Projects need active investors, not admirers – Rethink Ireland chief
Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland, whose aim is to develop a social innovation fund of up to €200m within the next five years.
Community projects need multi-annual commitments from companies to allow them to retain talent and develop sustainable strategies, says Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland.
Rethink Ireland (previously Social Innovation Fund Ireland) supports the most innovative non-profit organisations working in communities across the country.
However, while Irish business is usually very supportive of community-led projects, a significant amount of support has dried up in the past 12 months.
In 2024, awardees of Rethink Ireland supports directly improved the lives of 178,800 people nationwide – including advancing the learning of 22,944 individuals, providing physical or mental-health support to 21,227, helping 722 people into employment and funding 356 roles in the non-profit sector.
But for every project they could fund, many more missed out. Of the 500 applications to Rethink Ireland last year, just 168 were funded. Many of these projects are centred on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, notably bringing marginalised members of society towards active employment, of clear benefit to themselves and to society.
Deirdre Mortell said: “The Trump executive orders have created a chill effect across all industries. Business leaders are saying that they want to support community projects, but they are putting off until tomorrow the decisions that we need them to make today. Support is needed right now for the work being done on the ground.
“Many businesses have chosen to make their charitable decisions annually, and we offer our genuine thanks to them for seeing grassroots projects as core to their business. These projects are social capital to Irish society.”
Rethink Ireland has supported initiatives such as the Mná nah Éireann, Women of Ireland Empowerment Fund 2023-2026, a €1m three-year fund in partnership with Bank of America and the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund. This fund supports women facing disadvantage or discrimination, helping them with employment and education.
Rethink also supports the Cork Deaf Association (CDA), a charity whose aim is to support and empower the deaf and hard of hearing communities in Cork city and county. The CDA also hosts workshops with the Gardai, HSE and other state agencies to ensure they are open to people with disabilities.
Rethink has also funded Saoirse Ethnic Hands on Deck, a migrant-women-led social enterprise based in Cork, creating pathways to employment, empowerment, and community connection. The group was founded by and for women with lived experience of migration and Direct Provision.
“Saoirse Ethnic Hands on Deck is helping one group of women to start their own catering company,” says Deirdre Mortell, who notes that the leaders in these vital community-led projects need multi-annual commitments from companies to help them plan ahead rather than having to firefight on an annual basis.
“You can’t really sustain a project without multi-annual commitments on where your funding is coming from,” she says. “When you give your staff a one-year contract, it’s like telling them they have 12 months until they need to move on.
“Any project needs at the very least the security to develop a three-year plan. To retain talent, you need to be able to hire people on a three-year contract or, better still of course, a permanent contract.
“Similarly, if a project gathers data, then it needs to be in a position to look at that data over a number of years, not just jumping from one year to the next.”
A recent Irish Management Institute survey found that 97% of senior business leaders in Ireland want to strengthen their organisation’s DEI efforts and nearly half intend to increase their investment.
Yet on the ground many community inclusion projects still struggle for sustained funding — and some companies are even rolling back their D&I programmes.
Deirdre Mortell says this disconnect is why businesses must start treating inclusion as essential infrastructure, backed by multi-year investment and real partnerships with grassroots initiatives.
“We are hugely grateful to the businesses supporting these projects to date. And we know that there is a lot of admiration out there for what these projects deliver.
“What we really need is for more businesses to move from admiration to action with their DEI efforts. We also know that being committed to DEI can be time-consuming for any business.
“What we are saying is that if a company wants to talk to us, then we can take on the management of that commitment on their behalf. With our help, we can ensure that the company’s investment is matched by Government funding.”
A key Rethink Ireland function is to ensure that every investment pays off for both the funding company and for society.
“The need is there, the solutions are proven – what’s missing is sustained investment,” says Deirdre. “We are currently only managing to support one in five or sometimes as little as one in ten of the projects that we would like to be able to support.
“We would like to be able to talk with company leaders to help them set policy around corporate social responsibility. We would also like to meet with families with wealth who would like to support these initiatives.
“We also think that it is very important that these investments are being led by people who are willing to move towards a three-year or even a five-year commitment to ensure these projects are in a position to plan ahead and to make a real difference in our society.”
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