Corporates and tech prove a potent partnership with Rethink funding

When Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien started FoodCloud, it was as a college project. The first box of food that was donated through the organisation was picked up at the Honest 2 Goodness Farmers Market in Glasnevin, Dublin, and delivered to the Don Bosco youth services centre.
Now it works with more than 700 charity partners, and diverts usable surplus food from a network of retail partners to charity partners and community groups.
Part of the reason for FoodCloud’s success is its early supporters, one of which was Rethink Ireland. Then known as the Social Innovation Fund, Rethink was one of FoodCloud’s early backers, support that O’Brien says was instrumental at helping it to grow.
An early grant from Rethink, in partnership with Google, allowed FoodCloud to invest in its technology. Then in 2018 it agreed a three-year investment in partnership with AIB, and became one of the first organisations to benefit from Rethink’s growth fund.
“We were scaling at that stage and the support really allowed us to focus and develop a three-year strategic plan and look at the organisation and set ourselves up for growth,” she says.
That includes several FoodCloud hubs around Ireland, and the Foodiverse app and technology platform that is used in other countries including the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
“The investment went into our team, our technology, our planning, our capacity building; it just is so important and it was so needed,” says O’Brien.
“Six years later from when we were part of the growth fund, we have 100 staff who are working to rescue as much food as possible and address food insecurity. We are working with leading retailers, and food companies, and a network of 700 charities across the country and our technology has scaled into six different countries.”
Rethink is a not-for-profit that backs other charities. Originally launched in 2016 by then taoiseach Enda Kenny, it was intended to fund social innovation in Ireland through a mix of public money and private sources.
It may seem like a hard sell. Unlike other investment propositions, investors will not see a financial return on their money, unless they count upskilling a workforce or creating new enterprises that could one day, in a roundabout manner, become one of their customers. The return is in social good.
So far, it has worked out well. Over seven years the group built a social innovation fund worth more than €109 million. That fund has reached over one million people in that period, launched 58 funds that have backed almost 450 innovative projects, and supported more than 130,000 learners and 3,300 people into employment.
It has achieved this through a network of partners that cover businesses, families, individuals and foundations. While the government will provide a certain level of financial backing, Rethink also approaches corporate backers to contribute to its various funds, which are then used to support social initiatives throughout the country.
“I think we’ve demonstrated to the world that there is an ability to raise significant philanthropy in Ireland from both companies and wealthy families and individuals, when government gets behind it and backs it,” says Deirdre Mortell, chief executive of Rethink Ireland.
“Are people on board with it? I think increasingly so. Irish people are very generous in terms of charitable giving, but what we’re doing is different, because this is philanthropic giving. So we’re looking at longer and larger gifts in order to make, where possible, transformative impact, in terms of changing lives and also scaling up. We see ourselves as an entrepreneurial organisation that is backing innovative solutions to critical social issues, and we work across a range of issues: equality, educational disadvantage, health, scaling social enterprise and advancing the green transition.”
Part of the strength with Rethink Ireland is that it can demonstrate a defined social impact, Mortell says. The other element is the support it offers, beyond financial aid.
“For example, we never just give a grant, because we know that the skills that it takes to develop an innovation are not the same skills that it takes to grow and spread it. So when an organisation applies to us, we satisfy ourselves that they’re innovative, that they have evidence of social impact,” she says.
“But we also say, but if you’re successful, we’re not just going to give you some money. We’re also going to put you through an accelerator program and give you a bunch of business support to help you make that gear change that it takes to make an impact and grow.”
That appeals to potential donors, she says. They are taking a calculated risk, as they would with any investment, but there is also the safety net of Rethink’s expertise.
One of those corporate backers is Bank of America. The company, which has had a presence in the Republic since 1968, named Dublin as its European hub in 2017. Shortly afterwards, it linked up with Rethink Ireland to fund some social innovation projects.
“Wherever we operate, we make sure we are engaging with the local communities,” said Ursula Mapley, chief operating officer of Bank of America Europe. “And that’s where our partnership with Rethink Ireland really started.”
Bank of America initially signed up for a three-year partnership with Rethink Ireland, backing the company’s Mná na hÉireann Empowerment Fund.
“It’s not only about getting women into work. It’s teaching them the skills to be more employable, because that can be the hard part of the journey. How do you get that step up? Sometimes it’s confidence. Sometimes it’s being able to tell your story. Sometimes it’s walking into an interview and just knowing how to interview,” says Mapley.
“It is taking women who are discriminated [against] or disadvantaged, and building up those base level skills, giving them confidence to apply and interview for jobs. Part of our job at Rethink is saying, ‘you’ve got other skills that you don’t think are employable’.”
But a year after the fund started its work, Covid struck. With it came additional caring and home schooling responsibilities for families during lockdowns and restrictions. That burden disproportionately affected women, Mapley says. So the decision was taken to extend the partnership by another year.
“We understood that while Covid was impacting all employees and all companies, it was certainly having a detrimental impact on those disadvantaged women in the workplace as well,” she says.
Bank of America’s latest commitment brings the total it has invested in the fund to €3.2 million. Rethink’s current Mná na hÉireann Empowerment Fund will run until 2026, supporting enterprises such as family support organisation One Family, employment support group Jobcare and Cork-based Saoirse – Ethnic Hands on Deck, which was founded to help harness the potential of migrant women and channel it into sustainable economic enterprise.
Equal Ireland, which is focused on bringing third level education to people, and Traveller-led Meath Travellers’ Workshops will also benefit. The latter has been in operation for more than 40 years,
But Rethink has big ambitions. Within the next five years, it wants to become a €200 million fund, something that Mortell thinks is within its grasp, and a €300 million social innovation fund by 2030 with a further €100 million of match funding.
For that, Rethink wants to target a new generation of philanthropists.
“In particular, we think there’s growing wealth held by women who are not necessarily seen as our traditional philanthropists,” says Mortell. “That will change the philanthropic agenda. I think the second thing is, increasingly, we’re seeing wealth held by younger people. I think we’d love to see that younger generation of wealth holders thinking about philanthropy earlier in their lives. So, you know, giving while living, rather than giving after you’re gone.”
Mortell is also hoping that Irish companies will step up too, following multinationals’ lead in recent years, and the ones who already give become more vocal about it to show how it can be done.
“There is a need for leadership there,” she says. “Let’s put it up in lights.”