Irish businessman donates holiday home to charity
Howard Lake | 29 November 2016 | News
A wealthy Irish businessman has donated his holiday home to charity as a way of encouraging philanthropy amongst his peers.
Irish Dragons’ Den star and technology entrepreneur Barry O’Sullivan is auctioning his six bedroom home on Inishmore next month with the proceeds being used by homelessness charities Focus Ireland and Cope to fund the purchase of homes for people in need.
Mr O’Sullivan told the Irish Times:
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“I agreed to do it on condition of anonymity but I was pushed to make it public to maybe convince other high net-worth people to do something similar.”
Sister Stan, founder of life president of Focus, said she was absolutely delighted when she heard about the donation. She told the Irish Times:
“It is absolutely wonderful and very generous. We can use a donation of €20,000 to leverage the purchase of one home and this contribution will be able to see us provide homes to 15 or 20 families.”
She added:
“It will also give a great example to people who might consider doing the same thing.”
The charities will fund the remaining cost of the houses through government grants and mortgages. All the homes will remain in the ownership of the charities, with the people who need them renting the properties.
O’Sullivan said he paid €500,000 for the house and spent another €250,000 on improvements.
The property has an advised minimum value of €300,000.
“I would say if anybody gets it at that price they will be getting a real bargain.”
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.