N Ireland philanthropist launches care fund
Howard Lake | 28 April 2020 | News
A new fund to help older people in the County Antrim area of Northern Ireland has been launched following a donation from a local philanthropist.
The McCall Social Care Fund established by the McCall Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation (CFNI) and Department for Communities has been established to support social care in Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on older people. Grants up to £10,000 available for groups in the County Antrim area.
The McCall Foundation was set up by Northern Ireland businessman Mervyn McCall and his wife Wilma who were Inspired by philanthropists such as Chuck Feeney and Warren Buffett.
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The fund aims to make a small number of awards to those organisations working in the community and voluntary sector. The focus will be on those who are delivering innovative and new projects offering additional value in social care, in areas where statutory support is falling short of need, is limited, or in some places at the moment non-existent, as the public sector focuses on emergencies.
The fund will be distributed in two phases, initially with a pot of £50,000, primarily focusing on social care in Northern Ireland, and the challenges in a regime of isolation linked to covid 19. This phase will offer 5 grants of £10,000. Later in the year the fund will reopen with further pot of funding.
Mervyn McCall, founder of the McCall Foundation said: “I have been working closely with the Community Foundation to connect with and community issues and causes of interest to me, particularly social care. Coronavirus has presented many challenges across society and my hope is that my fund can support innovative projects and new ways of working within social care in the Antrim area.”
Siofra Healy, Director of Philanthropy at CFNI said the McCall Foundation is the first of five philanthropic funds investing in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector which will roll out this year.
“Philanthropic funding secured by the Community Foundation from individuals, families and charitable trusts is being matched by DfC to support innovative and sustainable projects within a broad range of themes across NI,” she said.
The applications will be invited through an online application on the CFNI’s website and will follow two stages:
- Stage One: Initial online application via the Community Foundation’s website by 1:00pm on 1st June 2020.
- Stage Two: Shortlisted applications will be invited to present their project to the McCall Foundation panel representatives, and other sector leaders, late June, early July 2020. This will consist of a ten minute presentation, followed by approximately ten minutes of discussion and questions from the fund panel representatives.
WATCH: Mervyn McCall on Start A Fund
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.