Latest News

Irish Companies Contribute Almost €17 million to Charities and Community Groups in 2011

  • 43 of Ireland’s largest Irish companies contributed over €16.7 million euro to the community in 2011
  • €3.3 million of this was through employee fundraising
  • Over 3,600 community partnerships have been established
  • Statistics available on online interactive map entitled the ‘Business Impact Map’
  • Map launches today at special event in Grand Canal Dock where 100’s of employees will create Ireland’s first pop up orchard

Group aerial shotOver 40 socially minded Irish companies have formed over 3,600 community partnerships and donated over €16.7 million in cash donations, in kind donations and employee fundraising to local charities and community groups. Volunteer employees alone raised over €3.3 million. This information is being captured by Business in the Community Ireland on an online interactive map entitled the “Business Impact Map” which gives a county by county breakdown of how much companies and employees supported their local community groups and charities in 2011.

National statistics show that over €11 million was given in cash donations, €2.3 million was contributed through in kind donations and €3.3 million was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered over 130,000 hours to local groups and projects during the year. The statistics are from 43 of Ireland’s largest companies that are members of Business in the Community Ireland, the network for responsible business. The map can be viewed at www.bitc.ie.

Social issues that received the most support were health at €5 million, community projects at €3 million, education at €2.9 million, social inclusion at 2.3 million and homelessness at €760,000.

“Companies are in a strong position to have a major impact on social issues. One of the reasons for creating the map is for businesses to identify other companies that are working on similar social issues and to uncover possible areas for collaboration. So much strong work is being done by so many different companies and Business in the Community Ireland actively encourages companies to work together on specific areas or issues so that they can have an even greater impact.” said Tina Roche, CEO of Business in the Community Ireland.

In the county by county breakdown, counties which ranked the highest for employee fundraising outside of Dublin were Kildare raising €329,000, Cork raising €230,938, Waterford raising €119,188 and Galway raising €118,777. Kildare also ranked the highest for volunteer hours with over 21,000 hours in total followed by Meath and Cork both with 6,000 hours approximately. Cash donations were highest in Dublin, €6.8 million, followed by Mayo at €1.1 million, Cork at €800,000 and Kildare at €350,000.

The map was launched at a special event in Grand Canal Dock where employees from 40 different companies came together to create Ireland’s first pop up orchard. The orchard was designed by Make Hand Stands in partnership with Dublin Community Growers and after the Orchard has been enjoyed in situ the trees, shrubs and plants will find new homes in community gardens and groups that are part of the Dublin Community Growers network.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:


Una O’ Murchu, Business in the community Ireland

Tel: 01 874 3812
Mob: 086 780 87 62
Email: uomurchu@bitc.ie

Editors’ notes:

Our member companies involved in the map are: A& L Goodbody, Abbott Ireland, AOL Ireland, AIB Group, Bank of Ireland Group, Boots Retail (Irl) Ltd, Bord Gáis Networks, Capita Life & Pensions (Services) Ireland Ltd, Coillte, DAA, Deloitte, Diageo Ireland, EBS, Elan Corporation,  plc, ESB, Glanbia plc, IBM Ireland Ltd., Intel Ireland, Irish Life & Permanent, Janssen Biologics (Ireland), Janssen Pharmaceutical, KBC Bank Ireland, KPMG, Marks & Spencer (Ireland) Ltd, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, Mercury Engineering, Microsoft Ireland, MSD, Musgrave Group, National Irish Bank, Nestlé Ireland , Oracle EMEA, PepsiCo, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, PwC, Rabobank, Savills Ireland, Shell E&P Ireland Ltd, State Street International Ireland, O2, Ulster Bank, Veolia Environnement, Vodafone Ireland Foundation.  

About Business in the Community Ireland

Business in the Community Ireland is the network for responsible business. Ireland’s largest companies are members of the network and its team of experts assists business to integrate responsible and sustainable business practices throughout its operations. BITCI’s range of practical support aims to develop, benchmark and scale-up responsible activities to have the greatest impact on society.

About Dublin Community Growers

Dublin Community Growers (DCG) is the network of community gardens in Dublin.  They are a voluntary group that meet regularly to offer support and to share advice to existing and proposed community gardens.  DCG organise regular events to promote the community gardens and also hold training events.  Website www.dcg.ie

About Make Hand Stands

Make Handstands... not war is Eimear McNally. Eimear works as an illustrator, graphic recorder, host and facilitator in the worlds of development education, sustainability, community development and social justice. She is a member of Upstart Arts Collective. Eimear has worked with Dublin Community Growers to produce the design for the pop-up orchard. For more see www.makehandstands.com 

Share this news article

24 May 2012