During 2011, a donor, who has been extremely successful in his working life and had previously been giving to charities for some time in an ad-hoc manner, become aware of The Community Foundation for Ireland in his capacity as a professional adviser and decided to set up a Donor Advised Fund. Wishing to house his grantmaking in a structured and an anonymous way, he particularly liked the fact that The Community Foundation for Ireland handled the administrative side, as well as the formalised process of staged payments and outcome reports expected from the grantees.
The Community Foundation for Ireland was able to act as a mediator for the Penguin Fund and delivered accountability and measurement of the effectiveness of his grant making as standard. Having already put a lot of thought into his philanthropy, he identified that he wished to support a ‘Chess for All’ project as he had been a chess enthusiast as a child and could identify the benefits that playing chess had brought to him. It was initially a three-year project. The first ‘Chess for All’ national finals took place in Dublin in 2012 with 50 schools taking part in the finals, involving an estimated 180 children and have grown since then. The Community Foundation for Ireland was able to work closely with all stakeholders in terms of expectations, obligations, reporting requirements and looking at the long-term sustainability beyond funding.
“When I opened the fund at The Community Foundation for Ireland I had wanted to give something back. As a child, I remembered how much I enjoyed playing chess and the benefits it had for me socially and educationally. People gave their time voluntarily to bring us back and forth to play in competitions and this often came back to me as the years went by. I funded Chess for All from my Donor Advised Fund at The Community Foundation for Ireland to the value of €120,000. This will ensure hundreds, if not thousands of children are impacted by the positive influence of chess in their lives, just like me”. Penguin Fund Holder
Since the initial grantmaking to Chess for All the Penguin Fund has continued to be strategic in its grant making and has provided supporter to a number of other organisations including Children’s Rights Alliance and Mental Health Reform.