Fellows raise nearly half a million through Fundraising Fellowship Ireland Programme
16 May 2024
On May 15th, fellows Cecelia Molumby and Al Dalton, graduate from Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme with Business to Arts in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Yesterday, Fundraising Fellows Cecelia Molumby (Development Officer, Sing Ireland, Limerick) and Al Dalton (Marketing And Development Officer, Graffiti Theatre Company, Cork) graduated from the Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme. The programme, a partnership between Business to Arts and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, provides a structured training and mentorship programme to the selected fellows over two years. The Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland seeks to address the lack of human resources dedicated to fundraising facing the cultural sector and to build on previous investments by cultural organisations in their strategic planning and fundraising.
As part of the 24-month Fundraising Fellowship Ireland programme, the Fellows worked in a fundraising or a marketing & fundraising role at their arts organisation, the first dedicated fundraising roles to exist within each organisation. The programme saw the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media fund 50% of each role, with the partner organisation matching that figure. Over the two years, the Fellows took part in an intensive programme of training and mentorship, worth in excess of €80,000 per institution led by Business to Arts to build capacity and to diversify revenue streams. As part of this, leading Irish industry experts from business and arts offered masterclasses to develop knowledge and offer practical and real-life expertise.
During their fellowship, Cecelia and Al have raised a combined total of €465,000 which is directly attributable to their roles in their organisations and has had a significant social impact via the programmes and core support it has enabled. The work of both Fellows alongside their team members greatly contributed to both organisations' combined fundraising efforts, amounting to over €3.5 million since 2022. You can read the case studies on their respective experiences on the Fellowship here, highlighting the challenges, implemented strategies and outcomes.
Established in 2016, the Fundraising Fellowship Ireland programme has supported 10 arts organisations across multiple artforms and counties to build their development capacity and capability, including Sing Ireland, Graffiti Theatre Company, Druid Theatre, Cork International Film Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Helium Arts, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Fishamble: The New Play Company, The Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick, and Music Network.
Over €1.9 million has been raised by the Fellows of these organisations during their time participating in the programme since its inception, supporting a total of €15.2m combined for their organisations during their respective Fellowship programmes.
Learn more about the Fundraising Fellowship Graduation 2022-2024 event on our event's page
Read the Funding Fellowship Graduates case studies here -
“ Congratulations to the two graduates of this Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme from Sing Ireland and Graffiti Theatre Company. The Department has proudly supported the Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland since 2016. It's wonderful to witness the positive impact each fellow has made on their organisation over the past 24 months. This program remains a vital resource for cultural organisations, helping to build their fundraising capacity and expertise.”
“ It has been an immense pleasure to work with these two amazing organisations and see the growth of their Fellows over time. Both Sing Ireland and Graffiti Theatre have recently published new five-year strategies and we know their Fellows are now equipped to help deliver upon the ambitions in those strategies for even greater societal impact.”
