Individuals/Families

Donor Case Studies

Donor advised funds are the most popular types fund currently held at the Community Foundation. This type of fund is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a third party (such as The Community Foundation for Ireland) and created for the purpose of managing charitable donations on behalf of an organisation, family, or individual. A donor-advised fund offers the opportunity to create an easy-to-establish, low cost, flexible vehicle for charitable giving as an alternative to direct giving or a private foundation. Donors enjoy administrative convenience, cost savings and tax advantages by conducting their grantmaking through the fund.

Donor Advised Family Fund: Dr Alison Byrne Memorial Fund
Harry Byrne is a board member at The Community Foundation for Ireland. He retired from Guinness Ireland as Assistant Managing Director in 1996. Harry’s daughter, Alison, tragically died in her thirties. She had worked as a doctor and Harry has established The Dr Alison Byrne Fund in her memory which now supports medical related projects. "As a Director of The Foundation I see the important contribution the income from the endowment funds makes for so many community groups through the country and this inspired me to set up the Alison Byrne fund."

Beneficiaries to date have included The Alzheimer Society Of Ireland - to help fund social outings for those with Alzheimer’s and their carers, Bray Cancer Support and Information Centre - to fund the purchase of equipment, and the Irish Heart Foundation for CPR training for transition year students.

Donor Advised Family Fund: The Callery Family Fund
Jim Callery is well known for his entrepreneurship and leadership. Anticipating a bleak future for farming, Jim moved into the transport sector and brought the Scania franchise to Ireland in the mid seventies through his locally-based motor distribution company, The Westward Group. In recent years Jim has reduced his involvement with the company and began investing more time in local development projects. He is well known for the restoration of Strokestown Park House and the Irish National Famine Museum in Co. Roscommon which was heavily supported by capital injections from The Westward Group.

In 2004 Jim and his family set up a philanthropic fund through The Community Foundation for Ireland to assist local community projects. It is primarily targeted at projects in his native
Roscommon. There were a lot of people and families in Ireland who became much better off over the last couple of decades due to the economic boom. However there are still a lot of
worthy causes and local Voluntary Community Groups who need much help.

“People who have made some money or a lot of money themselves generally had very little time during their working lives to consider the needs of others. It is only as you get older in life that you begin to realise these things. I think, when you and your family are provided for, there is a duty to be helpful to others in a financial way.

As well as giving to charity, there is always a need for financial help for people involved in local community efforts in their own areas as they often find it very difficult to raise funds for what they are doing. So when I came across The Community Foundation for Ireland I thought that this was an ideal and very tax efficient way to channel funds to local efforts among one’s own community.

There are some people who may think the preferred route is setting up their own Trusts but one must look to the future. Trusts are things that have to be managed, and in time to come, future generations may not thank you for putting this burden on them. I find that The Community Foundation for Ireland has worked very well for me under the capable leadership of Tina Roche so why bother putting the imposition of a Trust on your family?”



Donor Advised Family Fund 2008
In 2008 a significant family fund was established at The Community Foundation for Ireland. The fund is anonymous and will be donor advised. Both the parents and children are actively involved in advising on the fund and as a result the fund supports a number of different areas that are of interest to each member of the family. The Community Foundation for Ireland worked closely with the family to help to identify suitable recipients for grants in each of the areas of interest. Looking to the longer term, the fund has been structured to facilitate the next generations – if they so wish - to potentially take up the mantle also. The donor has said that “using the umbrella structure of the Community Foundation alleviated many of the issues to be addressed when setting up a ‘Family Foundation’ and was achieved very quickly and at a much lower cost”.

To date the private family fund has supported Irish Autism Action for the Solas Project to provide early assessment and diagnosis of Autism and Autism-related disorders. Additionally it is currently supporting The Hope Foundation to carry out a multi-annual Primary Healthcare Project for the street children of Calcutta. Grants have also been made from this fund to the Federation of Irish Sports, The Ark: A Cultural Centre for Children, An Cosán and St Louise’s School in Ballyfermot.

All grantmaking is carefully monitored by The Community Foundation, with staged payments based on the achievements of agreed outcomes. The donor is kept informed of the impacts of their grant and depending on their level of interest, can be invited to participate in the project in question, where appropriate.

Supporting your County: Here at The Community Foundation we are looking to develop individual funds for each county in Ireland. The fund would be part of a larger permanent endowment fund and would mean that funding support would be available for projects on a county basis for years to come. There can be a number of elements involved in setting up a County Fund but we are here to help and will also provide matching funding support to get the fund started. See below for an example of the first ever County Fund in Ireland and the impacts it has had to date.

Setting up a County Fund: The Co Monaghan Fund
In 2004, The Co Monaghan Fund was established. Chaired by well-known local businessman, Frank Cosgrove, a county endowment fund of nearly €250,000 has already been put in place. Among its projects, The Monaghan Fund has already funded a successful entrepreneurship programme for students in the secondary schools in the county. They also provide support to young students looking to continue their studies to third level by funding scholarships and have also funded a defibrillator training course which is being rolled out across the county to all sport and community groups. This has already proved to be an invaluable investment with one person’s life being saved. They have also made an initial grant of €1,000 to Croí. This helped Croí to source an additional €100,000 and clearly demonstrates the value of a fund being in place to provide such ‘philanthropic seed capital’. A number of donors are leading this initiative and in late 2006 a Development Officer was hired to advance the fund.