Benefacts core activity was the production and publication of high quality datasets derived from the regulatory filings of Irish nonprofits. Once the systems for building and maintaining these were established, Benefacts stakeholders in the nonprofit and government sectors began to look for analysis derived from the data. As a result, between 2016 and 2022 Benefacts’ in-house team produced more than 100 pieces of sector analysis: free public reports, bespoke reports commissioned by public, private or nonprofit bodies, and free business intel reports provided on request to any nonprofit that asked for one, using their own data.
After Benefacts was wound up, a small legacy company maintained the base register of Irish Nonprofits for a couple of years. Their analysis of structural changes in the sector over the life of the Benefacts project is provided here.
Benefacts annual nonprofit sector analysis reports
Each year from 2017 to 2021, Benefacts produced and published a free public report analysing changes in the profile of the nonprofit sector in the prior year, using data collected from the full population of nonprofit organisations in scope. You can access these reports here, along with remarks about the value of this kind of analysis from the launch event in 2017 Paschal Donohoe TD and in 2018 by Brad Smith, then CEO of the Foundation Center, European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly.
Besides analysing the regulatory, sub-sector, employment, governance and financial/funding profile of the sector, each report includes a description of the methodology and assumptions used.
Benefacts published analysis reports were cited by academics, public policymakers, analysts, donation schemes, journalists and others.
Benefacts Nonprofit Sector Analysis 2017
Benefacts Nonprofit Sector Analysis 2018
Benefacts Nonprofit Sector Analysis 2019
Benefacts analysis of charitable and philanthropic giving
In 2019 and 2020, with support from philanthropies, Benefacts published standalone reports on giving in Ireland. The approach to this was informed by the methodology adopted by the European Research Network on Philanthropy’s Giving in Europe series and was designed to promote improved disclosure by philanthropies and facilitate transnational comparison and trend analysis of giving in Ireland.
Read about the comparative research framework adopted by Benefacts.
Benefacts Charitable Giving in Ireland 2020
Benefacts Philanthropy in Ireland report 2020
Benefacts Philanthropic and charitable giving report 2021
Benefacts Charities in Ireland report 2021
Bespoke analysis for public, private and nonprofit bodies
Benefacts was commissioned by various public, private and nonprofit sector bodies to produce analysis reports derived from the Database of Irish Nonprofits, targeted on their specific policy, business decision or analysis needs. Some examples:
Public
- an analysis of the nonprofit sector to support Financial Action Task Force (anti money-laundering) reporting (for the Department of Justice in 2018)
- two separate reports (in 2018 and 2021) for the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform (on the employment, remuneration and pension profile of nonprofit bodies receiving State funding)
- three separate reports on Approved Housing Bodies (for the Research Service of the Library of the Oireachtas, the Housing Agency and the Department of Housing in 2018, 2019 and 2021 respectively)
- an analysis of nonprofits not registered as charities for the Charities Regulatory Authority (in 2018) and of the financial profile of charities (for the Regulator’s Consultative Panel on Charities)
- An annotated dataset of higher education bodies (for the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General in 2017)
- an annotated dataset to support their analysis of social enterprise (for the Department of Community & Rural Development in 2021)
- An analysis of emigrant support organisations (for the Emigrant Support Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2018)
- A detailed governance and financial analysis of community employment schemes and TÚS/RSS implementing bodies (for the Employment Support Service and Work Programmes Policy Unit of the Dept of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in 2018)
Private
- a contract over a number of years to provide qualification data relating to funding applications, (in support of the business processes of Rethink Ireland previously the Social Innovation Fund)
- an analysis of the liquid asset profile of major charities (for a private investment firm specialising in nonprofit advice in 2020)
- data to support fund-raising analysis (for a private consulting firm tracking philanthropic receipts by Irish charities year-on year, annually)
- analysis of the profile of selected charity sub-sectors (for the payroll giving scheme of a major Irish financial services firm in 2020)
- analysis of the profile of nonprofits likely to be impacted by the Covid pandemic (for the Community Foundation for Ireland)
Trends in Ireland’s nonprofit sector 2017 – 2024
After Benefacts was wound up in 2022, a group of former employees and directors established a legacy organisation to explore the potential for transferring the residual intellectual assets to another organisation or consortium with similar objectives and values. This small legacy company maintained the base register of Irish nonprofits for a further two years. The baseline data generated has been used to provide this snapshot of key changes in the nonprofit sector in Ireland between 2016 and in 2024.
The nonprofit sector in Ireland is steadily growing and maturing
Nonprofit organisations are established and wound up every day, but between 2016 and 2024 comparing like with like and using the same national sources of regulatory disclosures, the number of entities in the Database of Irish Nonprofits grew by 6%. The percentage of operational nonprofit companies that had been established for more than 50 years grew by 2%.
In 2024, ten years after the introduction of charity regulation in Ireland, 54% of nonprofits in the Database of Irish Nonprofits were regulated as charities
Under the Charities Act 2009, 8,000 nonprofits already recognised as charities for tax purposes in Ireland were automatically ‘grandfathered’ onto the public register of charities when regulation by the new Charities Regulatory Authority was introduced in 2014. To keep their place on the register, these charities were given two years to make their first return to the Regulator. In the eight years that followed, about 2,500 were deregistered and removed from the register.
Thereafter, according to data harvested from the register at the beginning of 2024, the charities register was augmented by bringing 3,800 primary or secondary schools onto it each year in batches, and by newly registering some 2,250 charities.
The combined effect of these processes of deregistration and new registration has been to produce a register of charities in Ireland – 54% of all Irish nonprofits – which had this profile in 2017 and 2024.
| Sector | 2017 | 2024 | % Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arts, Culture, Media | 506 | 606 | 19.8% |
| Recreation, Sports | 131 | 216 | 64.9% |
| Education, Research | 914 | 4307 | 371.2% |
| Health | 507 | 642 | 26.6% |
| Social Services | 1504 | 1556 | 3.5% |
| Local Development, Housing | 1487 | 1549 | 4.2% |
| Environment | 196 | 322 | 64.3% |
| Advocacy, Law, Politics | 219 | 158 | -27.9% |
| Philanthropy, Voluntarism | 644 | 512 | -20.5% |
| International | 251 | 240 | -4.4% |
| Religion | 996 | 1106 | 11.0% |
| Professional, Vocational | 308 | 247 | -19.8% |
| Total | 7663 | 11461 | 49.6% |
In 2024, the charity sector was chiefly made up of schools, social services, local development and religious bodies.
Regulation of nonprofits in Ireland has intensified
The majority of nonprofits registered as charities are also regulated under other legislation with only 22% of charities regulated exclusively as such. Most of these 2,550 entities regulated solely as charities are trusts, charter bodies or unincorporated associations involved in religion, social services, or fund-raising/philanthropy. All of the other registered charities are also subject to one, two or more other forms of statutory regulation.
Of the c.11,600 charities registered at the start of 2024 and included in this analysis (excludes State Bodies),
- 5,000 are also regulated under the Companies Act
- 3,250 are also regulated as primary schools by the Department of Education (of which about 40 are also registered as companies)
- 540 are also regulated as secondary schools by the Department of Education (of which about 40 are also registered as companies)
- 50 are also regulated as universities or colleges of higher education by the Higher Education Authority
- 55 are also regulated as friendly, industrial or provident societies
- about 440 are also regulated by the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (of which 360 are also regulated as companies)
This is the sectoral profile of the other 9,800 nonprofits – not registered as charities in Ireland at the start of 2024. About two-thirds are incorporated as nonprofit (limited by guarantee) companies. Most of the rest are sports bodies which are ineligible for registration as charities in Ireland.
You can review the data from which this analysis has been derived here.