Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108Dear Friends, Welcome to this latest edition of Connect Magazine which is a reflection of your generosity and the difference you are making across Ireland and to Irish communities around the world. 2017 marks the opening of a very important time in our history. Our boards are progressing a very ambitious development plan for The Ireland Funds. This includes increasing our asking capacity, measuring precisely the impact of our grant-making and bringing about the biggest increase in the value of our endowment. All of this is to ensure that we have the capacity to maximize what we deliver for our grantees. This is essential as we are now one of the largest sources of private philanthropic support for the not-for-profit sector across the island of Ireland. A key objective of ours is to help this sector grow. We wish to enhance asking techniques to promote giving across Ireland. Critical to this is increasing transparency within the not-for-profit sector. We are particularly proud to be backers of Benefacts, an organization that is producing an online database of all Irish charities giving a full profile of their work and their financials. This will give the Irish public the details they need to make informed decisions about what organizations to support. The importance of the not-for-profit sector in Ireland is reflected in the quality of the projects you see in the pages of this magazine ranging from Inner City Enterprise to Music Generation. As you can see, these projects are doing extraordinary work and achieving great returns. They are truly maintaining Ireland’s social fabric and helping to create opportunities as the country continues its recovery from the economic crisis. I hope you are proud to be supporting them and for that support, we thank you profoundly. You are making a great difference when and where it counts the most. Kind regards, Kieran McLoughlin Worldwide President & CEO, The Ireland Funds Connect SPRING / SUMMER / 2017 connect 2017 • 5