Irish philanthropist’s giving falls
Howard Lake | 26 June 2019 | News
One of Ireland’s largest charitable foundation’s grant giving dropped by nearly €1 million last year, according to its latest accounts.
The Iris O’Brien Foundation provided grants of €3.7 million in 2018, down from €4.7 million the year before. The Foundation is funded by Denis O’Brien, 61, one of Ireland’s richest men, who has made a fortune in the telecom business and a host of other investments.
Mr O’Brien is also co-founder of Frontline, the international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders and through his Digicel Foundation, O Brien supports projects in Jamaica, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. He is chairman of the Haiti Action Network, which coordinates the activities of approximately 80 support organisations in Haiti.
The Foundation, set up in 2000, has continued the practice of splitting its giving between local and overseas charities. In 2017 overseas giving was €2.7 million but fell to €1.5 million in 2018. Domestic donations were €2.2 million in 2018, up from €1.8 million the year before.
The charitable purposes of the Foundation are to support activities in the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, doing of works for the public good and ‘activities of an ancillary and related nature.’
In practice the Foundation has supported charities working in the fields of advocacy and civil rights, arts and culture, asylum seekers/refugees, social enterprise and disaster relief.
The accounts record services provided to the Foundation to a value of €180,000. The Foundation shares offices owned by Mr O’Brien’s commercial operations.
Despite recording losses of over €400 million on the recent sale of his Independent newspaper chain Mr O’Brien’s net worth is still estimated by Forbes to be over €4 billion. The accounts state that Mr O’Brien will continue to support the Foundation in the future.
- O’Brien Foundation gave €5.5m last year (3 April 2017)
- Denis O’Brien gave €2.7m last year (13 April 2015)
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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.