Dear friends,
Irish charities have been in the news again, sadly for all the wrong reasons. Our Fundraising Team want you to know exactly where the money goes at Jack & Jill, and to thank you, once again, for every donation large and small.
Every €16 raised funds one hour of home nursing care for a sick child.
We need to raise €2.7m a year to fund our nationwide services. You can check out the county breakdown of our supported families (› see details), and a fuller breakdown of our services (› see details).
In 2015, Jack & Jill received €519,000 through a HSE grant, and the balance came from everything you do – private and corporate donations, legacies, cake sales, runs, walks; you name it. That year, we raised €3.2m, finishing the year in the black with a small financial cushion for 2016.
Since 1997, we have raised over €60m privately to fund our services. Just over €6m in grants from the HSE have been received in this time. We’d like a bigger grant from the HSE to extend our services to children of 6 years of age, rather than up to 4 as things stand. In fact, we have shown that we can spend their money better than they can in the care of sick children at home.
Jonathan Irwin’s salary as CEO is €97,786 today, and he is entirely open about this. He gets no top ups, bonuses or pension. In fact, for the first 6 years of running Jack & Jill, he drew no salary. His salary is negotiated and approved by the board of directors, who receive no remuneration at all. The costs of Jonathan’s recent Seanad campaign have already been met by him personally, to the tune of €3,633. This follows the procedures laid down by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO).
Our point is this. Our policies are transparent, and our books are open to anyone. With your consistent support, we provide invaluable services to sick children and their families. 2017 marks our 20th anniversary. It is the year when Jonathan Irwin steps down as CEO and Hugo Jellett takes over. Thank you for your time in reading this, and we hope you appreciate why we felt it necessary to tell you where the money goes at Jack & Jill. We know that every tawdry tale that comes out of the charity sector saps your will to support any charity. We also know that we wouldn’t exist without you.
Please do not hesitate to contact any of us by phone or by email at [email protected] if you have any specific questions about our finances and how we account for them. We will be glad to address them, in detail.
Sincerely,
The Jack & Jill Fundraising Team