About Us

Mission Statement

Charity 25 is the co-operation of 25 Irish National Charities working together to raise public awareness and funding for each charity member.

About A & C Foundation.

All of us have been touched in some way by the loss of a friend or family member to illness. Founder of the Charity 25, Kevin O’Brien pictured here with Mrs Brown is no different. He, however, is concerned that due to the current downturn in our economy, awareness of and support for charities which carry out vital work in our society and on which many people rely for day to day survival, will suffer and a number may go into demise.

He strongly believes that everyone in Ireland can and must play their part in helping to raise money for charity organisations as “none of us can ever know when we will be seeking their assistance, either directly or indirectly, for ourselves or a loved one”. “Where do we go if these organisations have ceased to exist due to the want of funding?”

The foundation’s main distinct objective which combine to deliver much needed funds to those charities with which Charity 25 will work

Kevin spent 18 months researching and setting up the A & C foundation for which Charity 25 is part of and with the kind help of his business partner Sean Mc Evoy and their group of companies, between them have pledged over half a million euros worth of free marketing services annually to Charity 25, to ensure that the €2WILLDO text fund-raising campaign can be on-going.

Kevin is married to wife Ger and they have 3 children, Angela & Ciara for whom the foundation is named and who helped design the organisation’s logo. His youngest child Niall is named after one of his closest friends, celebrity optician to the stars “Niall Mc Crudden”, who died suddenly early in 2010.

The birth of his children and the unexpected nature of the death of his friend Niall have done much to focus Kevin’s thoughts on the breadth of charities relevant within Irish society today and how they can be most effectively assisted in helping the Irish population

About Us

Charity 25 is a strategic, operational element of the A & C Foundation which itself has been set up as a registered Irish charity foundation to raise money and public awareness for 25 member charities based here in Ireland on a voluntary basis with funds raised distributed equally between all Charity 25 partners.

Our objectives

1. To educate the public to how each Irish charity operates and the important role they play in the day to day lives of families who reply on their services to survive.

2. To encourage interaction between the public and our charity partners.

3. To ensure total accountability and transparency in how each charity allocates funding given by Charity 25

4. For Charity 25 to publically publish their accounts on line every quarter so the general public can see how their hard earned donation are being spent by both Charity 25 and each charity member.

How This Will Be Achieved
 

1. On-going National "€2WILLDO" text campaign encouraging the public to subscribe and donate €2.00 a month to Charity 25

What makes Charity 25 different to all of the other fundraising organisations in Ireland?

Charity 25 is a fully audited, low-cost organisation that has extremely low overheads run by professional volunteers. Charity 25 does not even have salaried CEO’s or Directors. Based on similar operating principles of Ryanair, we will be ensuring that our operating costs are kept to a minimum, thus guaranteeing that our charity partners receive maximum funding from our organisation.

Charity 25 operates by donations made to it by CEO Kevin O’Brien ensuring €1.94 of every €2.00 raised through the €2WILLDO text campaign can be divided equally between all 25 charity members. The remaining €0.06 is an administrative charge by the mobile phone operators.

Neither the A & C Foundation nor Charity 25 is burdened with other major financial overheads that similar charities incur , simply because we do not employ full-time staff or do we pay directors’ or managers’ wages.

This ensures that we operate on the strictest of budgets which in turn means that if we reach our annual fundraising target of €1million 2011-2012, then each charity will each receive the sum of €40,000.

How were the charity members of Charity 25 chosen?

This was extremely difficult given the number of good charities in Ireland today trying to raise vital funds for their organisations. Charity 25 looked closely at this and to keep it balanced they decided to focus their fundraising efforts on national charities to benefit the population across the country. Based on the success of Charity 25 we hope to extend membership out to more Irish charities in the year ahead.

Will Charity 25 fund-raising not conflict or interfere with fund raising efforts of their charity partners?

Charity 25 fully funds all of its own marketing initiatives at no cost to any of its charity partners. This allows a certain ‘distancing’ thereby facilitating each individual charity in using any funds donated directly by their own patrons for their own fund-raising programs. Thus Charity 25 will not be detracting from the fundraising efforts of any member-charity and will, rather, be contributing additional funding to each. This can be utilised directly on projects that can further benefit people relying on their services.

Charity 25 is determined to enhance the return on the initiatives of individual charities by encouraging the public to independently donate €2 a month to Charity 25 via their “ €2WILLDO” text campaign. The sum of the donations will not only be divided between 25 charities but will also be accounted for, offering the subscriber the comfort of knowing that their donation is being spent on a worthy cause that will benefit those who need it.

Further and equally importantly, under the Charity 25 “umbrella” each member charity will be afforded the opportunity to educate the public to exactly what they do and who benefits from their organisation and donations made to that organisation.

Meet the Charity 25 team
 

Mr Declan Keane DIRECTOR Born in Dublin 1974, Declan who is Managing Director of Informer Newspaper Group himself has lost both friends and family through various types of illnesses is fully committed to ensuring he supplies his time and energy to the A & C Foundation free of charge to ensure that all of its charity members benefit through Charity 25 and all of its marketing initiatives	Denise Madden Denise is from Ballaghaderren, Co Roscommon and works as an accountant for Green Farm Foods. Denise was appointed to the board of Charity 25 in April 2011 due to her experience and keen interest in voluntary work for Charities. Her principle role will be to help develop Charity 25 in PR and social networking.
Mr Gerry Davey SECRETARY Having come to Dublin from Belfast in 1990, Gerry was immediately impressed by the number of charities active in Irish society, focussed on helping the sick and growing numbers of disadvantaged. Now, as Managing Director of Media Communications Direct (Ireland) Ltd., a direct marketing media agency, Gerry is in a position and has the experience, enthusiasm and the drive to ensure that Charity 25 abides by its principles and achieves as many of its goals as is possible.	Derek O’Neill DIRECTOR Derek O'Neill is a Dublin born motivational analyst, philanthropist and practicing psychotherapist based in Dublin, Ireland. As founder of SQ Worldwide LP, a multifaceted company (SQ Wellness, SQ Foundation, SQ Retreats and SQ Fortune.) Derek is committed to teaching individuals and corporations how to use untapped potential to transform themselves and the world around them. He demonstrates that our highest ideals are in fact essential to our success, happiness, and fulfillment. Derek leads by example as a successful businessman who is happiest when serving and motivating others Derek is also founder of Creacon Prema Agni Healing Centre, a spiritual teaching and retreat center in Wexford, Ireland. He holds the position of Supervisor of the Ireland's Association of Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists, and his popular More Truth Will Set You Free workshops have helped thousands worldwide to free themselves from longstanding obstacles and step into love, joy and empowerment.

Closing comments from the CEO of the A & C Foundation

Like my team “I am very passionate and committed to raising money for people of my country who rely on these charity partners for support and a better way of life. None of us know when or if we will ever rely on these charities for support but it is comforting to know that if we do need them that they will be there for us or our loved ones!!

I personally am eternally grateful to Mrs Brown (AKA Brendan O’Carroll) and his family for “stepping up to the mark” to give up their valuable time unselfishly to help raise awareness and funds for our 25 Charity members

I will ensure that all of my charity partners show 100% transparency and are held accountable for any money they receive through your funding and again this will be published on-line so you the donor are confident that your donation is going to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the mobile phone operators who have kindly agreed to waiver their normal text fees to ensure that Charity 25 receives maximum revenue from its €2WILLDO campaign and of course you the donor for making this venture possible..

Kevin O’Brien
CEO
A & C Foundation / Charity 25