however that philanthropy is rarely in support of heritage itself.
Consider, for example, the support given in the UK and Ireland by a gentleman called Henry Smith of Wandsworth, England. Henry was born in 1549 and died in 1628 but he was the originator of a long and flourishing legacy of giving through what is now the Henry Smith Charity - and that is the principle reason he is remembered today.
Henry was an astute businessman and left a detailed Will as to how his estate was to be administered. Indeed Henry spent much of his energy in his final years refining the details of his legacy. As a result, his philanthropic wishes have been maintained through the centuries with a remarkable degree of consistency and continuity.
We will have heard something of the heritage of philanthropy in Belfast this morning - no less evident than in the very existence of the Belfast Charitable Society that continues to support the residents of Belfast and further afield but also preserves the Belfast Poor House. But I think, useful to note that, perhaps like your organisation, Belfast Charitable Society did not set out to be a heritage organisation - but a very real, modern and active response to the needs of growing industrial city. However because of its success and preservation of its assets it has by longevity become old.
When I consider the origins of some of our local philanthropy I see many things in common with our funding needs today and the methods used to raise money to tackle them. As a Trustee of Victoria Homes Trust, previously known as Victoria Voluntary Homes I have been involved in a grant giving body that, in a small way, continues to support children and young people in Belfast coming up to 150 years since it first set out to do so. When you look at the history of VHT's philanthropy is was made possible initially by a small number of doers of good.
In 1881, the Belfast Women's Temperance Association (BWTA) first began the charitable work of rescuing "young girls from homes made miserable by poverty, unemployment and abuse of alcohol and to prevent the possibility of them becoming prostitutes or involved in other kinds of crime." This work was possible due to energies and connections of its founders - women like Margaret Byers and Isabella Tod who engaged in what can only really be called a fundraising campaign to buy a site on which to build premises.
The methods they used and benefitted from we would call today major donor fundraising, door to door fundraising, legacy fundraising and community and events fundraising. Through this deliberate act of asking they were founders of a philanthropic organisation that still gives today.
Victoria Homes Trust are one small part of a 4 billion pound fund of grant giving in the UK through charitable Trusts and Foundations. A sector that continues to grow today locally and globally. The world's wealthy individuals and companies continue to use the vehicle of grant-making trusts and foundations to distribute their wealth or a share of their profits. These organisations, most often charities themselves, are increasingly professional in their approach, and increasingly more focused and planning their giving - reflecting a greater identity with the source of funds than a more general approach to philanthropy from previous generations.
Charities Aid Foundation have conducted significant research into trends of global philanthropists - and in particular those under 30 - and found they are much more invested in their decisions about who to support and the personal investment they will give. You might see this more anecdotally in the trend for the rich to establish their own named Foundations to channel their charitable giving - on one hand the result of more professional advisors in the arena - but on the other reflecting the greater individual personality of giving by modern day Forster Greens and Benn family's - who were some of Belfast's very generous philanthropists of the past.
This approach is not a criticism but an observation, so it is not surprising that we have the Rory McIlroy Foundation, the Darren Clarke Foundation and the GMAC Foundation, in place of more anoymous giving directly to current causes and charities. The public philanthropy of these generous individuals who have been very successful on the world scale becomes part of their public identity. In the case of Premier League footballers it becomes a great way of communicating more than just their football related identity - and sometimes controversy - by showing the public a more charitable side.
The trend of the world's mega rich has been in many instances to bring the same rigour of their business life to their charitable giving. So people like Bill and Melinda Gates - who in spite of giving away billions upon billions of dollars through the Bill and Melinda Gates Founation still remain in the very top of the world's wealthiest people. They gave up the day job to get more fully involved in the business of giving - and solving issues on a global scale - with the mission to eradicate polio for example. Once upon a time it, the charitable trust may have offered valuable life lessons to children and grandchildren in wealthy families, it would now I would argue be much more of a whole family commitment.
Ireland's own, Chuck Feeney has been in the vanguard of championing a radical form of philanthropy for the very rich. The model of 'giving while living' he carried out personally and is close to fulfilling the objective to spend all his billions by the time he dies. Something we charities in Northern Ireland have helped him to do by benefitting in our millions, if not hundreds of millions of pounds from his Atlantic Philanthropies funding. He has been part of a movement of billionaires to make some of the largest commitments to giving in history alongside the likes of Warren Buffett.
Closer to home, we have a growing number of local high-net worth individuals who have established charitable foundations as the hub of their philanthropy. The Agnew family, TBF Thompson, the Wright and Lyness families, Sir Allan McClay, the McKibben family and many others have within the last few years sought to make more public their giving. This is part of an increasing drive to make local philanthropy more visible -indeed helped by initiatives such as Philanthropy Fortnight and Giving Northern Ireland. Lesser known Northern Ireland connected individuals have died leaving £10million to their family foundations.
But the visibility of giving is also helped by the transparency and accountability offered by the still quite new Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The registration of charities here for the first time has made visible again a long and generous history of philanthropy in Northern Ireland - some of which may have become dormant over time. The requirements of registration has seen endowment funds and legacy trusts appear, as if out of nowhere, but simply been flushed out of an era of complete discretion to an era of public scrutiny of public benefit. This has meant many historical charities has sought to distribute all their assets and close or to find new ways and partners of distributing their income.
Make sure you have a copy - as new as you can afford of the Directory of Grant-making Trusts. This will show you the scale and diversity of Trust funding in the UK.
A major difference however between historical philanthropy and the modern day is the relative wealth of the poor and middle classes - who very often will be significant supporters of charity when their (and our - because most of us fall into this category) contributions are pooled in support of a cause. This giving is more diverse, more frequent, for a lesser nominal value but in much, much greater numbers.
The modern philanthopists are you and I, giving through sponsored walks, coffee morning, cakes sales, direct debits, charity shops, collections boxes, text giving, online giving. The UK is a generous society: two-thirds of us (62%) give away some of our money to good causes every year, and well over a third (39%) do so every month. Collectively this public generosity raises around £10 billion each year to support c.200,000 registered charities and many more smaller, informal voluntary organisations.
Giving to charity is a way of life - but then again not so very different from previous generations - other than the fact we have a greater professionalisation of the fundraising. My grandfather and great grandfather were fundraisers - but not like me. They mainly had proper jobs as a grocer for the Co-op on the Ormeau Road and as a carpenter in the Shipyards. But they also were fundraisers for the Presbyterian Orphan and Children's Society here in Belfast. We now have a much greater proportion of volunteers who probably do not see themselves as fundraisers - because that is the job of someone who is paid to do it. Or in the case of heritage organisations most often - no-one is paid to do it, no-one volunteers to do it, and in the end - no-one does it. I exaggerate, but in my experience heritage organisations don't do what most others charities would recognise as fundraising - and the job is left to reluctant and begrudging heritage professionals on the whole - but to be fair, not always.
When I look at heritage organisations worldwide - as I did for this talk - I don't see significant levels of philanthropy at work - I don't see many new philanthropists devoting their energies and their cash in the field of museums, collections and historic buildings. But then again I dont see great or cutting edge fundraising in these organisations. But what I do see in these organisations is a much better fundraising ask - in the traditional way with a modern presentation. Organisations like the Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty Trust ask people to give to them. They ask in quite interesting and well presented ways. The Sydney Opera House asks people to give to them. They have clearly thought about how and where and when they will ask for support - and then do that. This ask isn't hidden away in a distant page of their website. It is front and centre in their marketing. It is confident and open.
Which brings me back, largely to where I started. The first rule of fundraising is to ask. You don't ask - you don't get. I have spoken before in other places to heritage organisations about this. Heritage organisations tend not to ask - and when they do it is boring - quite often. This is where your future lies. It lies in engaging people to give to you through donations, legacies, volunteering for fundraising. I would emphasize the need for work to promote legacy income - perhaps the main source of income that founded or grew your organisation in the first place.
In his Will, Henry Smith , who had no children himself, left money for the welfare of descendants of his sister, Joan. Referred to in Henry's Will as his 'poor kindred' the Charity still honours this benefaction but the gift in his will to charity has provided 400 years of public benefit and is still going.
I would caution on hoping social enterprise will solve all of your problems unless you have a finely honed business acumen and have a product or service people are queuing up to buy. In that case go ahead.
We are now in a generation thanks to social media and digital technology where small organisations can reach niche audiences across the world. So if you have a love of 18th Century manuscripts you have a fair chance of finding other lovers of 18th Century manuscripts anywhere else in the world - and asking them for some money. We have tools like crowdfunding, text giving, contactless payments and you tube - so I recommend using them - not only for profile raising but for fundraising.
We have a worldwide diaspora community who identify with our heritage and our places. We also have a place now where visitors will come if we give the rights incentives with Belfast and Northern Ireland becoming a tourism destination.
There is help for fundraising capacity building - from the Heritage Lottery Fund's Catalyst Programme run by Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) and from the Institute of Fundraising.
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