By Business & Finance 
ESB has supported over 400 community and voluntary organisations throughout Ireland over the past ten years.
A celebratory event took place today to mark a decade of ESB’s charity funding programme. The company also announced Christmas funding to eight community and voluntary organisations across Ireland.
Pat O’Doherty, chief executive, ESB, said: “Since ESB’s foundation in 1927, we have always had a strong sense of responsibility towards the people and communities we serve. Before the language of corporate social responsibility (CSR) was ever coined, we have been supporting communities and programmes that enhance our economic and social fabric.”
ESB’s rural electrification programme, which started in 1946, created strong links with local communities and an understanding of their needs.
“We recognised from an early stage that as a leading Irish corporate citizen, we had to show leadership by adopting responsible business practices and contributing to the vibrancy of community life. With such a strong legacy, we have learned many lessons and honed our way of delivering CSR. One of the crucial informants to our CSR work is that we never work in a vacuum. National policy and structured ways of adding value to existing, high-quality services is something we consider before embarking on any new CSR programme,” added O’Doherty.
One of the key areas of work in the past decade for ESB has been around suicide prevention and support. The company has given over €5m towards suicide prevention services over the past ten years.
O’Doherty says: “We work with the National Office for Suicide Prevention to identify and support organisations who have the capacity, skills and training to make effective suicide-prevention interventions.”
Kristin Quinn, CSR manager, ESB, added: “In the past ten years, in consultation with our staff, ESB has focused our community group support on three areas: education, homelessness and suicide prevention. With over 400 community and voluntary organisations supported with €10m of ESB funding in the past decade, we know that our investment has made some real impacts across the island of Ireland. Through our Christmas funding programme, we are focusing on homelessness services in particular and through the Energy for Generations fund, we are able to ensure that grassroots organisations can continue to provide consistent service to local communities where they are needed most.”
