The Community Foundation for Ireland, one of the country’s leading philanthropic organisations, today announced the winners of the ninth annual Philanthropist of the Year awards at a luncheon hosted by broadcaster Marian Finucane in Dublin.
The Community Foundation for Ireland is a philanthropic organisation which seeks just and progressive social change. The Foundation empowers people and organisations who want to make a difference through a model of philanthropy that is based on trust, effectiveness and impact.
Last year, The Foundation and its donors distributed almost €6million to charitable causes in Ireland and overseas and reached the milestone of €30million in cumulative grants since its establishment in 2000.
This year’s National, Corporate and International winners join other well-known philanthropists such as Carmel and Martin Naughton, Brendan O’Carroll, Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies, Diageo, Vodafone, Mark FitzGerald and Declan Ryan in being awarded the accolade.
Congratulating the award winners, CEO of the Community Foundation for Ireland, Tina Roche said, "This year’s winners highlight the impact sustained long term giving can have on a specific cause or issue, as instanced by Maurice Healy’s support for Anam Cara, Applegreen’s support for numerous children’s charities and SAP’s commitment to its African Coding Week. Philanthropy is from both the head and the heart; it is truly planned giving. It focuses on results, on the longer term and on the sustainable. We hope that these winners will inspire others to come forward and adopt a more strategic and sustained approach to giving."
This year’s Philanthropist of the Year Award winners are:
· Maurice Healy as National Philanthropist of the Year for his significant support for a number of charities including Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI), An Cosán and Anam Cara.
· Applegreen as Corporate Philanthropist of the Year as they have generated over €1.8 million in support for a number of children’s charities including Barnardos, ISPCC and Debra. Bob Etchingham, Chief Executive Officer collected the award.
· SAP as International Philanthropist of the Year for their African Coding Week initiative which to date has supported over 400,000 young people in Africa. Collecting the award was Liam Ryan, Managing Director.
Source: www.businessworld.ie
