Donated shares provide £600,000 for Irish charities
Howard Lake | 18 July 2016 | News
A total of £600,000 has recently been donated to good causes on behalf of Irish shareholders as a result of work with the charity ShareGift, Computershare has announced.
Six Irish charities have benefited recently from Sharegift, with Barretstown, The Community Foundation for Ireland, Focus Ireland, The Irish Cancer Society, The Irish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals and Youth Work Ireland receiving £100,000 each.
When companies undertake corporate actions such as splits, mergers, acquisitions or spinoffs, some shareholders can be left with small numbers of shares that are worth less than amount it would cost to sell them.
Computershare is the registrar to two thirds of companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, and works with its clients to offer shareholders the opportunity to transfer shareholdings to ShareGift, which then collates the donations and sells the combined total.
Computershare also helps companies undertake share dealing programmes and includes the option of donating the proceeds to ShareGift.
Welcoming Computershare’s partnership with ShareGift in Ireland, Jackie Harrison Head of Development at The Community Foundation for Ireland said:
“Given the undeveloped nature of philanthropy in Ireland, it is very encouraging to see such a large scale donation to Irish charities.”
Since ShareGift was set up in 1996, over £23 million has been donated to more than 2,000 charities across the UK and Ireland. Computershare also works with ShareGift organisations in the USA and Australia.
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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.