The Ireland Funds are a global fundraising network for people of Irish ancestry and friends of Ireland, dedicated to raising funds to support programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland. The Funds exist in 12 countries around the world, the largest member of the network being The American Ireland Fund, [1] and, after Atlantic Philanthropies, may be the second largest non-governmental donor to Irish causes. The co-founder and for many years global chairman of The Ireland Funds, was businessman Tony O'Reilly. The funds have raised over $550 million for worthy causes in Ireland and around the world. [1] [ when? ]
In 1976, Dr. Anthony J.F. O'Reilly (Sir Tony O'Reilly), former CEO of H.J. Heinz Co. (as well as a former Ireland rugby union player), created The Ireland Fund with friend and fellow Pittsburgh businessman Dan Rooney, [2] owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, who later served as the United States Ambassador to Ireland. With three goals, "Peace, Culture and Charity", The Ireland Fund appealed for support for Ireland and its people from all Americans, especially those of Irish descent. Rooney himself stated it was established to counter the prominent militant NORAID (Irish Northern Aid Committee), which was routinely accused of using donations to purchase weapons for the IRA. He stated it wasn't easy at first to persuade the American public already outraged at IRA atrocities to donate to the Funds: "[W]e often had to explain that we were not raising money for bombs." [3]
During his visit to Ireland in 1963, United States President John F. Kennedy joined with Irish President Éamon de Valera to form The American Irish Foundation, with a mission to foster connections between Americans of Irish descent and the country of their ancestry.[ citation needed ]
On St. Patrick's Day 1987, The Ireland Fund and the American Irish Foundation, then led by Arthur William Bourn Vincent, [4] merged at a White House ceremony to form The American Ireland Fund. [5]
In 1988, O' Reily declared to The New York Times that the Ireland Fund was raising $4 million per year. [6] By July 1993, the group was raising $6 million annually, holding 24 events in 12 American cities. [7] This amount was in stark contrast to NORAID's $3.6 million donations from 1970 to 1998 and equal to the IRA's annual $2-10 million derived from criminal and legitimate activities across Ireland in the 1970s-1990s. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
The Ireland Funds, through The American Ireland Fund, formed a network of fundraising chapters in additional cities across the United States as including Boston, Chicago, Palm Beach, New York City, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington D.C. [1]
In parallel with expansion within the USA, Ireland Funds were established in a range of countries, from Ireland itself to Canada (launched 1978), Australia (launched 1987), Great Britain (1988), France (1990), New Zealand (1992), Germany (1993), Japan (1993), Monaco (1998), China (1998) and Singapore (2009). [1]
Shared world headquarters for The Ireland Funds were opened in Boston in 1994.
With over 100 events annually in 40 cities around the world, attended by 40,000 people, and raising over $550 million since 1976, [1] The Ireland Funds is one of the largest non-governmental organizations helping Ireland; it does most of its work by choosing and contributing to the work of other NGOs.[ citation needed ]
Although The American Ireland Fund remains the largest component of The Ireland Funds structure, there are also chapters still operating in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Monaco, Singapore, New Zealand, and Ireland. [1]
The Ireland Funds have their world headquarters in Boston, with offices in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Toronto, Dublin, London and Sydney. [1]
The Ireland Funds are overseen by voluntary directors at various levels, and have regional and global staff. Each country or chapter has its own governance body, such as a Board of Directors, with operations led by a local regional or executive director.
The organisation has had an active website since 1996, with four major relaunches since then. [13]
The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for non-profit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.
Matching funds are funds that are set to be paid in proportion to funds available from other sources. Matching fund payments usually arise in situations of charity or public good. The terms cost sharing, in-kind, and matching can be used interchangeably but refer to different types of donations.
The Friends of Sinn Féin is the name of six different Irish republican political non-profit organisations located in Scotland, England, Wales, Canada, Australia and the United States. Friends of Sinn Féin USA, located in New York City, is the largest and most successful.
NORAID, officially the Irish Northern Aid Committee, is an Irish American membership organization founded after the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969. The organization states its mission is to aid in the creation of a United Ireland in the spirit of the 1916 Easter Proclamation and to support the Northern Ireland Peace process. During the Troubles, NORAID was known for raising funds for the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Nationalist relief groups such as Green Cross and An Cumann Cabrach.
Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors.
Martin J. Galvin is an Irish American lawyer, publisher and activist, and former director of NORAID.
The American Ireland Fund, is a tax-exempt organization incorporated under the laws of the United States and has been determined by the IRS to be a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, tax ID # is 25-1306992. The organization raises funds for the support of peace and reconciliation, community development, education, and arts and culture in Ireland. Collectively with The Ireland Funds’ 12 worldwide chapters, it has raised more than $550 million (US), benefiting more than 3,000 Irish charities.
George Harrison was a primary gun runner for the Irish Republican Army and Provisional Irish Republican Army from the 1950s until 1981.
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is a fund-raising program for children sponsored by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Started on Halloween 1950 as a local event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the program historically involves the distribution of small orange boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit. Millions of children in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and Hong Kong participate in Halloween-related fund-raising events for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, and the program has raised over US$188 million worldwide.
The Jerusalem Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that promotes the development of the city of Jerusalem, by raising funds for social, cultural and beautification projects. Established in 1966 by West Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, it has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the city's budget and established parks, gardens, forests, recreational sites, theaters, and museums; restored ancient sites, synagogues, mosques, and churches; funded community and social centers, preschool centers, and health clinics; and sponsored archeological excavations, scholarships, and cultural events. The Jerusalem Foundation is unique in its structure and mission, as it funds municipal projects with private donations from international sources.
CrowdRise is a for-profit crowdfunding platform that raises charitable donations. CrowdRise was founded by Edward Norton, Shauna Robertson, and the founders of Moosejaw, Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe. CrowdRise was acquired in 2017 by GoFundMe.
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the beginning of 2020, over $9 billion has been raised on the platform, with contributions from over 120 million donors.
FundRazr is a free crowdfunding and online fundraising platform released in 2009. FundRazr operates internationally in 35+ countries with the largest markets being United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. It allows users to run a wide-range of crowdfunding campaigns by creating fundraising pages and sharing it via social media, messaging apps, email and more to raise money for over 100 types of causes such as nonprofit, medical care, education, community help, poverty alleviation, arts, memorials, and animal rescue causes. FundRazr also works with more than 4000 nonprofits, charities and social enterprises with an advanced fundraising toolset for free. The digital fundraising platform provides 8 different campaign types. They include microproject fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, wishlist campaigns, recurring donations, branded sponsorship campaigns, DIY projects, sweepstake campaigns, and storefront campaigns.
Rally.org is an American social online fundraising platform for use by a wide range of individuals and organizations. It allows users to set up their own fundraising page, through which supporters can find information about their campaigns and make donations through Rally.org's proprietary payment system. The platform is best known for its use by causes including the Make A Wish Foundation and Jon Bon Jovi's Hurricane Sandy relief effort, filmmakers including the director of Buzkashi Boys, and political campaigns in the United States 2012 election cycle. In May 2012, Rally.org closed the largest Series A round of venture capital ever raised online. The company was founded in Austin, Texas, as Piryx, in 2009 by Tom Serres, Brian Upton, Jonas Lamis and Naveed Lalani.
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, a relative of the British royal family, was assassinated on 27 August 1979 by Thomas McMahon, an Irish republican and a volunteer for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The Hillary Victory Fund was a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and 33 state Democratic committees. As of May 2016, the Fund had raised $61 million in donations.
Michael Flannery was an Irish republican who fought in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He supported the Provisional IRA during The Troubles and was a founder of NORAID and Cumann na Saoirse after Republican Sinn Féin and Provisional Sinn Féin split in 1986.
In order to finance their armed campaigns during the Troubles (1969–1998), both Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitaries engaged in numerous fundraising activities within Ireland and the United Kingdom, such as bank robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, bootleg recording, racketeering, and legitimate businesses such as social clubs, taxi companies, and retail shops. They also received finances from overseas, with the Republican paramilitaries being given the most support.
Estimated to have sent at total of $3.6 million to Ireland from 1970 to 1991, NORAID's contributions represented a small, but not [politically] insignificant, part of the IRA's income, which is estimated to have amounted to approximately $10 million a year.
From its founding in 1969 until 1991, NORAID raised approximately $3.6 million for Irish republican causes, through a combination of testimonial fundraising dinners and an extensive campaign to solicit donations through direct mail, dinner-dance benefits, and "passing the hat" in Irish American-owned businesses (such as bars) in major US cities.' This money was ostensibly to provide support for any number of causes related to Ireland and Irish republicanism, ranging from political activities to support to the families of imprisoned PIRA members