Speech at the Centennial Celebration of the Global Community Foundation movement
The Westin Hotel, College Green, Dublin, 23rd May 2014
As Patron of the Community Foundation for Ireland, I am delighted to be here today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Global Community Foundation movement. I wish to thank Louis Fitzgerald, Chair and Tina Roche, CEO of the Community Foundation for Ireland for the kind invitation to attend this event. I also want to extend a warm Irish welcome to Brian Toller, Chair of the Ottawa Foundation, which I am told have been at the forefront of progressive and innovative philanthropic initiatives in their local communities.
Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann tá mórtas orm a bheith i m’ionadaí ar dhaoine a thuigeann cé chomh luachmhar is atá an spriod daonnúil. Nuair a toghadh mar Uachtarán mé chuir mé béim mór ar brí an seanfhocail ‘ní neart go cur le chéile’ a thabhairt linn mar sochaí, is é sin, ár ndlúthpháirtíocht sóisialta. Is seóid luachmhar í atá inbraithe anseo inniu agus tá sé spreagúil a bheith i measc daoine a bhíonn ag obair go crua, agus go tiomáinte, chun sochaí chuimsitheach, tacúil agus rannpháirtíoch a chruthú.
[As President of Ireland I am proud to represent a people that continue to value the importance of the humanitarian spirit. When I became President I emphasised the importance of grasping, as a society, the deep meaning of the proverb ‘ní neart go cur le chéile’ – ‘our strength lies in our common wealth’ – that is, our social solidarity. It is a wealth that is palpable here today and it is very inspiring to be in the company of people who work so hard, and with such commitment, for the creation of an inclusive, supportive and participative Society.]
Like so many great initiatives, the concept of a Community Foundation grew from the vision and emancipatory thinking of one individual. When Frederick H. Goff founded the world’s first community foundation one hundred years ago, he was inspired by the ideal of a fund that would enable “such charitable purposes as will best make for the mental, moral, and physical improvement of the inhabitants of Cleveland.” It was a belief that was to lay the groundwork for a wide global movement and effect a seismic transformation in the way communities would care for their vulnerable members.
Frederick Goff, and the many who have followed in his footsteps over the last one hundred years, understood that the struggles of the maginalised are the struggles of society in general. He had a vision that allowed him to look beyond the immediate –and of course often urgent – alleviation of need or poverty, to the long term resolutions that would allow for self sufficiency and the genuine and all important reconnection of vulnerable citizens back to their community and their society.
The concept that lies at the heart of Community Foundations relies on the commitment and determination of those who have retained the valuable capacity to imagine and realise a world that can be created, can yet be made to happen; those who understand that we can make our own history. The late academic Raymond Williams described a good community as one where there is a will to ‘not only make room for, but actively encourage, all and any who can contribute to the advance in consciousness which is the common need’.
Philanthropy, in its best form, places that common need, that interdependency, at the very heart of all it does. It is not presented as a substitute for just or ethical policies. By enabling communities to tackle the root causes of problems, it facilitates the identification and development of long term, sustainable solutions, and also the empowerment of victims of injustice, inequality or misfortune; enabling such citizens to become an active part of the solution to their problems, as well as active participants in their community and their society.
Community Foundation Ireland has, for fourteen years, been successfully helping to construct such a philanthropic ethos and discourse in Ireland. By connecting people and causes, the Foundation has played a valuable role in contributing to fundamental social change in communities across the country.
The grants which have been made by the Foundation, since its establishment in 2000, exceed a total of sixteen million euro. That is an impressive indication of the great generosity which still prevails in this country amongst individuals, families and organisations.
The range of initiatives which have received funding from the Foundation is a great endorsement of the innovative and original thinking which we are called upon to invoke as a people not only at times of crisis but to question the kind of world we inhabit and the kind of shared future we wish to craft.
The work of this foundation provides an inspiring example of what can be achieved when we seek new and achievable answers to old questions, explore the potential of modern technology, and look beyond perceived or suggested inevitabilities as we seek to develop alternative solutions and actions.
There are two aspects of the work of the Community Foundation’s work which are particularly remarkable. In the first instance, the social issues on which the Foundation has focused its work engage with some of the most marginalised and excluded communities and groups in our society; including many who fall outside of the work of the more traditional philanthropic model.
Those who have been empowered by the Foundation include the homeless, the elderly, victims of domestic violence, citizens from ethnic minority groups, those who devote their time to caring for sick and elderly relatives and many other members of our society who, for a variety of reasons, so often feel condemned to live half lives, shadowed by loneliness, fear or rejection.
The second notable feature of the Foundation’s work is its emphasis on impact and empowerment. Funding by the Community Foundation has been used not only to provide assistance but more importantly to give a voice to many of those within our society who would otherwise feel excluded or prevented from participating and contributing to their communities.
I was greatly encouraged to hear that 2013 marked the highest level of grant making since the inception of the Foundation, with almost €3.5m being donated to community and voluntary groups. This level of support for communities, and particularly communities that suffer disadvantage, is to be commended. It is a particularly positive development at a time when, in our society in general, we have recently been through a baleful chapter whose economic and social impact on contemporary Ireland was severe and when so many of our citizens were forced to deal with increased unemployment, reduced incomes, mortgage arrears, negative equity and renewed emigration.
To recognise that so many of those people remain willing to assist those in need is to be reminded of the great spirit of citizenship that still exists in our country; and that, despite the rampant extreme individualism that so recently threatened the fabric of our society, we are still at heart a people, a people moved by the decencies held in common and so appropriate to a republic, a people who have not lost that fundamental instinct to act in the common interest, to respond to those in need and to say a resounding ‘yes’, when asked, to our communities.
In conclusion I would like to commend the Community Foundation for Ireland for its commitment to playing a part in supporting and growing philanthropy in Ireland, thus supporting the common good and the welfare of this and future generations. By conforming to the ideal of justice while, at the same time, concerning itself with the seeking of practical responses to poverty and exclusion, the concept that lies at the heart of the Community Foundation for Ireland is one that realizes all that is possible when we begin to question inevitablilities and to recognise and welcome real opportunities to effect change.
It also reminds us that, if we are to build together an active, inclusive citizenship, it must be founded on a sustainable social economy and a society which is profoundly ethical and based on participation, equality and respect for all.
I thank all of those involved in the Foundation for all it does to create such a society here in Ireland and I wish you every success as you continue with your vital work.
Go raibh mile maith agaibh go leir.