solutions to enable investment to protect nature.
Additionally, we are working with communities seeking to end the throw-away society by embracing the circular economy. We support projects that help communities waste less and reuse more, finding smart ways to keep materials in use for longer, repair things instead of throwing them away, and create local solutions that protect the environment.
You will often hear the need for systemic and strategic change. Working to achieve that has seen us partner with organisations who use the law to bring about change by pursuing climate justice.
We are particularly delighted that global champion Mary Robinson continues to recognise the role philanthropy is increasingly taken in driving the climate agenda – in particular when others are stepping back.
All of you are here tonight to represent our extensive network of partnerships. Philanthropists, donors, supporters, our community groups, advocates, researchers. Thank You.
It is a tribute to all of you and the people you represent that the Taoiseach Micheál Martin took time this afternoon to acknowledge our work together, it is a tribute to you that Mary Robinson has sent her best wishes.
Can I encourage you to look at our 25-year Impact Report – now on our website and across our digital channels and see how it can guide the next steps of our partnership.
Capturing the journey which has brought us to this point. Our part of a country and society which continues to evolve and change and is once again at an important moment in time – with stark choices now which will dictate not only our own future but the future for those who will follow.
The report sets out how that work has been supported by over €200 million in funding – thanks to the generosity of philanthropists, donors and supporters. It has seen over €170-million delivered in grants to achieve our shared equality goals.
You will see, as indeed you are tonight, this is not a moment for pause. The work we do together remains essential. Essential for equality. Essential to ensure the future of our people, place and planet.
We envision an Ireland where equality, community, and environmental stewardship are embedded in how we live, give, and govern.
We look to the future informed by the richness of our past, the experience, the evidence, and the learnings.
Around the world, community foundations have been shaping change for more than 100 years with values that endure even as needs change. Community Foundation Ireland carries that same spirit forward— full of possibility, grounded in trust, supporting those who want their giving to make a lasting difference.
We feel really privileged and excited to continue to work with you – to make sure that philanthropy makes a real difference to the Ireland of the future.
ENDS
© 2025 Community Foundation Ireland
Company Registration No: 338427 Charity No: CHY 13967 Registered Charity Number (RCN): 20044886
