Katharine Howard Foundation

An independent grant-making Foundation whose particular emphasis is on the support of community projects and initiatives

Two children playing running to the sea

About The Katharine Howard Foundation

The Katharine Howard Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation, whose key function is the provision of small, easily accessible grants to community based groups throughout Ireland, North and South. Within this provision, the Foundation’s particular focus is on projects that provide direct support to children and their families in disadvantaged communities.

How we operate

  • General Grant Scheme

  • Development work such as Community Playgroup Initiative (cpi) and Tallaght West Small Grants Programme

  • Advocacy work towards the provision of improvement in services for young children and their families

  • Related research work

Background

The Foundation was started in 1979 by Katharine Howard, who at her death in 1990 was the last surviving descendant of the family of the Earls of Wicklow. Katharine, who was reared in her ancestral home, Shelton Abbey, by her uncle, spent all of her adult life in the Gorey area of north Co. Wexford, and was involved in many local community activities throughout her life. Thanks to the benevolence of her Grandmother, Amy Sands from New York, she acquired and operated a farm near Courtown for many years, which led to her involvement in further local organisations.

As she had no dependants and was in fact last of the family line, Katharine decided in 1979 to devote some of her wealth to a modest charitable trust. This was added to during the following years. Upon her death in 1990, she left the residue of her Estate to this trust, together with the funds of a family trust established by her American Grandmother, over which she had power of appointment.

Following these two substantial additions, the then Trustees were in a position to chart a serious programme which would give effect to the Founder’s objectives which were specifically the assistance of disadvantaged children and the elderly and the start-up of worthwhile community initiatives.

Careful management of the fund and its investments by the Trustees over the years helped its capital grow to a stage where further reassessment was undertaken in 1998. The Foundation then enlarged its board of Trustees to six and appointed a Development Officer and a Treasurer. It also broadened its remit to include the financing of research into underlying social problems, as well as continuing its annual programme of Community and General Grant Schemes. Due to the increase in the activities of KHF, a part-time Office Manager was appointed in November 2003.

Trustees

  • David Kingston (Chairperson)
  • John Cunningham
  • Mary Higgins
  • Noreen Kearney
  • Eddie A. Shaw

Employees

  • Noelle Spring, Development Director
  • Maria Fitzgibbon, Office Manager

Strategic Plan

The staff and Trustees held a strategic review on the 12th September 2005. At this review the KHF’s commitment to continue the provision of accessible small grants to community and voluntary organisations was reiterated. There was general agreement that small grants have an important role in assisting communities to provide much needed support services for young children and their families. Other community initiatives that require funding have also been funded through these grant schemes.

Much of the feedback that KHF receives from grant recipients refers to the importance of the recognition for the significant work of these projects and the encouragement they experience through receiving even a small grant. Through the administration of small grants, KHF has built in a support role to accompany the grants where possible. The impact of providing funding along with accessible support has strengthened the partnerships made by KHF within the sectors it operates.

KHF’s strategic planning has been determined by a commitment to respond proactively to the learning from its grant applications. This approach has driven the work plan for the past few years. Once the Foundation has identified a thematic area, it then agrees how to support that activity in a more strategic way. Examples of this approach are the demonstration programme, Community Playgroup Initiative, cpi, and the Tallaght West Small Grants Programme.

KHF is more effective in supporting community and voluntary activity through working strategically with other independent foundations and statutory departments and agencies. This work has resulted in co-funding many research projects, demonstration projects and other initiatives. The 2005 strategic planning process endorsed this approach to KHF’s work into the future.

Trustees' Progress Report, 2006

2006 was a year of consolidation and continued development for The Katharine Howard Foundation.

Building on the success of the Community Playgroup Initiative (cpi), the Foundation continued to disseminate the evaluation report which was produced in 2005 after detailed study. This gives a solid base to continue advocating on behalf of community playgroups. KHF also began a strategic partnership with the IPPA - The Early Years Organisation and commissioned the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin to undertake research to

  • document the role of community playgroups
  • identify the positive and negative factors impacting on that role  and
  • consider how community playgroups might contribute to future developments in the sector and whether there was a need for  a reconceptualisation of their role.
  • The Foundation continued to advocate for sustainable funding to be provided for community playgroups from the statutory sector, as seen through supporting the establishment of the Irish Childcare Policy Network (ICPN). See www.icpn.ie

Our strategic development during this year continued to be the Tallaght West Small Grants Programme (TWSGP), a pioneering programme involved in funding 31 diverse community groups. The focus in 2006 was to ensure that the lessons from this programme were recorded and used to influence the longer term support that Atlantic Philanthropies, in partnership with the Office of the Minister for Children, committed to provide in Tallaght West over the next few years. KHF contributed directly to the new Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) through membership of the interim Early Years Advisory Committee and by agreeing that the Director of KHF would join the Board of CDI.

Our Community Grants Scheme focused on Parent & Toddler Groups, for which 302 grant applications were received, 241 of which were successful. The total of these grants was €85,000, towards which we received co-funding from the Office of the Minister for Children. We are most appreciative of this support and the opportunity to begin discussions with the OMC about developing a Parent & Toddler Initiative to coincide with the National Childcare Investment Programme.

Our general grants scheme received 251 applications; 130 of which received a grant, distributing a total of €117,000.

We are an independent endowed grant-making trust, which means our income, currently running at about €325,000 per annum, comes from invested capital. We do not spend capital, as this would diminish our income growth over time. We do not engage in fund-raising activities, though we have been helped greatly in carrying out specific projects by generous co-funding from other foundations and state and semi-state bodies. In sharp contrast to the previous year, the income was marginally larger than our expenditure.

Luckily, we retained all of our Trustees in 2006 ensuring consistent strong governance of the Foundation. The main focus of the work was implemented according to decisions made at the end of 2005, the date of our last strategic review of the activities of the Foundation. One area where we deviated from our work plan was to establish a short-term partnership with the Irish Penal Reform Trust to produce a report to review the implementation of the Whitaker Committee Report which was published in 1985. The approach taken in this review was to ask a number of contributors across many sections of Irish society to reflect on the progress of penal reform since this seminal report was published. Our overall intention with this project is to stimulate reflection and debate on the future of penal policy in Ireland. It is hoped that this report will be published in 2007.

We are members of Philanthropy Ireland (formerly the Irish Funders Forum) which we have supported since its formation, and associate members of the UK based Association of Charitable Foundations. These connections keep us up to date with what is happening in the trust and voluntary sector in Ireland and abroad.

The work of the Foundation during 2006 was substantially enhanced through the involvement of a number of people through either direct consultancy assistance or membership of various advisory committees. The Trustees are very grateful to this wide range of people for their generosity and commitment and look forward to continuing these worthwhile relationships.

It is impossible to adequately express the huge debt of gratitude that the Trustees owe to the two core staff of the Foundation; Noelle Spring, the Development Director and Maria Fitzgibbon the Office Manager. We would like to thank them both for their commitment and hard work on behalf of KHF. They provide the Foundation with a great team as Maria concentrates on the administrative and technical tasks and Noelle continues to focus on the development work, primarily through the identification of appropriate projects and potential partnerships. Even though both staff members are part-time, the Trustees are always impressed by the strategic and careful use of our limited resources and look forward to continue in this vein over the coming years. This will ensure that the Katharine Howard Foundation’s contribution to the improvement of the way of life of many people living in Ireland will continue as envisaged by our founder, the late Katharine Howard.

Signed on behalf of the Trustees, David Kingston, Chairman.