Governance
The Mount Street Club Trust is an Incorporated Trust registered in Ireland (RCN 2004361).
Information about the Trust can be found on the Charities Regulator’s Register of Charities.
Governing document
The Mount Street Club Trust Objects & Rules can be viewed here.
Audited accounts
The Trust’s most recent audited accounts can be viewed using these links:
Trustees
The Trust is governed by a board of voluntary Trustees. The current Trustees are:
Margaret Barry (Chairperson), Paul Donovan (Secretary), Robert Galavan (Treasurer), Charles Delap, Sarah Perrem, Katherine P. Meyer, Shola Adekunle, Alison Sleeth, Thomas McCann.
Trustee term limits and succession planning
The Trustees have considered the Charities Regulator’s guidance on introducing term limits of nine years maximum for Trustees. However, they have decided that it is not in the best interests of the Trust to introduce strict term limits at present.
The thinking of the Trustees is as follows:
Since its foundation in 1934, the Mount Street Club Trust has benefited from an ongoing connection, where possible, with the founding families of the MSC. In particular, this has enabled the Trust to keep in constant touch with the original desire of the founders to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged communities in Dublin and to re-imagine its own work as needed in a changing Ireland.
Now, almost 90 years later, it is even more important to maintain an additional kind of continuity, that of remaining abreast of trends and new thinking in the areas of 1) trust-based philanthropy and 2) collaborative approaches to addressing systemic marginalisation. The contributions of certain Trustees who have served longer than nine years have been instrumental in moving the Trust forward in this regard with imagination and dexterity.
At the same time and for the same reasons, the Trust is committed to a triennial review of its membership. At least every three years, each trustee will be asked to state for the record their willingness to continue to serve; or their wish to step down - with reasonable notice, if possible; or to highlight any changes to their current interests or other commitments that might be relevant to forward planning.
Annual report on activities 2022
Description of Activities submitted as part of our Annual Report to the Charities Regulator in October 2023:
June 2022 saw the conclusion of the first phase of Hope & Ambition, the Mount Street Club Trust’s primary funding initiative. This initial phase began in 2019 and provided grant funding and development support to five organisations: Blossom Ireland, Glencree Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, Intercultural Language Service, Irish Refugee Council and Rua Red. The final reports prepared by each organisation were published on the Trust’s website.
Hope & Ambition applies the practice of trust-based philanthropy to support work aimed at ending injustice, inequality and poverty. In addition to providing financial support, the initiative also provides development support to the recipient organisations and their people, focusing in particular on organisational development, leadership, practice, wellbeing and cross-sectoral interaction. At the heart of Hope & Ambition is a mutual commitment to the value of shared learning.
From June to December 2022, the phase one recipients engaged in a funded co-design process with the Mount Street Club Trust. A series of workshops explored how the second phase of Hope & Ambition could be shaped, building on the relationships that were fostered over the previous three years to arrive at a proposal for collaborative action and a new momentum of shared hope and ambition.
Seeking to explore opportunities to further develop Hope & Ambition, the Trust hosted a Partnering Forum in November 2022, bringing other philanthropy organisations and supporters together with the CEOs and practitioners of the funded organisations.
2022 also saw the continuation of the Trust’s engagement with organisational development expert Dr Liz Hayes. In addition to guiding and facilitating the Hope & Ambition programme, Dr Hayes also continued to provide strategic development support to the Trust itself. In April 2022 the Trust launched a new website which has become an important tool in sharing information about the Trust and widening the influence of Hope & Ambition. Finally, in July 2022, the Trust welcomed an additional Trustee to the board, Dr Paul Donovan, further expanding the skills and expertise available to guide the Trust’s activities and ongoing development in pursuit of its charitable objectives.