Philanthropy works for Northern Ireland
Over 500 delegates gathered at the beginning of June for the 23rd European Foundation Centreʼs Annual Conference. Philanthropy has been long established in the NorthWest along with other regions. Here Avila Kilmurray, director Community Foundation for Northern Ireland outlines the contribution of Philanthropy in Northern Ireland.
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hilanthropy is not a word that trips readily off the tongue and yet the contribution of organised charitable giving has had a major impact on developments in Northern Ireland over the years.
A recent calculation estimated that independent Trusts and Foundations have invested in excess of £175 million in support of community and voluntary initiatives over the past four decades. Many of these investments have been made without public fanfare or complicated bureaucracy, but with an open hand and supportive vote of confidence in the work.
Independent Trusts and Foundations have their own priority objectives; many of them focusing on areas of social need, cultural development and improved environmental conditions, however there are also those that provided funding to support the search for peace and reconciliation.
Atlantic Philanthropies is well known for its work in these areas together with funding to improve the lives of children, young people and older people and the Rowntree and Cadbury Trusts have also consistently stood alongside organisations that were prepared to take risks for peace. There was a strong belief that space had to be created to both allow a range of voices to be heard and to encourage dialogue.
Over the years many charitable Foundations based in England made investments in community education to support local activism. The Nuffield and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation were two such organisations, while in the 1980ʼs and 1990ʼs money gathered from the Irish Diaspora was channelled to projects through the Dublin based Ireland Funds.
The work supported helped activists from communities across the various divides to analyze the issues that affected them. In addition to the larger grants, the John Moores Foundation, Carnegie UK Trust, Rank Foundation, the Baring Foundation, and many others, made available the smaller amounts of money that enabled Womenʼs Groups, Youth Groups and Community Groups to innovate and develop new areas of activity.
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Alongside investment in efforts to address issues of division, there was philanthropic funding in projects that catered for the broader issues facing people within this society.
The Henry Smith Charity, Garfield Weston Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation deliberately sought out imaginative projects and committed activists, and a number of Trusts, such as Comic Relief and Paul Hamlyn actually appointed advisers to identify funding opportunities.
Work benefiting people with health issues was placed on the agenda as was the identification of activities, designed and delivered by the people who had direct experience of need. A major funding criteria adopted by many philanthropic investors was summed up by the Disability Rights mantra of ʻnothing for us, without usʼ, emphasizing active participation.
Philanthropy has a long history in Northern Ireland
Philanthropy also developed within Northern Ireland itself, and indeed had roots that long pre‑dated the state as the Linenhall Library and Clifton House still bear witness to. However the charitable work of Ulster Garden Villages Ltd, BBC Children in Need (NI), Lloyds TSB Foundation (NI), the Enkalen Fund and other members came together in a Northern Ireland Trust Group in the early 1980ʼs. Two community foundations were also established ‒ the Fermanagh Trust and the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland. The latter opened its doors in 1979 (then called Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust) and brought together the roles of grantmaker and fund manager. In 2010/2011 it administered charitable investments of £5.5 million to a wide range of communities and groups. However the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland also provides cost effective and efficient donor support services for individuals and corporates that wish to establish a charitable fund.
Specific donor funds, such as the Thomas Devlin Award Bursaries and the Sir George
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Quigley Awards, are managed within the Foundation, whilst thematic and area based funds are also available for donor investment ‒ with a Womenʼs Fund being launched recently in Stormont, and the Co. Derry/Londonderry Acorn Fund being developed as part of the legacy of the 2013 City of Culture programme in the North‑West.
All sizes and types
In short, philanthropy comes in many forms and sizes, but the binding essence is the belief that resources, ideas, commitment and a sense of shared humanity can make life better for all. Winston Churchill argued ‑ “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. Without philanthropic giving the first Integrated Schools would never have opened in Northern Ireland; the early Womenʼs Aid refuges for victims of domestic violence would have struggled to survive; Arts initiatives ‑ both largescale (such as the MAC, the Playhouse and the Lyric), alongside cutting edge projects (the Nerve Centre in Derry or the Circus School in Belfast) ‑ could not have developed; and the quiet conversations that facilitated the emergence from violent conflict would have been more difficult.
Philanthropy in itself is not the solution to all of societyʼs ills, but it can make a difference by investing in new ideas and approaches at the R & D edge of social change as well as through offering the connectivity of care.
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