Charity safety initiative raises €777,000 in its first year
Howard Lake | 7 August 2008 | News
Building supplies company CRH has announced that it has donated €777,000 to the Simon Communities of Ireland in the first year of their unique partnership programme launched in July 2007.
The CRH Simon Safety Challenge programme saw CRH join forces with Simon Communities of Ireland and Simon Northern Ireland to roll out this ambitious charity venture to raise much needed funding to help end homelessness on an all-island basis whilst also improving safety across CRH facilities.
For every accident free quarter (3 months) achieved at any CRH company location, a substantial sum of money was donated to the Simon Community operating in that region.
In addition, CRH locations which achieved a full accident-free year donated an additional 25% bonus payment on top of the four combined quarterly donations. Local company employee representatives present donations to their local Simon Communities on a 6 monthly basis. Simon Communities in Dublin, Dundalk, Cork, Galway, the South East, the Midlands, the Northwest and Midwest and Simon Community Northern Ireland have all benefited from the Challenge.
Commenting on the success of the first year of the initiative, which will run for at least one more year, Donal Dempsey, Regional Managing Director with CRH said the theme of shelter provision was all important.
“As one of the largest building suppliers in the world, CRH naturally saw a link between ourselves and Simon who are synonymous with providing shelter to those in need in Ireland,” Mr Dempsey said.
Patrick Burke CEO of the Simon Communities of Ireland, commenting on the success of the initiative, said CRH’s sizable donation comes at a critical time, with budget cuts and a national economic downturn, and will assist greatly in Simon’s mission to prevent homelessness, to alleviate some of the associated difficulties and to support people in moving towards independent living.
The companies participating in the Challenge include the building materials providers Roadstone, Northstone and John A Wood as well as Ireland’s largest cement producer Irish Cement Ltd.
www.simon.ie
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.