AXA Ireland Fund - group walking in a park

The AXA Ireland Fund

Empowering women, supporting local communities and driving impactful social change.

The AXA Ireland Fund

The AXA Ireland Fund looks to support communities and non-profit enterprises and organisations who address key social issues.

Women brainstorming ideas with men in the workplace

Supporting communities

The fund spans across Ireland, supporting projects both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The AXA Ireland Fund grew out of AXA Parks, an initiative to support sustainable, community-led projects creating or improving green spaces in their localities.

Our fund partner, the dedicated team of experts at Community Foundation Ireland, will be managing and facilitating the AXA Fund.

For our first year, funding will focus on Empowering Women. No woman should face limited or fewer opportunities, or feel discouraged or prevented from pursuing their potential.

Marguerite Brosnan - AXA Ireland CEO

Collaboration and cooperation are powerful forces. When people come together and engage with a common purpose, things previously seen as insurmountable can become possible. That is the power of the collective. Challenges are easier to overcome, and communities can thrive.

Through the AXA Ireland Fund, we are delighted to support local communities, organisations and not for profit enterprises who seek to make a difference in addressing key social issues. Empowerment of women, whether in the home, the workplace or the community, is key to enable a richer, more diverse society. I am delighted that the AXA Ireland Fund is supporting key enablers of empowerment and in doing so helping to build resilience, welfare and overall well-being.

We look forward to seeing beneficiaries from the fund thrive, grow and prosper in the coming year. And we will be with them every step of the way to support them on their journeys.

- Marguerite Brosnan, CEO AXA Insurance

Supported projects

In 2023/2024, with the theme of empowering women, the AXA Ireland Fund will work towards supporting initiatives that help women thrive, touching on the following areas of inequality:

Work

Focusing on employment and training opportunities.

Enablement

Supporting women’s participation in decision-making in civil society, through work on training, education, discrimination, and access.

Time

Supporting women at risk of or facing poverty, particularly due to caring responsibilities.

Opportunities

Focusing on opportunities for women to engage with social enterprise.

Republic of Ireland project

The Great Care Co-op

The care industry in Ireland relies on a steady supply of low paid labour, mainly women and migrant workers, who traditionally receive no financial security. The Great Care Co-op is a social enterprise and worker co-operative, founded by migrant women who wanted to create something better - offering women financial security and providing a higher standard of tailored care to those in need.

The Co-op plan to use the support from the AXA Ireland Fund to expand their business from three to eight care hubs, operating across Dublin and Wicklow. Enabling them to provide tailored care for more people in need, and to offer more women better employment conditions and financial compensation.

We care about positive ageing, sustainable societies, and about workers being able to access decent work. We’re motivated by wanting to see a better world.

– Mariaam Bhatti, Co-Founder, The Great Care Co-op

Read more about The Great Care Co-op or watch the video.

Northern Ireland project

GLOW

(Giving Life Opportunities to Women)

An inter-generational, cross-community organisation, GLOW was developed from a common desire of women in the local community to address issues facing their peers such as low self-esteem & confidence, mental health problems, isolation and a general lack of purpose. The women they support have difficulties accessing education and employment, and many have experienced domestic abuse and substance abuse.

GLOW challenges the status quo in order to break the vicious cycle of these issues, by empowering women and young girls with the tools and techniques to build their confidence, self-esteem, resilience and life skills.

With support from the AXA Ireland Fund, this small organisation will continue to invest in their programmes (LILY, Fearless & The Real Me) which helps women and girls from 10-13, 14-17 and 18+ years old. The funding will also allow them to explore the possibility of launching a pilot programme to recruit a family support worker to equip the women they work with and their family members with the coping skills to strengthen family relationships and navigate the complexities of mental health challenges.

I was lost, I was very depressed. I was isolating myself away from everybody, and finding GLOW was my lifeline. It saved us, it saved my family as a whole.

– GLOW participant

GLOW provides a safe space for women to share their vulnerabilities. We have women and girls coming from both sides of the community, fostering a community of resilience and hope.

– Treasa Rice, CEO of GLOW

Read more about GLOW or watch the video.

Former fund beneficiaries

AXA Parks

The AXA Ireland Fund grew out of AXA Parks, an initiative to support sustainable, community-led projects creating or improving green spaces in their localities.

This programme ran in 2022 and early 2023, impacting 84 projects across 32 counties.

Find out more about AXA Parks.

Our fund partner

We’ve partnered with Community Foundation Ireland, a dedicated team of experts with a unique connectivity with communities across Ireland, to manage the AXA Ireland Fund.

The Foundation and its donors are on a shared mission of equality for all in our local communities. Their purpose is to drive impactful social change, working with frontline partners and changemakers who want to make a difference.

As a philanthropic hub, we have the expertise to deliver positive, sustainable and strategic impact. We link the generosity and vision of donors with the energy and ideas of people in the community.

– Denise Charlton, Chief Executive, Community Foundation Ireland

Find out more about Community Foundation Ireland.