By Fionn Kidney,
Co-founder and CEO, Common Knowledge
In 2023, 36 people we had mostly never met lent Common Knowledge €600,000 through community bonds to buy a retreat centre on 50 acres in the Burren. Few would have described themselves as philanthropists, but they wanted to put what they had behind an organisation tackling some of the interconnected challenges of housing, climate and inequality. The trust behind that investment has since helped us engage more than 10,000 people in our mission to share skills for a sustainable life.
Capacity-building funding gives a social enterprise the confidence to take on bigger things independently.
A home to grow into
We had founded Common Knowledge two years earlier. Harrison Gardner, a builder, teacher and author, brought years of experience sharing practical skills, and I brought my own from the non-profit, education, innovation and community sectors. We set out to meet people where they were, and to help them meet those crises by doing more themselves, and with each other. The bonds gave us a home to grow into and a living classroom for that mission. We have met every interest payment comfortably and are on the path to refinancing in 2028 as a going concern. We teach building, making, growing and repair.
Since 2021, more than 2,400 people have taken a course and over 10,000 have come to events and workshops. In 2025, seven in ten took part at low or no cost to themselves, thanks to our tiered pricing and funding we had secured. We have supported more than seventy school, community and social enterprise groups, whilst rewetting bog and enhancing biodiversity on the land itself. Participants report a doubling of their confidence, and have gone on to build their own and each other's homes. Last year we turned over €786,600, about two thirds of it earned. We generate only a small surplus, but all of it goes back into our capacity and into widening access.
Why capacity, not delivery
Programme funding is essential. It brings vital activities to life and reaches people who might otherwise be excluded. But it is often time-limited, which can make it hard to plan, invest and grow. Capacity-building support creates an organisation's long-term ability to fund its work. It can help develop new offerings, increase efficiency and open up new opportunities, so that vital work can continue and expand well beyond the life of a single grant.
A growing sector, a small share for philanthropy
A baseline study by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht counts 4,335 social enterprises in Ireland with a combined income of €2.34 billion. The National Social Enterprise Policy puts philanthropy at just 2.9% of that income, and the National Philanthropy Policy calls for the support of social enterprise. Common Knowledge is one of the nine Pilot Place-Based Philanthropy Projects.
Capacity-building philanthropy in action
In 2024 the Broadlake Foundation made us a capacitybuilding gift, matched by Rethink Ireland. It was an investment in our future sustainability rather than oneoff programme funding, and it proved transformative. First, it funded a Centre Manager for the 12-bedroom guesthouse and events venue we had brought back to life. Earned hospitality income was €137,000 in 2023; this year we expect €255,000, an uplift of 86%. That is a traded income stream that will keep growing rather than a grant that ends. Second, it funded a Marketing Manager, freeing the rest of the team to look outwards. By the end of 2025 we had secured over €1 million in programme, capital and core funding for the subsequent three years. That is ten times the original gift, and further than any year of programme money could have taken us.
Trust-based support that adapts
The SSE Artricity Generation Green Fund also invested in capacity at Common Knowledge, funding windows, doors, roof repairs, insulation, preparation works for a heat pump, and a biodigester that turns food waste into cooking gas. The grant also supported a new, education-focused role. As needs changed, SSE Airtricity allowed us to reshape the work in a trust-based way.
What the next investment buys
Even with two thirds of our income earned by trading, we are not yet self-sufficient. Long-term resilience is central to the five-year strategy we are developing for launch in early 2027. Refinancing the community bonds in 2028 will be a huge milestone, though our long-term ambition is to clear the debt entirely.
For social enterprises, the capacity philanthropy should fund is the capacity to sustain themselves.
A case for the long view
That is the commercial challenge our next phase must address: building our traded income so that the surplus can carry our core costs. This will take time, which is why it needs funders who take the long view. Our activity is aimed at providing people and communities with a greater sense of agency. Capacity-building funding gives a social enterprise exactly that.
