London Irish Rugby Club is looking to bounce back from recent negative publicity around the signing of Paddy Jackson and the exit of Diageo as a long term sponsor.
Last night it announced the launch of a new London Irish Foundation which will become the official charity of the club.
The new organisation will operate as a charitable trust independent of the club, as required by the Charity Commission, which has granted the Foundation registered charity status. This will bring considerable benefits, especially when it comes to the financing of activities and fundraising.
The Chief Executive of the new Foundation, which is based in Sunbury-on-Thames, is Andy Keast, formerly Head of Community at London Irish. Keast is a former coach at club and international level, including with England A and the British and Irish Lions.
The Foundation will operate under the direction of an independent Board of Trustees chaired by Patrick Lennon and also including Topsy Ojo who retired after a 16-year playing career with the club in April.
“This is an exciting development in the history of London Irish,” said Keast ahead of the launch. “The club has an established and successful record of community engagement. The Foundation will take that to another level and deliver projects that use the power of sport to make a lasting, positive impact on the lives of individuals, and build a meaningful and sustainable legacy for sport and education across the communities we serve.”
“All our work is driven by community engagement – working directly with community members and local community-based organisations, such as local authorities, councils, schools and businesses, YMCAs and housing shelters.”
“Although we are a newly established charity, we have already been undertaking some of these activities as the community arm of London Irish, and so have the expertise, insight and relationships needed to immediately deliver projects under our new more formal, financially efficient and inclusive structure.”
Among the projects already undertaken by the Foundation are Project Rugby in association with Premiership Rugby and Gallagher; Tackling Health in association with the Greggs Foundation; BEAT in association with the City of London Corporation; the BEAT the Street homeless project and the HITZ Learning Academy in association with Premiership Rugby and Land Rover.
The Foundation has also supported the new National Health Service (NHS) “Lift the Baby” awareness campaign.
