Irish Youth Foundation – Providing young people in Ireland the opportunity to achieve their full potential

As the country rebuilds, no child’s future should hang in the balance because of this virus or a lack of support. If our children aren’t re-built, the country isn’t either.

Levelling the playing field for young people living in disadvantage and their peers

Before the sudden onslaught of Covid 19, Ireland’s most marginalised children and young people were already struggling to secure a safe and solid foothold in society. Poverty and exclusion placed them at the furthest point distant from meaningful participation in education, from personal well-being, and from being able to make positive life choices.

All we’re missing are the resources and the prudent, caring leaders with the vision and values to partner us to transform a generation. All we’re missing is you. Please will you join us?

Our Goal

Ensure that children experiencing economic and social hardship have the right people, programmes and facilities to turn to, in order to become agents of their own transformation and to have the chance of a brighter future.

3 Focus Areas

Education

Positive transitions from primary to post primary education.

Children must be able to master reading, writing and maths by the time they leave primary school.

Health & Wellbeing

Happy healthy transitions from childhood through adolescence and young adulthood. Young people should all have access to social, personal, academic and mental resilience to lead a prosperous life.

Skills & Employability

Opportunities to transition to the marketplace. Young people are supported to overcome low self esteem, low expectations, learn valuable skills and have access to opportunities.

How do we do it?

Carefully targeted grant making to effective and impactful organisations that address and reverse the social and personal damage caused by poverty, educational disadvantage and social exclusion.

Why partner with us

Strengthened by knowledge

We listen to the voice of young people growing up in Ireland – we know where their needs are. We have put in place:

A Youth Panel who advise and consult with us
A Quarterly Omnibus Research Tracker that harvests relevant data, mood and sentiment of young people nationwide
Database of best-in-class youth projects
Forensic on-the-ground intelligence and an inside track on the most effective organisations that are best placed to deliver the greatest evidenced-based programmes and outcomes
We employ a partnership approach to involve all our stakeholders to proactively identify emerging issues and new initiatives that will deliver the greatest impacts

Underpinned by robust structures, systems and governance

Our unique characteristics and qualities include:

Experienced, trusted grant makers with a long standing reputation since 1985
Lean and highly experienced leadership team
Ensure clear and transparent assessment processes for grants
Experience in developing fund criteria and applications that reflect the size of a grant, and yet protect small projects / programmes from unreasonable demands
Processes for implementing good communication, publicity tools and events to further increase both fundraising and profile
Ensure efficient reporting, financial monitoring and payment systems
Develop monitoring and evaluation procedures that encourage self evaluation of grantees

Delivering on our promise

The Irish Youth Foundation is a registered Irish charity (CHY5957). Being a philanthropic funding body, we are, every day, entrusted to safe-keep, monitor and ensure that the vital funds donated by visionary and caring people and organisations – are well spent, well monitored and impacts evaluated. We have adopted the Governance Code or Community, Voluntary and Charitable Organisations. Our charity prepares a Trustees annual report and financial statements in full compliance with the Charity SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice under FRS102) and makes them easily available to the public on our website. Our board have formally adopted the Charities Regulator’s Guidelines for Charitable Organisations on Fundraising from the Public.