# Local trust makes €10,000 donation

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/04/05/local-trust-makes-e10000-donation/
- Published: 2006-04-05T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**A County Carlow company trust has made a €10,000 donation to a special school.
St Laserian’s School was recently presented with the cheque courtesy of the Springhill
Trust, a charity set up by Springhill Woodcrafts in Pollerton and run and managed
by staff at the company.**

St Laserian’s is just one of the charities that has benefited from the generosity
of the trustees in recent times but the donation was one of the biggest made by 
the trust to a local charity.

About five years ago, the board of Springhill Woodcrafts began to develop a strategy
that would help to develop and preserve the ethos and culture of the company. A 
small group made up of directors and staff members engaged in a process of research
to discover how this could come about. Then in November 2003 the shareholders transferred
40% of the ordinary shares of the company to a newly registered charitable trust,
which is controlled by the employees of Springhill Woodcrafts.

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In effect this gave employees a form of negative control over the company’s operations,
thereby enabling them to exercise considerable influence and power in the affairs
of the company and the employees would share in the fortunes of the company through
a profit-sharing arrange-ment, explained John Fitzpatrick, one of the trustees.

More recently, **the Springhill Trust** has refined its focus and is concerned with
helping children in need both at home and in Third World locations. We switched 
our focus this year to children’s charities. People simply write in and make a request
and then we assess it to see if it fits our criteria, John explained.

About 40% of the money given to charity last year went to worthy causes within Ireland.
The other 60% went abroad. Among the groups that benefited included cancer research
and the Niall Mellon Township Challenge.

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