Latest round of basis.point grants brings investment in education to €3.5 million.

Participants in our latest Teen Turn programme helping girls explore STEM related careers

In a year where the educational landscape continues to be marred by the COVID-19 Pandemic, basis.point have worked hard, restructuring their corporate regular giving platform and increasing funds available to support educational partners.

Across the board, basis.point Patrons have generously embraced the need to restructure the Corporate Patron Programme, and stemming from this, in this year alone, have donated €700,000.

This latest round of grants brings basis.point cumulative funding to €3.5 million, a not insignificant number that our entire community can take pride in. This comprises of grants allowing the continuation of existing programmes, a number of incremental grants to allow for additional costs of pivoting online, embedding Teen Turn into our educational portfolio and the introduction of two new partners, Limerick Youth Services and Barnardos, whose programmes will become operational in 2022.

Conscious of the ever-greater need for support throughout the country, our disbursements committee of volunteers, have continued the selection of programmes throughout Ireland, that have potential to offer support in regions that have traditionally been underserviced.

Sinead Colreavy, EY and Chair of the disbursements committee commented

As basis.point continues to grow we are keen to support regions where our Patrons live and work. Limerick is a good example. Several of our Corporate Patrons have bases in Limerick, a county that features high on the scale of disadvantage. The introduction of Limerick Youth Services to our portfolio will allow us to offer local support and be increasingly visible in the community.

Coupled with this focus on geographic expansion, the additional funding has enabled us to take measures to address the imbalance in funding for different age cohorts. We continue to invest heavily in early education and empowering parents to give their child the best start in life. The addition of Teen Turn to our portfolio earlier this year, and a deeper engagement with Foroige, has strengthened our portfolio of programmes supporting teenagers and young adults, who have been seriously impacted by the pandemic.

The cumulative allocation of grants across different age groups paints a clear picture and funding is now more evenly split across the three focus areas to Empower, Enable and Enhance.

As a community basis.point has positively influenced the lives of over 25,000 children. Key to this impact is the collaboration within the Irish funds industry.

€3.5 million allocated and committed is remarkable. By pooling our resources, we continue to have a transformative impact on children’s lives.

These kids have the courage to embrace an ever-changing landscape. Let’s take inspiration and support them every step of the way.