Fundraiser supreme gives invaluable master class

IF you don’t ask, you don’t get. This is the one-line summary of a master class in philanthropic fundraising given by the leader of the largest benevolent organisation in the world, the president and chief executive officer of the Worldwide Ireland Funds, Kingsley Aikins.

Boston-based Mr Aikins’ discourse yesterday on fundraising, at the Cork Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast, in association with the Irish Examiner, was described as a master class by chamber president Robin O’Sullivan.

Mr Aikins made light of raising and disbursing €100 million in just five years under the funds’ Hope and History Campaign. However, the Dubliner has his own style of asking and he can take at least two years before he puts the squeeze on a benefactor.