We have been partnering with our public body Members since 2011 to make a real difference in their communities across Ireland. IPB employees are presented with opportunities to get involved in these programmes.
Social enterprises are businesses that put the interests of people, communities, and the environment ahead of private interests. These enterprises are driven by a social mission and reinvest their profits to further creating positive social change. The SEDF is a €1.6m fund created by Rethink Ireland in partnership with our local authority Members.
In December 2017, IPB embarked on a two-year collaboration with Rethink Ireland to support social enterprise development nationwide. We committed to a further two-year partnership in late 2019, backed by matching funds from the Department of Rural & Community Development resulting in a total of €3.2m for social enterprises in Ireland over the four-year period from 2018 to 2021. The SEDF is the most significant corporate investment in social enterprises in Ireland to date.
The SEDF provides social enterprises with a mix of financial and non-financial supports, which enables them to develop and thrive.
The SEDF offers employees the opportunity to volunteer in the selection process. Twenty-three employees participated in 2021 at the initial applicant review stage and later stage interviews. Volunteers were able to provide their critical thinking skills to support and select potential awardees.
In its 18th year, IPB Pride of Place is an annual all-island community competition and sponsored by IPB. The awards promote and celebrate the best in community development and recognise the selfless efforts of volunteers in making their local neighbourhoods better places to live, work and socialise. In 2020, hosted by Marty Morrissey, the awards were hosted virtually for the first time. The livestream broadcast attracted over 6,000 viewers on the night, streaming to over 2,000 locations across the island of Ireland.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education programme that creates access for children and young people to high quality, subsidised performance music education in their locality. Music Generation works closely with our Education and Training Boards (ETB), to deliver a range of tuition programmes in schools across the country. This programme is delivered through Local Music Partnerships in collaboration with our local authority Members. IPB have committed €100,000 annually in funding to the ETB sector over a three-year period (2020-2022) that will assist in the resourcing of musical instrument banks to provide greater access for young people to high-quality, subsidised performance music education in their locality.
IPB staff support a number of charities both in their personal time via volunteering or through fundraising. Some charities we support annually are:
These are just a small sample of the wonderful charities we are proud to support.
