As the profile of wealth in Ireland rises and global citizenship becomes increasingly vital in an interconnected world, Ireland’s philanthropic individuals and families are stepping up to ignite lasting change for the world’s children.
A partnership with Unicef can bring personal values to life, build a legacy, and drive meaningful, measurable progress for children globally.
Investing in Unicef means investing in the organisation that has helped save and improve more young lives than any other in history. With almost 80 years’ experience and a presence in over 190 countries, Unicef delivers sustainable results at scale.
Unicef’s long-term presence in a country gives it the deep insights that are needed to understand the root causes of problems and to find effective solutions. Working in collaboration with governments, Unicef supports long-term systems change, building capacity, scaling up, and ensuring programmes are equitable and sustainable.
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Interconnected problems require integrated solutions
While Unicef is a major humanitarian actor, responding to over 400 emergencies across 107 countries last year, in a complex interconnected world, humanitarian and development needs cannot be separated. War creates inflation and energy crises. Climate volatility leads to food insecurity and poor nutrition. Political instability and lack of leadership degrade social systems and institutions like health and education.
This is why Unicef takes a holistic and systems-based approach to tackle these challenges with integrated solutions whilst upholding children’s rights. Because supporting children helps communities to flourish and thrive. Flexible funding from visionary partners is what best supports this macro systems-level change and enables Unicef to bridge equity gaps for all children, shaping their future with shared progress.
Unicef relies entirely on voluntary contributions to fund its work: from the public sector, the private sector, civil society, and the general public.
Getting a real return on investment
Investments in children can yield some of the highest returns. The numbers back this up.
For example, Unicef reaches almost half of the world’s children with life-saving vaccines every year. Investing €1 in Unicef’s child immunisation will yield a measurable return worth at least €20 in health care savings and socio-economic returns. For every euro invested in Unicef’s early childhood development programmes, the return is €13.
But investing in children means the return goes far beyond the financial. Vaccination also provides children with benefits that can last their lifetimes. It is not only the safest protection from deadly diseases; vaccinated children also grow up stronger and do better at school, with economic benefits that ripple sustainably across whole communities.
For those inspired to join Unicef’s vision for a world where every child enjoys these rights, and no child dies or suffers from a preventable disease, The Vaccine Fund pools resources with other immunisation supporters to maximise impact for children and help reach every child with life-saving vaccines.
Taking a leaf from the tech playbook
Galway native Shane O’Connor is head of emerging technology at Unicef Office of Innovation, which manages the Unicef Venture Fund.
As a former tech entrepreneur, Shane knows first-hand the importance of securing the financial runway to bring innovative new products and services to market, in this case, ones that quite literally save lives.
“We use the Venture Fund to invest in those technologies we think can be brought to bear on Unicef’s programmes,” he explains. “One investment we made in a block chain company five years ago is now being used in Bangladesh as an end-to-end solution to deliver vaccines to three million children.”
The Venture Fund also invests in aid disbursement solutions, including with digital assets, that ensure that families in need can receive money in emergency situations instantaneously, and at much lower transaction costs.
The Venture Fund supported the development and rollout of drone technologies which now help deliver vaccines and life-saving drugs to communities living in remote areas or difficult terrain.
“We’re like the R&D investment arm of Unicef and we can move quickly if an opportunity comes along. Because the Venture Fund is a pooled fund and unrestricted, it allows us to take advantage of circumstances, whether changes in the market or in technologies, such as using artificial intelligence for monitoring air quality and machine learning to translate emergency response documentation into low-resource languages, fast,” he explains.
We’re like the R and D investment arm of Unicef and we can move quickly if an opportunity comes along
Unicef’s Venture Fund is also very focused on backing female founders. “Typically, in a venture capital firm only three to five per cent of investments go to women. We are committed to 50 per cent, and are currently at 43 per cent, so inclusion is core to our thesis,” he adds.
It’s not just capital that Unicef’s Venture Fund deploys. It’s smart money that comes with mentorship and expertise. And, while traditional venture capital firms look for equity, the Venture Fund’s equity comes in a very particular form – all the software coming from investments it backs must be open source.
“That way it can be easily modified, localised and deployed in other programme countries,” he explains. “It resonates with philanthropic donors, particularly those coming from the tech sector. I’ve yet to meet anyone who says, ‘I don’t want to help children around the world’.
One of the many things that impresses me about Unicef is its emphasis on metrics
Philanthropy in action
Irish man John O’Farrell is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the US venture capital firm whose successful investments include everything from Facebook and Airbnb to Skype and Slack.
He and his wife Gloria are big believers in the importance of philanthropy and O’Farrell, who is from Dublin but lives in Silicon Valley, is a member of Unicef’s International Council as well as the board of Unicef USA.
“One of the many things that impresses me about Unicef and makes Gloria and me feel very good about supporting it on an ongoing basis, is its emphasis on metrics,” he explains.
As an investor in technology companies, it’s easy to measure return on investment. “It’s harder to measure ROI in the case of a humanitarian organisation like Unicef, but it’s important to us,” he adds.
“We really appreciate Unicef’s focus on constantly measuring and improving. So the way I think about our ROI is in terms of metrics such as the number of kids vaccinated, the number of kids that are able to go to school, or the number of expectant mothers who are receiving health care or clean water.”
From philanthropic intent to measurable impact
Philanthropy and the wider private sector have a vital and catalytic role to play in shaping a better future for children everywhere.
Money alone will not solve the world’s challenges. But equally, a good heart and noble intentions fall short without tangible action. What’s needed are visionary partnerships that turn those intentions into something real and lasting with measurable impact.
As wealth in Ireland matures and global citizenship becomes ever more crucial in an interconnected world, Unicef invites Ireland’s philanthropists to take a seat at the table and help drive lasting change for children everywhere.
If you are ready to explore ways that you or your family can translate philanthropic intent into measurable outcomes for children, Unicef’s dedicated philanthropy team would be delighted to support you on your journey.