Overview of the organisation
Oakfield Trust is a 28-year-old social enterprise and registered charity, based in Clondalkin. Our primary activities are providing property-based solutions to social enterprises and local community organisations. We own three commercial properties and lease/sub-lease two in the Clondalkin area. All of these are rented to social enterprises and community organisations.
We have also supported local community organisations by way of startup grants, loan finance and project management resources, and we donated large sums to needy organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023 we moved into providing direct funding to social enterprises nationwide, via an open grant fund. We are also taking a more active role in developing the sector in Ireland, via advocacy, networking, events and support activities.
First year exploring open grant rounds
2023 represented our first, national, open call for social enterprise funding applications. The main eligibility requirements were that the organisation was based in Ireland, with trading income, and ideally with registered charity and/or CLG status.
We awarded €45,500 in grants in 3 categories:
Explore Award – to explore an idea for social enterprise. Up to €1,000
Get Started - to develop a new social enterprise idea towards full start-up. Up to €5,000
Scale Up - for an established social enterprise or entrepreneur. Up to €10,000
Summary of Applications
Total applications received 40
Total applications approved 11
Total amount awarded €45,500
Social issue areas funded
Housing and Provision of Safe Space
Circular Economy
Health and Social Care
Creative Industries (including digital)
Climate and Biodiversity
Impact Created
“The funding has enabled us to grow our work to make space for nature in deprived communities with many benefits for people and wildlife.”
From Pocket Forests (Catherine Clery, Co-founder)
“We were hugely grateful for the 2023 Oakfield Trust grant that went towards supporting our Education Programme, which aims to make children and young people stronger, smarter and safer in the online world. In the 23/24 academic year, our Education Programme directly trained 19,000 children and 4,000 adults.”
From CyberSafeKids (Aoife Keogh, Marketing and Development Manager)
“The funding enabled an up and coming organisation like ours to increase our reach and engage new members, something that is so valuable to a co-operative who relies on members to thrive.”
From Aisteach Queer Housing Co-Operative (Karina Murray)
Reflections from Grantees
Incorporating an online application system made the process easy to access and operate for both applicants and funders.
The grant round had a launch day where applicants were announced which allowed grantees to meet and network between themselves and with the Oakfield Trust. Grantees would have also liked to see a ‘closing day’ at the end where they could share learnings and review the growth.
Maybe some kind of certification, LinkedIn/website badge or something so we can continue to proudly show we were a grant recipient with Oakfield Trust.
Learnings from Oakfield Trust
Lessons learned around the heavy due diligence required around applicant finances and the type of financial statements required.
Likely to consider adjusting the type of grant funding for our next iteration to respond to sector needs and give dynamic, traceable financial support.
Consider reducing the number of awardees next time in order to provide more funds to less awardees and thereby increase impact.