The Ann McGeeney Charitable Trust
Ann McGeeney’s life was characterised by her strong drive to help others - particularly those who have been excluded or marginalised.
Holly McGeeney-Murray (daughter of Ann McGeeney) speaking at an event organised by Community Foundation Northern Ireland. (Image credit: Community Foundation Northern Ireland).
Ann spent most of her career as a community worker in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, trying to improve the lives of women and minorities and helping to launch cooperatives and other initiatives for the unemployed, elderly and vulnerable. She was also known for her willingness to work across sectarian divisions to support peacebuilding, despite the challenges this often brought during at a time when Northern Ireland remained deeply divided. When her family was looking for a way to continue Ann’s legacy following her untimely death in 2014 at the age of 52, therefore, setting up a philanthropic fund seemed like an obvious choice.
The Ann McGeeney Charitable Trust was established in 2015 in partnership with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, who house the fund and provide support with grantmaking. Rather than inviting applications all the time, the fund instead regularly opens for time-limited windows, often with a particular emphasis.
In 2021, for instance, the focus was on rural organisations supporting women and children. This saw them award a grant to a group called the Cabbage Patchers in Warrenpoint, to help them establish a “women’s shed” in the town, providing a safe and welcoming environment for women and girls to meet and take part in social and creative activities. In 2022, meanwhile, the focus shifted to support for local community organisations planned and run for the benefit of refugees and asylum seeker communities in Northern Ireland. One of the projects they funded as part of this was the Dundalk Media Centre’s “Women on Air” project, which supported the training of ten migrant members of the Dundalk community to become community reporters and contribute weekly pieces to Dundalk FM's weekday Drive Time programme.
More recently, in late 2024, the Ann McGeeney Charitable Trust expanded its scope further. They organised an event (in partnership with the Community Foundation NI) bringing together a range of organisations from across Northern Ireland to explore the challenges facing women in the country. This also acted as the launch for a new joint fund, in partnership with the Women’s Fund for Northern Ireland, which offered small grants for individual women aid to support them towards fulfilling their potential.
Attendees at the launch event for the Women’s Fund for Northern Ireland. (Image credit: Community Foundation Northern Ireland).
The idea behind this was to recognise the fact that women may face barriers when it comes to accessing education or employment - whether that is the finding appropriate childcare, having caring responsibilities, or dealing with the aftermath of an abusive relationship – and that often they may find themselves unable to take opportunities for want of only very small amounts of money. This is particularly true for women who also face other challenges and forms of marginalization, which is why, as CFNI’s CEO Roisin Wood explains, the fund also had an emphasis on “looking at how can we fund women who have got significant issues, be they refugees or asylum seekers or people who have not been in education for a long time.”
The individual grants from this fund were only small – around £500 each – but they still made a huge difference to the lives of the women who received them. One, for instance, was a domestic violence survivor with two young children who was able to use the money to find childcare and thus stay in employment; another used the money to help fund driving lessons, which would give her greater independence and the ability to take on work that might require travelling.
The Ann McGeeney Charitable Trust is a great demonstration of the fact that philanthropy doesn’t have to be huge in scale to have a big impact. Their grants so far have been relatively small - for individuals it usually a few thousand pounds, and for organisations has been at most around five thousand pounds. But the point is that for the right person or organisation at the right moment, this can be absolutely transformative. As Holly McGeeney Murray – Ann’s daughter, who helps to run the fund – explains:
“Small things do make a difference and, as mum always said, these grants, small though they may be in value make important differences to the projects they support.”
And, of course, these small acts do add up - so the fund has now distributed well over £20,000 in total and is continuing to look for opportunities to support individuals and groups across Northern Ireland who need help.
This is also a powerful example of how philanthropy can be used to remember someone and to make sure their values live on. In Ann McGeeney’s case, the fund that bears her name is both a testament to the legacy of a remarkable women who dedicated her life to building community and a vital source of ongoing support for those same communities today.