Emergency appeals

100% of public donations go directly to that response, providing vital and practical support like food, clean water, sanitation and crucial staff costs to deliver the response. 

Our financial & annual reports

The CEO is paid €120,000. There are no benefits (e.g. no company car) other than a pension contribution (which is available to all full-time employees) and no bonus is paid.

The CEO reports to our Board of volunteer trustees on the strategic leadership of the organisation on the island of Ireland and the delivery of high-quality emergency response and long-term development programmes overseas.

Do you pay top-ups or bonuses? Do you give staff perks?

Why do you pay staff? Why isn’t Oxfam Ireland run entirely by volunteers?

Do you pay your board members?

Funds raised in shops

Christmas cards

We sell the cards in our shops directly and do not use third parties sales agents. This means that 70% of the price goes towards our work (a much higher percentage than many other charity cards) and 30% covers the inevitable costs of printing and distribution.

Other commonly asked questions about our work

Do you receive government funding? 

In the last financial year, we received €4.23million in funding from Irish Aid, the official aid programme of the Irish Government, for humanitarian assistance in countries like Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan and for long-term development programmes in countries such as Malawi and Tanzania.

How do I know my donation isn’t going to corrupt governments?

We don’t fund governments. Your donations go to our own Oxfam programmes, or the programmes of carefully selected and monitored local partner organisations. We have extremely tight financial procedures in place and apply these same high standards to all our partners. Along with regularly auditing partners, if required we also help them to strengthen their own financial reporting procedures. 

Why are the governments in the countries where you provide essential services like water, health and education not doing this work themselves?

We provide essential services such as water, sanitation, health and education in the following circumstances:

1. In emergency situations such as natural disasters when local infrastructure has been damaged/destroyed

2. When the services provided by governments are inadequate, i.e. of poor quality and not reaching the most vulnerable in the society such as poor women and girls, people affected by HIV, people with disabilities, etc. 

We don’t just simply provide the services in these situations – we build the necessary infrastructure and train local people to use it, along with showing governments and state bodies best practice in the provision of essential services.

We believe that states have a responsibility to provide these services and citizens have a right to receive them. That’s why a lot of our work focuses on supporting communities to stand up for their rights and demand these services from their governments. 

How do you know if your programmes are actually effective?

All our programmes are continually monitored and evaluated to determine their impact and effectiveness. We do this through financial and project reporting, including regular monitoring visits, partner audits and formal independent evaluations. 

We give particular emphasis to feedback from community members when assessing the success of our work. All our programmes are designed to improve their capacity to meet their own needs so that the benefits of the project continue long after we leave. 

What about helping people in Ireland, i.e. charity begins at home?

‘Charity begins at home, but does not end there’ is the full version of the quote from Thomas Fuller (1608-1661). Supported by people across the island of Ireland for more than 50 years, Oxfam offers the Irish public a way to support our work with the world’s poorest people. For instance, our shops play a key role in connecting communities here with others overseas. They’re a place where local people can donate the things they no longer need in an eco-friendly way, buy clothes and other items at reduced prices and learn new skills through volunteering. In February 2014, following severe and unprecedented flooding, we donated a week’s proceeds from shops in six affected counties to local flood reliefs.