# Irish government backs plans to boost charitable giving by 60%

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/07/09/irish-government-backs-plans-boost-charitable-giving-60/
- Published: 2012-07-09T14:00:58+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The Irish government has backed plans presented by the [Forum on Philanthropy](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/forum-irish-philanthropy-launched)
to increase the level of philanthropic and charitable giving along with developing
fundraising capacity and best practice.

The recommendations from the latest report from Forum, now renamed as the The Forum
on Philanthropy and Fundraising, are for four activities to be implemented over 
the next four years:

• A National “Giving Campaign”, aimed at the public, high net worth individuals 
and corporates in Ireland to increase their giving.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

• Improving the fiscal environment and incentivising greater giving.

• Developing better fundraising capacity, education and training among not-for-profits.

• Creating a National Social Innovation fund, supported by the Government and the
philanthropic sector.

The Forum’s report and recommendations were launched last week in the National Library
of Ireland by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD and Phil Hogan TD, the Minister for the
Environment, Community and Local Government. The Minister has provided over €1.1million
this year to support the Forum’s agenda.

The Taoiseach said: “While the impetus for this initiative has come from the not
for profit sector, my Government is more than happy to support and help to drive
this important initiative”.

Chairman of the Forum, Frank Flannery explained that the Forum’s target was to increase
philanthropic giving in Ireland from around €500m per annum to €800m by 2016. He
admitted that many people might view this as an ambitious target given the current
economic difficulties, but “nonetheless we have identified significant scope for
growth in Irish charitable donations and believe that this transformation is possible”.

One area that the Forum will focus on is regular giving. It found that only 15% 
of donors in Ireland give in a regular planned fashion compared to 36% in the UK.

Members of the Forum include representatives from Atlantic Philanthropies, Philanthropy
Ireland, Fundraising Ireland, the Department of Finance, Business to Arts, and grantmakers
like The Ireland Funds.

www.philanthropy.ie/information/forum-on-philanthropy/

 * **[PCI: protecting charity shops and their customers](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/08/03/pci-protecting-charity-shops-and-their-customers/)**(
   3 August 2012)
 * **[Save the Children launches its first appeal for work in the UK](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/09/05/save-children-launches-its-first-appeal-work-uk/)**(
   5 September 2012)
 * **[Charity defends fundraising event with Army band](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/09/17/charity-defends-fundraising-event-army-band/)**(
   17 September 2012)