Office closes but Atlantic still giving grants
Howard Lake | 28 April 2015 | News
As the Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) moves to close its office in Belfast, the foundation is still providing grants in its wind up stage following an award of €8 million to the Child and Family Agency, (Tusla) in the Irish Republic.
The funding to Tusla will go towards an early intervention and prevention programme. According to the agency the funding will create 24 posts.
The grant is being provided through Galway University Foundation which over the last 15 years has received nearly €63 million from AP.
The agency’s chairperson Norah Gibbons called the €8.3m grant a “once in a generation opportunity to change how the services here do child protection and family support”.
The imminent closure of AP’s offices is the end of an era in philanthropy in Ireland, although grants will be distributed until 2020 to organisations the foundation has already supported. It is understood AP has appointed consultants to monitor its grant giving until 2020 but the Belfast office will close at the end of April.
Atlantic Philanthropies was founded by billionaire Charles ‘Chuck’ Feeney and it has worked with educational institutions, health bodies, elderly care organisations and in the fields of youth and human rights. In excess of €2 billion has been awarded in Ireland since AP was set up in the early 1980s.
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.