International Day of Older Person’s
Reflection of the Older Person’s Fund at The Community Foundation for Ireland from Adele McNamara, Grants and Donor Services Executive.
It is estimated that by 2041, people aged over 65 will account for 22% of the population in Ireland, compared to some 11% today. A society can be judged by how it takes care of its older people. Crucially it should also be judged by how active and engaged older people are with civic society. The Community Foundation for Ireland alongside our generous donors, have supported the rights of older people since we were founded in 2000. Overall €2,690,727.8 has been given in grants for Older Persons initiatives all around Ireland.
In 2013 we set up a dedicated long-term philanthropic fund focussed on this area called The Older Persons’ Fund. This was set up with an initial investment of €3 million, €1 million from us and €2 million from our partner, The Atlantic Philanthropies. Its twin priorities are to empower older people to speak up for what they want and need and to champion older people’s participation as active citizens in their communities. This Fund opened for applications in 2014 and to date we have given out €743,857.29 from The Older Persons’ Fund. Every year since we run an open grant round where we seek applications under our two categories, these are small grants given to local community and national organisations to engage older persons in raising their voices at a local and national level and increasing their engagement in active citizenship. In the longer term, the Fund will also support activities that address older people’s social exclusion including loneliness and isolation
To read more about the Fund see here
In addition to providing small grants at a grassroots level, The Community Foundation for Ireland supports larger, strategic initiatives which aim to achieve systemic change in key social issues. For example, The Community Foundation for Ireland has delivered multi-annual support to CRAOL . Over €250,000 has been awarded to CRAOL, the national organisation for community radio stations. The funding was used to train a number of older people as broadcasters and empower them to represent themselves on the airwaves. Each participant received a level three qualification and put together local radio shows highlighting the issues facing older persons and each participant became QQI certified in a specially created Level3 Course in Media Expression.
We have also delivered strategic grants to other organisations that include Alone and The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs. The Community Foundation for Ireland has supported the development of The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs who has just published their first Annual Statement of their collaboration. They are an Alliance of eight National NGOs in the age sector (Age Action; Active Retirement Ireland; Age & Opportunity; ALONE; Alzheimer Society of Ireland; The Irish Hospice Foundation; The Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament and Third Age Ireland) committed to working together on four priority issues from the National Positive Ageing Strategy (NPAS) that need to be addressed to achieve an age-friendly society: Participation, Health and Well-being; Living at home: Social Supports and Housing; Income and Security; Tackling Ageism. “We seek a positive working relationship with Government Departments and agencies in order to find practical ways to implement the high-level Positive Ageing Strategy and influence policy impacting on the lives of older people” (The Alliance of Age Sector NGO’s). provide links to all groups above
We are also lucky to have some very generous, strategic and engaged donors within The Community Foundation for Ireland who are helping address the issues facing older persons, which has been at the top of many donors’ priority lists. One example of strategic donor grant making was when an anonymous family fund decided to give a grant of €53,000 to Cope Galway to support provision of in-home services to support aging at home. The same family granted the Third Age Foundation a multi-annual grant of €150,000 in total to support their AgeWell Programme.
What’s next?
We will continue to strategically make grants in conjunction with our donors to address the issues facing older persons in Ireland today and in the coming years to ensure Ireland becomes a great country to grow old in. We have seen a phenomenal response from our donors so far and we know that through engaged philanthropists and The Community Foundation for Ireland’s leadership, we can make a difference to the lives of Older Persons.
To see more examples of our Donor Advised Funds or to find out how to set up a Donor Advised Fund click here.