By: Sinéad Dalton, Philanthropy Ireland
In May 2025, the National Philanthropy Policy for Ireland 2024–2028 moved from ambition to action.
Through a targeted call from the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, a new initiative was launched: Pilot Place-Based Philanthropy Projects.
The aim was not just to fund activity but to test something more fundamental:
Can philanthropy, government and communities work together deliberately and transparently to address real local challenges?
One year on, we are beginning to see what that looks like in practice. Not as a finished model but as a live test, with all the complexity that brings.
From Policy to Practice
The pilot call set out to test a specific model: co-funded, community-led partnerships, grounded in place. This was a deliberate design choice.
Not philanthropy operating separately.
Not government acting alone.
But a structured attempt to bring both into alignment around shared outcomes.
Projects were required to:
Address a clearly identified local need
Be led by a community organisation
Include a confirmed philanthropic partner
Demonstrate collaboration across sectors
Commit to measurable outcomes and learning
Funding was structured on a 50:50 match basis, ensuring shared investment and shared responsibility.
From 33 applications, 9 projects were selected, representing a total investment of almost €1.9 million, split evenly between public funding and philanthropic contributions. It was a test how this model can work in practice.
A Diverse Portfolio of Local Innovation
The selected projects span the country - from Clare to Cork, Dublin to Limerick and reflect the diversity and complexity of challenges facing communities.
Education. Food poverty. Access to justice. Youth disadvantage. Environmental resilience.
Together, they form a portfolio of real-world experiments:
JumpAGrade (Cork), supporting over 1,200 students in disadvantaged areas
Citywise (Dublin), improving access to third-level education
Croom Community Kitchen (Limerick), tackling rural isolation and food poverty
The Hygiene Hub (National), addressing hygiene poverty at scale
Legal Change-Makers (Limerick), expanding access to justice
Each project is different. But they are locally grounded and collectively testing a national question.
Each project is rooted in local knowledge, but supported by shared investment and partnership.
Partnership is the Innovation
These pilots are:
Bringing philanthropy into structured, transparent collaboration with government
Creating new relationships between community organisations, donors and local authorities
Testing the role of intermediaries in managing funding and governance
These partnerships are being developed within clear governance frameworks, ensuring transparency, accountability and alignment with public funding principles
Communities Are Leading, Not Receiving
A defining feature of the programme is that projects are community-led.
This has resulted in:
Strong alignment with real, lived needs
Local ownership and trust
Relevant and responsive programme design
Philanthropy is Supporting Learning
Across the projects, philanthropy is playing a distinct role:
Enabling new ideas to be tested
Supporting early-stage innovation
Providing flexibility where traditional funding may be constrained
In effect, these projects are operating as learning partnerships where ideas can be tested, evidence generated, and insights used to inform future policy decisions.
This is not about replacing public funding. It is about creating space to learn what works before scaling through government systems.
Early Signals of Impact
Although full evaluations will take time, the projects are generating insights:
What makes co-funding work in practice
Where governance or reporting needs refinement
How partnerships can be structured more effectively
Importantly, these projects are also testing approaches that may be adapted or replicated in other contexts. This learning is a core objective of the pilots and one of their most valuable outputs.
What This Means for Policy
These pilot projects are doing something important:
They are making the National Philanthropy Policy real.
They demonstrate that:
Philanthropy can complement public systems
Government can engage in partnerships that are structured, transparent and aligned with public priorities
Community-led initiatives can be strengthened through blended funding models
Perhaps most significantly, they provide practical evidence base and learning for future decisions.
As the policy moves forward, these pilots will help answer key questions:
Where is philanthropy most effective?
What partnership models work best?
How can this approach be scaled responsibly?
For policymakers, the key question is not whether philanthropy can contribute but under what conditions it is most effective - clarity of roles, strong local leadership, and appropriate governance structures are critical to making these partnerships work in practice.
Can the learning be captured clearly? Can it inform how Government engages going forward? Can effective models be adapted and applied elsewhere without losing what made them work locally?
This is where policy becomes real.
Looking Ahead
The Pilot Place-Based Philanthropy Projects are a starting point. Their impact will be measured not only in local outcomes but in how they inform a broader shift:
From isolated funding streams to collaborative, place-based solutions
From abstract policy to practical partnership
From “what is philanthropy?” to “how can it help?”
It is still early. It is still evolving.
But it is beginning to show what is possible when partnership is treated not as an idea, but as a practice.