AIB branches across Wicklow have raised over €5,000 for local causes last year as part of AIB Together, the bank’s community investment programme. In total, money was raised for 10 local causes including Greystones Cancer Support, Wicklow Hospice and The Gavin Glynn Foundation.
In addition to the money raised for local causes, on a national level AIB committed €2.4m to Trinity College Dublin’s dedicated Covid-19 Research Hub to urgently accelerate the college’s immunology project.
The bank also launched the ‘AIB Together Fund’ to further support communities impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. This allowed staff to donate directly into a dedicated fund which the bank then matched, helping raise over €422,000 for the bank’s long-standing community partners FoodCloud and Soar, as well as Alone, and Pieta House. The bank also established a fund of €200,000 which allowed branches to donate directly to vulnerable groups in the community which were impacted by the pandemic.
This has brought the total amount donated by the bank and its staff to causes in support of Covid-19 to over €3 million. This money helped support the vital work these charities and organisations do and the vulnerable groups they support in the community.
Gaye O’Connell, Head of AIB, Wexford, Wicklow and Carlow said, “The Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow AIB family are proud to be part of the AIB Together Community Programme where we donated over €21,000 to 31 local charities right across the three Counties.
We have been blown away by the commitment and contribution of everyone involved in these amazing organisations across our communities, and have been heartened by the response all round.
As we all know, charities are particularly challenged due to Covid-19 as a number of their fundraisers have been curtailed. So with charity income down, our donations were especially well received and hugely appreciated.”
Mary Whitelaw, AIB’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Strategy and Sustainability said “Communities across Ireland were impacted last year as a result of Covid-19 and the response by AIB staff across the country in raising much needed funds for those who are most vulnerable in the community is heartening. In addition to a number of other initiatives, the bank and its people supported communities across Ireland through fundraising and charitable donations to local community groups to the tune of over €3 million last year, as well as an additional €2.4 million which was donated to Trinity College Dublin to accelerate the college’s immunology project to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope this money has in some way helped vulnerable communities across Ireland during what was a difficult year for many.”
Founded in 2018, AIB Together provides a platform for staff to support charities and causes across Ireland. Each AIB employee is entitled to two volunteering days per year to support their chosen cause as part of the programme and can volunteer or fundraise for a charity of their choice or one of AIB’s core community partners.
Since partnering with FoodCloud in 2018 for example, over 1,100 AIB volunteers have volunteered over 7,000 hours which have gone towards ensuring 100 million meals have gone to people and not to waste across Ireland and the UK.
