The Community Foundation for Ireland helped set up the Monaghan Fund in 2004 along with help of local donors. It began with an endowment of €200,000. It is Ireland’s only county-based endowment fund and it recently achieved the milestone of reaching €500,000 in its fund. It only spends the money it earns from investments rather than the lump sum. The fund has supported people in Monaghan through a variety of different initiatives including one to help the literacy of primary school children who struggle with reading and an ‘Access to Education’ programme with DCU which helps ensure Monaghan students get the opportunity to go to University.
Ireland’s First County-based Philanthropic Fund
One of the main priorities of the fund was for it to be as flexible as possible to address the changing needs of people living in Monaghan. The resources are strategically targeted at the root cause of an issue. To date it has spent over €131,000 on projects across the county. The Monaghan Fund supports a wide range of projects from County Monaghan Alzheimers Committee to Ceara Women’s Group to Errigal Truagh Special Needs Group.
Most recently, the fund presented a cheque for €6,000 to DCU for their Access to Education programme which for the last decade has been helping Monaghan students go to University who otherwise would not have been able to afford it. This brings the total amount donated from the fund to DCU’s Access Programme to over €60,000. One student who has benefitted from the programme said “Not only have I been supported through college, but I’ve also had the opportunity to complete a work placement with a local company. This enabled me to use my skills and to lead out on projects, which has been invaluable. I can now write my thesis from real-life work experiences.”
Keeping It in The County
Like many rural counties, Monaghan suffers from emigration as young people move away seeking work opportunities etc, especially during economic downturns. This has resulted in a lot of wealth leaving Monaghan as when someone dies, their will may pass out of the country to where their children emigrated to. Fund Development Manager Seamus McDermott has suggested that people leave 1% of their will to their native county. He added “At the moment, it’s Ireland’s best kept secret. The fund does a lot of very good work in a very low key way. If we had a larger endowment, we could do even more.” We hope the Monaghan Fund continues to grow and serve the people of Monaghan as it has done since 2004.