US philanthropists support many Irish good causes, but now they want to know why our millionaires won't follow suit, writes Denis Staunton
Pauline Ryan and her husband John, a former RTÉ engineer who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, enjoy life in California, availing of the pleasures only wealth can provide. Much of the couple's leisure time, however, is spent nurturing philanthropic projects in Ireland, focusing on educational opportunities for the disadvantaged.
The Ryans have given money to the University of Limerick but most of their activities have benefited John Ryan's native Tipperary town, where they helped to establish an Information Technology Park and they fund annual university scholarships for students from local schools.
"He enjoys giving back to the country that educated him and got him to where he is today. He feels as if it's payback time," says Pauline Ryan.
Like many US-based philanthropists, however, Pauline Ryan is bewildered by the reluctance shown by Ireland's swelling band of multimillionaires to spread their wealth around.
"The better-off in Ireland could be helping the people who aren't so well-off. They could be funding their own charity organisations and really looking at their own problems. Because there are a lot of problems in Ireland and I don't see the haves helping the have-nots," she says.
Irish fundraisers are reporting a growing resistance among American donors as Ireland flourishes economically and home-grown wealth-holders flaunt their success. A fundraiser for a large cultural institution, who asked not to be identified, told of a recent rebuff from an American philanthropist.
"He said he had just met an Irish businessman who had come over to buy a helicopter. He said: 'Why don't you ask him?' We're hearing more and more that people in the United States don't want to give to Ireland," the fundraiser said.
There is little evidence of such reticence at the American Ireland Fund's 10th-floor headquarters in downtown Boston. Last year, the fund took in a record $35 million (€29 million) for dozens of projects in both parts of the island - worldwide, the Ireland Funds have raised more than $200 million (€165 million) over the past decade.
Ireland Funds CEO Kingsley Aikins acknowledges, however, that while American donors continue to give to Irish projects, they have started asking what the Irish are doing to help one another.
"We do get people saying, 'I don't have a problem supporting Ireland but we want to be sure that the people in Ireland who are in a position to step up are getting involved,' " he said.
Next week, Aikins will be in Dublin for the Ireland Funds' seventh annual seminar on Promoting Philanthropy in Ireland, sharing the secrets of successful fundraising with representatives from dozens of non-profit groups, large and small.
With its 101 fundraising tips (available at www.irlfunds.org) the event is primarily designed to help Irish organisations to finance their operations more successfully.
ITS BROADER PURPOSE, however, is to create a culture of philanthropy in Ireland in which giving becomes as normal a part of life for Ireland's wealthiest people as it is for many of their counterparts in the US.
Ireland's statistics on giving are unreliable because the non-profit sector is unregistered and unregulated and the tax system does not track donations comprehensively.
Everybody agrees that giving has failed to keep pace with the explosion of wealth in Ireland and the sudden growth in the number of seriously rich people in the country, and Aikins estimates that at least 500 people in Ireland now have a net worth of more than $100 million (€82.6 million).
"They do give money. They give quite large amounts. They just don't seem to want to do things like naming buildings and they don't give large enough sums to name buildings," he says.
Irish donors are more likely to want to remain anonymous than their American counterparts, partly because the public response to acts of generosity is sometimes grudging or even hostile.
Many of Ireland's wealthiest people have made their money recently and are still in the process of wealth creation. In the jargon of philanthropy, they have yet to move from success to significance.
Aikins believes that fundraisers can drive such people away by making too blunt or direct an approach.
"The most important thing to do is not to ask them for money. I got a gift of $3 million and it was my 23rd meeting with this person over three years. These people are there to be engaged with, to develop a relationship with and eventually to get them passionate about your mission," he says.
ALTHOUGH THE IRELAND Funds' mission is to raise money outside Ireland for Irish projects, Aikins encourages Irish millionaires to get involved in philanthropic partnerships with American donors. Many of Ireland's new rich have been so busy creating wealth that they have never stopped to think about what they want to do with it.
"What we're saying is, have a think, do your sums. You've got a lot more than you think, you're secure and you can make great change. And you will get great pleasure from that change," he says.
Sustained by cups of Earl Grey tea in a small, spectacularly untidy office, sociology professor Paul Schervish runs the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. He believes that Ireland, where he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at University College Cork, has the capacity to transform itself through philanthropy.
"For the first time in history, it's becoming an ordinary thing for wealth-holders to do extraordinary, voluntary things with their money . . . I think there's a great potential for Ireland to go from where it is today to being very similar to the US, not over a period of 100 years but over a period of 15 years," he says.
If Ireland wants to nurture philanthropists, Schervish says it must avoid what he calls "the scolding model" of complaining that the rich don't give enough, give to the wrong causes or give for the wrong reasons.
"You could go instead for what I call the inclination model. It starts by recognising that it's voluntary," he says.
Schervish points out that giving is closely linked to the asset composition of wealth, so that people whose wealth is liquid give more than those whose wealth is tied up in property or as collateral for loans and cash flow to run a business.
It is only when people feel that their own financial future and that of their heirs is secure that they turn to philanthropy.
"It takes time to develop a philanthropic identity. They need to learn this as a valuable, additional purpose in life," he says.
With Ireland's small population combined with economic success, Schervish says that philanthropy could make the country a place that takes better care of its citizens and creates a better quality of life while maintaining low taxes.
As few as 100 very wealthy people could effect such change but Schervish believes that an Irish philanthropic model would be more sustainable if it involved as many people as possible, each giving and volunteering according to their means.
"Just as the American wealth-holders are saying you've got to make it your province, Ireland has to make it the province of more than the wealth-holders. So it's a cultural task ahead of them," he says.