Former Jack & Jill Chairman Donal Kavanagh, won the Trustee of the Year category at the 2020 Charity Impact Awards on December 8th 2020. He has served on the board of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation for 18 years, the last 4 of which were as Chairman.
Donal was a Chairman with a ‘can do’, creative and compassionate nature. Jack & Jill CEO Carmel Doyle has welcomed the news, “Donal was due to step down at the start of 2020, but with the reality of a devastated fundraising calendar in March 2020, he wasn’t going to walk away in a crisis. With the full support of the board, he moved us quickly into our SOS emergency appeal by April. This meant a rapid pivoting of our funding model from the traditional (charity shops, large events, school visits and roadshows) to an online and ecommerce-centric model. E.g. we moved the entire Incognito Art Collection sale online. He is a positive change catalyst. And in this negative, uncertain climate, his leadership and change management was rock solid and he did a jig when Incognito sold out in minutes!”
Welcoming the win, Donal said:
“I am so honoured and a little embarrassed by this! The history of Jack & Jill has been such a collective effort. From all our staff in charity shops, fundraising, administration, nurses, board and families. I was passed the helm from our founder, Jonathan Irwin and I have endeavoured to keep the principals and corner stones of the Charity in place through some very difficult storms. This is a group effort and I would like to accept the award on behalf of all in Jack & Jill and in particular the families of our babies that face a huge challenge every day.”
