Drop in small grants programmes in Ireland over past four years
Howard Lake | 24 September 2013 | News
Over the last four years the number of small grants awarded by foundations and other grant sources in Ireland has fallen from 1,429 to 969, according to research commissioned by Philanthropy Ireland.
This represented a decline in grants from a high of €4,187,715 in 2010 to €3,140,943 last year. The ending of the AIB Better Ireland Awards Scheme was a contributed significantly to this development, according to the research, removing more than 40% of the small grants programmes capacity (€1.8m and over 500 awards) between 2010 and 2011.
‘Small Grants Programmes in Ireland: A review of the current landscape and best practice’ was commissioned to improve information on small grants (defined as grants under €25,000), improve grant programmes and increase co-operation between philanthropic organisations.
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The research found that the success rate (the number of awards expressed as a percentage of the total number of applications) varied significantly across grant programmes, ranging from 4% to over 80%. The average across all programmes in 2012 was 27%.
According to the research, there is a shift in philanthropy in Ireland, as experienced in the US and in UK, towards larger scale, multi-year, and more strategic funding.
The report can be downloaded on Philanthropy Ireland’s website.
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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.