The GAA has announced a group of five charities that it will support at national level in 2013 through financial contribution and awareness building.
Four of the charities are based around health and one on education.  They are Fighting Blindness; Edmund Rice Beyond 250 Appeal; Our Lady’s Children Hospital Crumlin – Orthopaedic Unit; Laois Hospice; and Liam’s Lodge, a respite home for Children with rare diseases on the outskirts of Tralee in County Kerry.
The charities have been selected from a wide range that apply each year.  They are complementary to the different local charities and causes that are supported by individual regional, county and club structures throughout the GAA.
“All of these charities are engaged in highly valued work that not only benefits the people they work with on a daily basis, but society as a whole and the GAA is keen to make a meaningful gesture in support of this excellent work,” said GAA President Liam O’Neill.
Sport and Charity can play an important mutual role in achieving their individual aims.
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[ismember]Fundraising is obviously a key element of any relationship and 90% of those who will compete in the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon recently cited the ability to raise money as a key motivator.
It is not the only aspect though, as alluded to by the GAA, and raising awareness and profile is perhaps an even more important aspect of a sporting relationship.
Diabetes charities run their own professional cycling team staffed entirely by people with the condition.  The benefit being that others will see what can be achieved with careful monitoring and management.
At local level there can be a clash, especially these days with the need for clubs to raise money for their own purposes and there is a calculation to be made between how much additional money can be raised from a local community via the addition of a relevant charitable cause.
Part of the selection process with the GAA will most likely have involved analysis of the structures behind each of the five charities and their ability to leverage the support and spotlight that the next twelve months will provide.
It can often be seen as too easy to think of a deal as being complete when it is signed.  In fact the relationship will produce very little for either side if it is not planned out carefully and executed like any commercial deal.
A new initiative for clubs, Sport for Business Club Excellence, will launch later this year and provide insight into how organisations at the grassroots of sport can raise money more effectively while at the same time building stronger links with their own local communities.[/ismember]

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