Sectoral data on the Irish philanthropy sector – The state of play

Ireland is at an interesting moment in the development of its philanthropic sector. For the first time in the history of the State, there is a National Policy on Philanthropy which aims to “deepen understanding and knowledge, create an enabling environment and accelerate engagement with philanthropy in Ireland for social good.”[1]

According to the Irish Government, the policy is “a recognition by Government of the value of philanthropy and a statement of intent to collaborate and support the development of philanthropy to maximise its potential for public good.”[2] Five policy strands are listed as the channels through which this development will be encouraged, one of which focuses specifically on data and research. Objective 2 of the policy obliges the Government to “activate strategies for the creation, collection and utilisation of data and research to inform and guide decision-making in philanthropy, contributing to building an evidence base of needs.”[3]

Turning the spotlight on data in the Irish philanthropic sector is particularly important. By any standard, the Irish grantmaking sector is much smaller per capita than its counterpart sectors in other European Member States – a statistic borne out in Philea’s recent Report on Public-Benefit Foundations.[4] Drawing on 2021 data from the Benefact’s Legacy Project,[5] the Philea report details the existence of 159 Irish foundations with an estimated expenditure of €80m per annum but no details regarding the scale of asset holdings.

In the four years since the publication of Benefact’s data, the number of foundations has increased marginally. There are now 165 entities, comprising one community foundation, four corporate foundations, 23 family foundations, 32 independent operating foundations, 76 charitable trusts, 8 philanthropic intermediaries and 6 payroll-giving schemes.[6]

Data, however, remains scarce on these institutions for several reasons. Firstly, public-benefit foundations may take many different legal forms in Ireland (ranging from charitable trusts to private charitable trusts or companies limited by guarantee, for instance), leading to differing levels of financial reporting disclosure.

Secondly, only a minority of Irish philanthropies publish information relating to the value of their financial contributions or their activities.[7] Thirdly, while all registered charities are required to report to the Charities Regulatory Authority on an annual basis, the CRA does not publish the reports of private charitable trusts,[8] and at present, it is still possible for a charitable company to file abridged accounts under Irish company law which are then shared with the CRA, resulting in very little transparency or public accountability.

An attempt made by Philanthropy Ireland to map the philanthropic gifts and destinations of its 50+ members in 2022 continued through 2024 on its public website before becoming a member only resource in 2025. When launched in 2022, it captured 1,500 philanthropic initiatives in terms of value, impact and location for 23 of its members. By 2024, data for the 2,300 initiatives by 24 of its members enabled Philanthropy Ireland to capture an additional €53 million in grantmaking.[9] Lack of both public availability of the map and the raw data that informs it makes it impossible to replicate this research for wider mapping purposes.

Unlike Ireland’s European neighbours, Ireland lacks an academic centre with a focus on research and teaching on philanthropy and civic engagement. There is no Irish equivalent of the Geneva Centre of Philanthropy (University of Geneva) or Copenhagen’s Centre for Civil Society Studies (Copenhagen Business School) or the University of Kent’s Centre for Philanthropy. The absence of such a resource (which is acknowledged by the National Policy as a lacuna that should be filled)[10] means that there is no independent academic body consistently collecting data on charitable giving and analysing its implications or highlighting missing data points that should be captured.

As part of the implementation process of the National Policy on Philanthropy, the Irish authors (both academic and pracademic) of Philanthropy in Ireland (ERNOP, Giving in Europe, 2025)[11] shared forthcoming empirical research on giving by individuals, foundations, corporations and good cause lottery funding with the Department of Rural and Community Development. This data provides the most accurate account of available data and highlights the most serious data deficits in the hope of creating an empirical baseline. It is hoped that the establishment of a funded Irish academic centre would address some of lacunae identified.

Current work under the policy has made some progress on the data front. A review of the Charities Register has been undertaken to ensure that the private charitable trust classification (which benefits from a higher level of privacy) is only awarded charities who meet the legislative requirements for this status. It is hoped that with the cleaning of the Register it will be possible in future for the CRA to release aggregate historical data on private charitable trusts which are primarily used for grant-giving purposes. The release of such data would be a welcome window on the world of Irish philanthropy. Finally, with the passage of the Charities Amendment Act 2024, the Minister now has power to prohibit abridged charity accounts (a situation that has long prevailed under English company law). Introducing regulations to restore the previous requirement prohibition on the use of abridged accounts by registered charitable companies would greatly improve public benefit sector data in Ireland.

[1] Government of Ireland, National Policy on Philanthropy 2024-2028, at 1.

[2] Ibid.

[3] National Policy on Philanthropy, at 32.

[4] O’Neill, J. and Kilcalp, S., The Fabric of Giving 2025: Public-Benefit Foundation Data in Europe (Philea, 2025) available at https://philea.issuelab.org/resource/the-fabric-of-giving-2025-public-benefit-foundation-data-in-europe.html#download-options.

[5] Benefacts, Philanthropic and Charitable Giving Report 2021, 7, available at https://benefactslegacy.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/benefacts-philanthropic-and-charitable-giving-report-2021.pdf.

[6] Breen, O. B., Carruthers, N., O’Sullivan, N, and Quinn, P., “Philanthropy in Ireland” forthcoming in Hoolwerf, L.K. & Vamstad, J., Philanthropy in Europe 2025. Mapping the state of research and data on philanthropy in Europe. Currently available as a UCD Working Paper in Law, Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11/2024. SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5040635 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5040635.

[7] Ibid, at 17.

[8] Charities Act 2009, s.54(2).

[9] See https://www.philanthropy.ie/post/53-million-added-to-the-philanthropy-map (last accessed July 8, 2025).

[10] National Policy on Philanthropy, at 33.

[11] See n.6 above.