Giving Back

Originally from Dublin, David began his career in the mid-1980s after graduating with a Commerce degree from UCD. He joined Irish Life Finance, where he witnessed the company grow from 30 to 150 employees during his five years there. After this, he took on a new adventure, setting up and running Transamerica’s Insurance Premium Finance business in Ireland. “This was an exciting time, developing the product and the market and finding my own leadership style, as well as gaining exposure to working outside of Ireland.” The next step was to GenWorth Financial, where David moved up the ranks to take on the role of Managing Director of Western Europe. “When I had my own family, the travel became too much and I took an opportunity to join Ecclesiastical Insurance in Ireland in 2012.”

A Unique Offering

Ecclesiastical is a specialist insurer, which was initially set up to provide insurance for the Anglican church and has since expanded into other sectors, including heritage, charity, education and the arts. “We work predominantly with the Church of Ireland but we are happy to work with all faiths. Over 40 years, the company has naturally built up an expertise in heritage properties and we have also branched out into education and charity,” notes David.

Clients include the National Opera House, Christchurch Cathedral and Hidden Ireland Heritage Homes. The business is owned by the Benefact Trust, a registered charity: “We are unique as a financial services business, in that we run a normal insurance company but the difference is, our profit goes towards good causes. In 2013, after I joined, we set a target at group level to give £50 million to charity over the next five years. We achieved this. And we are currently on track to be able to announce, later this year, that we will have given approximately £250 million to charity since 2013 across four different territories (the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia).”

Other initiatives by the business include establishing a ‘MyGiving’ programme to encourage staff to fundraise and give them the opportunity to work with charities. Ecclesiastical Ireland has also helped over 10,000 charities avail of grants as part of the ‘Movement for Good’ initiative, which offers grants ranging from £1000 to £50,000. In 2024, over €1 million was given to charities across Ireland and the UK. With over €120,000 of this awarded specifically in Ireland. “With these grants, we have helped charities such as Jigsaw expand their mental health services for young people; De Paul Ireland tackle the issue of homelessness in a variety of ways; and Children’s Books Ireland inspire a love of reading among young people across the country.”

Growth & Future Ambitions

Commenting on the challenges facing the sector, David states: “Unfortunately demand for services has grown significantly in the last few years but funding is very stretched, whether that is State funding or otherwise. Like most sectors, talent and talent retention is an issue. Additionally, the

whole area of governance and regulation, particularly for the small-to-medium charities, is key. I would love to see more collaboration between the corporate and charity sectors; our business model is an example of how that can work.” So, what are David’s long-term ambitions for Ecclesiastical Ireland? “We are in the last year of a five-year strategy, so we are working on the next stage of this strategy now. There is lots of headroom to grow across the charity, heritage and education sectors. We have doubled the size of our business in Ireland over the past five years and we are looking to achieve this again in the coming five years. We are ambitious in terms of our growth but, overall, we measure ourselves based on how much we can give back.”

Learn more about Ecclesiastical here: https://www.ecclesiastical.ie/