Listed nonprofits are encouraged to update the site with information about their own organisations – contact info@irishnonprofits.ie for further information. Regulatory data are correct as of December 2011.

We plan to survey listed nonprofits in the New Year, to get feedback about the initiative and share ideas about how it could benefit the work of Irish nonprofits in the future. In the meantime, we welcome comments or suggestions.

This is a free, public website providing searchable
access to the most comprehensive database on public benefit nonprofits
in Ireland. As a result, anyone interested in the nonprofit sector in
Ireland will quickly and easily be able to access information about
the purposes, governance and finances of Irish nonprofit companies.
This includes nonprofits active in the fields of arts, heritage,
sport, education, research, health, local, community or international
development, philanthropy, religion, social justice, and the
environment.

The site, which was developed by the Irish Nonprofits Knowledge
Exchange (INKEx), contains data compiled from regulatory sources and
information provided by the nonprofits themselves. It is free of
charge to the public and to all nonprofits listed, thanks to grants
and donations from the government, philanthropic and corporate
sources. Nonprofits, which have had secure access to the website since
this summer, are able to update their profiles at any time.

The irishnonprofits.ie website represents a milestone in visibility,
transparency and accountability for nonprofits in Ireland. Until now,
information about this sector has been available only from the
individual nonprofits themselves, from a handful of published
directories which are limited in scope, and from regulatory
authorities (for example the Companies Registration Office).

Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange (INKEx), a nonprofit (limited by
guarantee) company with charitable tax exemption from Revenue, was
established in 2009 to promote the visibility, transparency and
accountability of Irish nonprofits. INKEx has built the website, and
the Irish Nonprofits Database which powers it, following the Guidestar
model first developed in the United States more than ten years ago.
The publication of this website marks the end of a 30-month project
for which funding was provided by public, private and nonprofits
sources. The project is now seeking funding to develop it on a
permanent basis.

Mary Robinson, President, Mary Robinson Foundation former President of Ireland (15 August 2011)

Tania Banotti, CEO Theatre Forum (25 April 2011)

Concern welcomes the transparency it will bring to the charity sector generally in Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish Nonprofits Database is an unprecedented undertaking and the data and analysis which it will provide will help guide policy makers, researchers, funders and service providers in the years to come.”

Tom Arnold – CEO, Concern Worldwide (23 June 2011)

In order to achieve these objectives, the sector will need tools and mechanisms that will help drive transparency, accountability and impact. Sadly, compared with other developed nations, these are in short supply in Ireland as investment in them over the years has largely been neglected.

Irishnonprofits.ie is an excellent example of a reversal of this trend. If used across the sector, it has the power to reduce waste, avoid duplication and increase impacts by providing a window to a wider audience over important information, like funding and expenditure, and how effectively they are managed within the sector. With this kind of data, philanthropists will be able to produce time and cost effective studies and reports, sectoral trends can be acknowledged, and government agencies that provide funding can monitor the progress of their contributions and identify where aid may be lagging.

For my organisation, it also means we will be able to see where others may be spending money more efficiently, find studies and projects of interest to our efforts and recognise new opportunities for furthering our cause. “

Paddy MaGuinness – Managing Director, TraidLinks (11 May 2011)

The ability of charities to further enhance their regulatory profile with additional information about their organisation and mission provides even greater functionality. This feature adds to the potential of INKEx to serve as a one-stop information shop for donors or indeed anyone interested in charitable companies or in the world of Irish nonprofits.”

Dr. Oonagh B. Breen, School of Law, University College Dublin (6 July 2011)

Despite the well-documented growth in the number of nonprofits in Ireland, and the reach of their work, the is still a gap between the scale of the work being done and the public’s knowledge of this.

It has never been more important for the work of public benefit nonprofits in Ireland to be understood and appreciated.

Various commentators have remarked on the growth of nonprofit activity in Ireland since the mid-1990s.

“In a broad sense the operating climate for community and voluntary organisations has been quite favourable over the past decade, certainly in terms of growth, new Government initiatives, new opportunities and the availability of increased funding and sources of funding. It has also been a challenging environment with many organisations having to respond to the paradoxically increased demands of vulnerable populations and rapid social change in spite of economic growth, while the compliance requirements of organisations have also increased significantly.”

(Owen Keenan Relationships and Representation, Challenges and Opportunities for the Voluntary and Community Sector in Ireland (Dublin, TCD CNM 2008) p38)

If anything, the changing conditions create a greater need than ever before for nonprofits to speak in a coherent voice.

“The new [societal, economic and political] context compels a re-examination of the role of Community and Voluntary organisations in a societal context in which the major institutions including church, politics and business have all lost credibility, some very dramatically. This presents an opportunity to the Community and Voluntary sector to provide leadership and to be more ambitious in considering the potential for a much more fundamental transformation of society.”[1]

(The Advocacy Initiative Project Report, August 2010, Introduction)

Yet the sector has failed to develop the infrastructures that would enable it to take its full share in reforming our society.

“It was noted that power exists and shapes Irish society and that the sector has great latent power in making sense and meaning in peoples’ lives and aligning people around values and issues. Making sense of issues people care about gets followers engaged and committed… However if the sector fails to organise itself, to animate its values and vision, then the opportunity is lost. The credibility is weakened. This is viewed as a key challenge facing the sector’s claim to independence.”

(Helen Newman Independent and Interdependent – Sustaining a Strong and Vital Community and Voluntary Sector in Ireland (Dublin, The Wheel, 2011) p26)

This has the effect of limiting the resource base available to the sector…

“Small independent organizations frequently lack the resources to ensure professional management and transparent reporting to the public. Reports published by many NGOs are limited to general statements and do not give a detailed account of where and how funds are used. …”

(Philanthropy in the Republic of Ireland – An assessment of the current state and future potential of philanthropic giving in the Republic of Ireland (Dublin, McKinsey & Company, 2009) p12)

… and it has been suggested that it limits the sector’s readiness to face a variety of challenges.

“… it is relevant to identify some of the consequences and some of their implications arising from the absence of a cross-sectoral ‘voice’…

– The community and voluntary sector cannot adequately identify what it wants and needs, or speak with one voice to Government…

– It cannot develop or communicate its identity as a sector and its contribution to the health of society – which can result in it underselling itself to stakeholders (including the general public) and also missing opportunities

– It cannot defend itself against unfair or inaccurate criticism – resulting in a potential loss of credibility and respect

This limits its credibility and capacity to influence, and it enables processes to be determined and managed by other interests”.

(Owen Keenan (2008) p41)

Infrastructural limitations are also linked to the absence of cross-sectoral leadership.

“Some [i.e. of those consulted in the preparation of this report] thought the sector as weak, underdeveloped and lacking a clear infrastructure. A strong infrastructure is deemed (by most) as important is the sector is to have any capacity to generate, influence policy, negotiate with government and/or represent the sector internationally. There is not clear agreement about how best to mobilise or organise the community and voluntary sector as a sector or indeed if this is a good thing in the first instance.

“That said, the need for the sector to become more organised and for such organisation to become more visible and tangible was repeatedly stated. This is identified as a challenge of leadership. There is a need to harness the strong leadership evidenced internally in organisations and make this available for a collective benefit.

“As a first step there is a need to map the complexity of the sector so as to identify how best to organise, mobilise and support the activity of the sector and those who it serves. It is suggested that leadership on this needs to come from the sector itself.”

(Helen Newman (2011))

Various authorities have commented on the lack of/agree on the need for a knowledge infrastructure serving the sector and its stakeholders.

“Considering the significance of the community and voluntary sector in Ireland, the scale of funding from Government, philanthropy and the public, the dearth of information and data on the sector is extraordinary. Notwithstanding important research undertaken to date, this represents a major challenge for all interests, not least in better understanding the sector and its environment. It is impossible to have good policy or planning without good data and we are seriously deficient in this respect. It is regrettable that there is no sustained State-sponsored research programme on the sector and the reinstatement of the White Paper funding commitment with regard to research is an urgent priority.”

(Owen Keenan (2008) p38)

“It is worth drawing attention to the fact that the task of compiling a sample of community and voluntary organisations proved quite difficult and time-consuming. There is no one place where one can access a comprehensive list of email addresses for C&V organisations without encountering data protection problems. The researchers would like to acknowledge the assistance of several membership and network organisations that facilitated them in encouraging their members to proactively choose to participate in this particular survey – but there is a clear need for the publication of a directory of organisations, including their email addresses, and for this to be continuously maintained and updated. There is a fundamental problem at the moment in communicating directly with organisations in the sector as a whole – as things currently stand, the development of the embryonic Irish Nonprofit Knowledge Exchange (INKEx) possibly offers the best opportunity to address this deficit.”

(The Advocacy Initiative Project Report, p30)

“The Minister for Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs, Pat Carey, told Finian McGrath (ind, Dublin NC) that there was no central repository on the voluntary and community sector in Ireland and how it was funded (Dail Eireann, Debates, 18th January 2011, 965). The minister told him that his department was ‘providing considerable co-funding toward the development of an on-line, publicly accessible database of relevant bodies’, as well as rolling out the charities legislation, which should lead to much greater transparency in how the sector was funded.”[2]

(Dail Eireann, Debates, 18th January 2011, 965 reported in Oireachtas Brief 14 February 2011)

“The funding environment supporting community and voluntary organisations is complex and a coherent picture of funding being channeled into the sector is not known. Notwithstanding the fundingpoint.ie website hosted by The Wheel, it is striking that there is not a place to find out the level and depth of funding being channeled into the sector…

As a first step, mapping the sector is required – who is involved; and the nature of this involvement…

Mapping the sector will also help identify opportunities for collaboration and/or consolidation between organisations working on the same issues and addressing the same needs…

Developing the evidence base and evaluation and research skills available to the sector needs further support.”

(Helen Newman 22 32-34)

The sector is not the only potential user of the Irish Nonprofits Database.

“In order to maximise productivity gains, both from how work is organised and from streamlining procedures, processes and systems to allow for shared services and e-government developments, a substantial commitment to the redesign of work processes will be necessary. The Parties will co-operate with the drive to reduce costs through organisational rationalisation and restructuring and by service delivery organised in different ways or delivered by different bodies. The aim is to minimise duplication of effort, reuse data within the public system and reduce information demands on the citizens and business. The introduction of new or improved technology, service provision online and electronic funds transfer will be regarded as the norm. Processes and service delivery will be improved by better collation and re-use of data and personal information and by centralising transaction and certain sectoral data handling support functions.”

(Public Service Agreement 2010 – 2014 (the “Croke Park Agreement”); Government of Ireland, 2010 p5)

[1] see http://www.advocacyinitiative.ie/
[2] see http://www.oireachtasbrief.ie/

Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange (INKEx) is nonprofit information systems project working to build a comprehensive, live database of Irish non-profit organisations. INKEx aims to transform the visibility and transparency of Irish nonprofits by documenting and disseminating their work.

Prior to the public launch of our free public website (Irishnonprofits.ie), we are currently engaged in rolling out our web based service to the c8,000 nonprofit organisations in scope. This including charities, community & voluntary organisations, NGOs and civil society organisations.

INKEx is an independent, nonprofit company with charitable tax exemption from Revenue.

Engagement Executive (JobsBridge)

INKEx is seeking a volunteer Research & Communications Executive (unpaid) to work with Irishnonprofits.ie in 2011/12. This internship is an excellent opportunity for a graduate (minimum Level 7 full award on the NFQ) from a Economics/Business, Marketing or IT to work with our Engagement Task Force. We are keen to find a self starter looking to develop their experience.

With appointment, a suitable candidate should be eligible to retain social welfare payments.

Area of activity in which placement is offered:

• Sales, Public Relations and Marketing.

The successful candidate will gain experience in:

• Direct calls to stakeholders, clients and partners.
• Organisation of training and events
• Implementing the organisation’s marketing and communications plan
• Assisting with public relations activities
• Developing promotional materials for Irishnonprofits.ie
• General office experience

Person specification:

The candidate should:

• Hold good verbal and communication skills
• Be able to meet deadlines and work in a team-oriented environment
• Be able to use Microsoft office tools and be comfortable with the web.
• A full award at Level 7 on the NFQ in Economics/Business, Marketing, or IT

Working closely with and reporting to the Project Manager, this position is located in 37 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2. The internship is for 35 hours per week for a duration of 6-9 months commencing in August 2011. The project may lead to a full time post. More details about this FAS JobsBridge Work Placement Programme position may be had by visiting the FAS website.

Apply by emailing a copy of your CV and a short note explaining your relevance to the role to jobs@irishnonprofits.ie please include the subject: JobBridge Application

The original advert for this role is available on Irishonprofits.ie: http://beta.irishnonprofits.ie/2011/jobsbridge

The official listing of the role can be found on: http://jobbridge.ie/i.aspx?v=628500