VIEW, Issue five, 2012 Profile


1, How has the organisation changed since it was set up in 1979?


It has changed in terms of the range of grant-mak- ing programmes that it manages and it has also evolved with European Union funding. It has also developed the ability to manage funds on behalf of donors.


2, What are your main areas of responsibility?


I’m responsible for the strategic overview of the organisation and managing both our development programmes which do work within local communi- ties and our grant-making programmes. I also try to ensure that we attract new donors to the or- ganisation.


3, When did you take on the position of director and how has your role changed, if at all?


I took on the role of director in 1994. when the Community Foundation was better known as the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust. At that stage most of my role would have been taken up in di- rect grant-making and assessing applications for grants. It has changed in that we now have a much wider range of grant-making and development pro- grammes.


4, Can you briefly outline your vision for the Community Foundation.


My vision is that we hold onto our well-established ethos of seeing ourselves as an organisation within the community sector and that we keep working with groups in the most disadvantaged areas. We also want to work as a catalyst or convenor be- tween the needs of those areas and people with the interest and funding to actually be prepared to make a difference.


5, How secure financially is the Community Foundation?


The Community Foundation is reasonably secure in that it has an independent endowment of some £12 million. It does not, unlike most community and voluntary organisations, receive core funding from government.


6, Who or what has been the inspiration for you in your career to date?


The first director of the Northern Ireland Volun- tary Trust, Hugh Frazer, was a very inspirational in- dividual. It was he, along with the first chair of the Trust David Cook, who set a very clear mission and ethos for the Community Foundation that we have maintained. My personal inspiration has al- ways been Cathy Harkin, a woman who is now long dead and who I worked with back in Derry in the 1970s. She was a feminist and founder of Derry Women’s Aid. She had an amazing mental agility to be able to link issues between trade union and social issues.


7, Given the cutbacks in funding from Government, are you confident that the community sector can survive and thrive in the years ahead?


No, I’m not confident. I think that because of the way funding has been available for the community sector from the mid 1990s until the mid 2000s, there has been an increasing dependance on statu- tory and EU funding – both of those sources are simultaneously being cut. There has also been an increase in dependance on paid workers. And while


Challenges: Avila Kilmurray


they clearly in some cases are necessary, it has meant that the initial voluntary activist base of community has dissipated somewhat. I think there is a challenge in terms of the community sector finding new ways of activism, particularly in relation to young people. That may mean the community sector has to change.


8, Is the Government doing enough to help the community sector?


I think the government, particularly the devolved assembly, has an acute awareness of the impor- tance of the community sector. One of the prob- lems is that the government has got to tied up in audit accountability and bureaucracy. The funding that is available could go a lot further if it was man- aged in a more flexible manner. We are in favour of transparency and accountability, but I think the art of bean counting has become to complex.


9, What role does philanthropy play in the current economic climate?


I think philanthropy is extremely important. As wealth has decreased in some areas, there is a more acute identification with the need for some sense of social solidarity. What is disappointing is that alongside the economic recession there ap- pears to be a greater divergence between extreme wealth and increasing poverty. Philanthropy is im- portant, but it should not be posed in opposition


to the role of the State and the public sector. It can only ever be complimentary and indeed, fill gaps.


10, What do you enjoy most about leading the organisation?


I enjoy the sense of commitment that I get from the people who work in the organisation and that all our board trustees are volunteers. I also enjoy the diversity because community action is con- stantly changing. We see new communities coming in, such as the Roma community, so that the issues that are thrown up are always changing, so that keeps you responsive


11, What are the main frustrations you encounter in your role as director of Community Foundation?


My main frustrations are where you find a block in terms of people’s awareness about the very real and pressing needs on the ground, where people sometimes appear to be living in parallel universes. You are constantly looking for ways to communi- cate that, yes, there is a real opportunity for people to help and make a difference.


12, How do you relax and what are your other interests?


I like poetry and writing. I’m convinced, but nobody else is, that I have a novel inside me somewhere.


‘My own personal inspiration was feminist Cathy Harkin, who was the founder of Derry Women’s Aid’


Website: viewdigital.org


We talk to Avila Kilmurray, Director of the Community Foundation, about the various challenges facing her organisation


Page 3


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24