25 Years of Impact: The Story of Charities Institute Ireland

The story of the creation of Cii is one of evolution and growth — an organisation borne out of a collective response to the needs of the sector and a desire to support and develop key initiatives in regulation, governance, standards, and codes of practice.

In 2000, Irish Charities Tax Research (ICTR) was established as a leadership organisation working on behalf of charities to support and enhance a vibrant and independent charity sector in Ireland. Sheila Nordon was appointed as its first Executive Director and the work initially centred on campaigning for taxation and regulatory reform to help charities and philanthropy thrive.

“It all began from the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group, set up in 1991 by John McCormack, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Cancer Society,” Sheila explains. “He was motivated by the restrictive tax structure in place for charities in Ireland at the time. In 1999, they got funding from the philanthropist Chuck Feeney and ICTR was established in 2000 to conduct research and develop a strategy. I was the first employee.”

Sheila explains that there was both a lobbying wing and a charity, with the same membership for both. “The opportunity came to lobby for tax relief on donations and we were successful in 2001 under the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. The Charitable Donation Scheme is still in place today — the value of which was over €45 million in 2024. It was a great achievement, but there was a huge job in educating charities around how to apply and manage the scheme. So, we organised workshops and educational initiatives to support the sector.”

“At the same time, there was a White Paper and Programme for Government needed to update charity law. It hadn’t been updated since the 1960s and I really believed this should be on our agenda. So, we got involved in the whole regulatory side.” The resulting Charities Act 2009 was followed by the establishment of the Charities Regulatory Authority in 2014. “You need a lot of patience in this game!” Sheila laughs.

Meanwhile, in 2014, Lucy Masterson had taken on the position of Chief Executive Officer of Fundraising Ireland, which was set up by a group of fundraising directors from a host of large charities with the aim of maintaining and raising standards in fundraising and ensuring junior people coming through were getting the right training.

“Trust is so important in charities, and if you have a bad experience with a fundraiser, you could lose trust in the charity,” Lucy explains. “Fundraising Ireland delivered ethical training courses and promoted good codes of practice for fundraisers in Ireland.”

This role was Lucy’s first in the charity sector and she was keen to make connections and meet people who could help her understand the sector better. “Many people suggested I meet Sheila and there were overlaps in our work: while we were promoting ethical fundraising practices, ICTR was focusing on best practice finance and reporting standards. I was a newbie in the sector, so I reached out to Sheila. I remember our first meeting well. We met in a coffee shop on Baggot Street. Sheila explained how the whole sector works so clearly — describing a triangle with ethical fundraising on one side, good financial reporting on the other side, and governance as the base. I sketched out this triangle with notes on a napkin and I still have that napkin at home!”

Sheila became a mentor to Lucy and they began to work closely together to achieve their goals. “I asked Sheila for advice on fundraising codes and she invited me to finance meetings. It started to become apparent that working in silos was pointless. The sum of our parts was so much greater than what we could achieve on our own,” explains Lucy.

Sheila continues: “We were developing a new strategy at ICTR and I was working with a consultant. She asked me what achievements I thought I would be telling her about in three years’ time. I realised in that moment that I didn’t want to be in this role in three years’ time, so we decided we needed to work on a succession plan. That is what sparked it. I felt the organisation as it stood had done what it was set up to do and the sector needed something different now.”

Another memorable lunch together saw Sheila broach the idea with Lucy. “I didn’t see it coming,” says Lucy. “I suppose I had imposter syndrome and couldn’t imagine stepping into Sheila’s shoes. But I started to see the rationale of combining the work ICTR and Fundraising Ireland were doing and I knew I could bring my skills in communications to the table when it came to rebranding.”

Working out how a merger would move forward structurally was complex. An exploratory phase involved a strategic planner who helped facilitate the process between the two organisations’ boards and common members. “We had to be brutally honest with ourselves,” notes Sheila. “We had to identify our strengths and weaknesses so that we could assess the potential. If the cons outweighed the pros it would be a no-go.”

But mergers cost money. “A huge amount of work went into the creation of the new structure and once we engaged a law firm with a robust plan, the financial clock started ticking. We secured the lion’s share of the required merger funding from The Ireland Funds and we began working on the rebrand.”

“Fundraising Ireland was not a registered charity — it was a not-for-profit — so the legal advice was to rebrand ICTR as the new entity, which would subsume Fundraising Ireland. That allowed us a little more time and then we began the process of taking our members on the journey with us. There were lots of meetings and the message overall was that we were stronger together.”

The new organisation was officially set up in June 2016 and was publicly launched as Charities Institute Ireland in September of that year.

Áine Myler, Chief Executive Officer of Cii, states:
“What these ladies did was create a phenomenal foundation and differentiator, which we have used and continue to build on to showcase our commitment to developing standards and delivering best practice. Transparency is key. As charities, we need to continuously demonstrate that our governance is as robust as it can be. The ‘triple-lock’ approach outlined on that napkin when Sheila and Lucy first met is such a simple way to explain how high standards are best delivered.”

“I have worked in the private sector as a consultant for most of my professional career, advising private, public sector and corporate clients, and I’ve also been a charity trustee, so I have some insight into business operations across several sectors. I have never worked with better-run organisations than charities — particularly when it comes to financial reporting, training, management, stewardship and strategic planning.”

“Our membership has grown by almost 50% in the last five years, and we’ve grown every area of our member services, including events, training, advocacy and networking. This is all down to our fantastic team and their hard work. As we celebrate 25 years, we are well placed to continue to represent and support our members.”

“One key objective I would like to see is political recognition for the sector — the way Housing and Agriculture are recognised with their own Departments and Ministers. For a sector that employs 1 in 9 people in Ireland, along with harnessing the work of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, there is an absolute dearth of centralised data, because it’s held in silos by individual Departments and agencies. What isn’t measured isn’t valued, and this lack of data obscures the breadth of impact that the sector delivers — both economically and socially. We need to be seen as equal partners in policymaking and to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to solve the huge challenges our society faces now and in the future.”