2024 Business and Financial Summary
We are pleased to present our financial review of 2024; to share how our income was raised and how it was used.
Our audited accounts for the year will be available here soon. Those of previous years are shown below.
Who We Are and What We Do:
St. Vincent’s Foundation’s mission is to support patient care, research and medical education across our three hospitals; St. Vincent’s University Hospital and St. Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin and St Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. Over 500,000 patients are seen annually and it is they, their families and our dedicated, professional staff that we support.
We receive no state funding, meaning 100% of our income is from voluntary sources and we are entirely dependent upon those that choose to donate, fundraise and support us. We are both touched by and grateful for every donation and offer to raise funds now and in the future.
Where Our Income Comes From:
In 2024 income raised was €1,254,258, over 99% of which is made up of donations, fundraising, bequests and support. The remaining income, of less than 1%, comes from our bank interest and prize bonds.
The following breakdowns are based on the former, to give details of how our income from the public is received.
Donations (64% of overall income):
Once again, the biggest source of income came from our individual donors, many of whom have a personal experience of our hospitals, medical teams and services. We are grateful to one and all and thank everyone that has taken time to give a donation either through our website, by posting a cheque or in person.
We are incredibly grateful to the Marren family who made a significant donation towards St. Vincent’s University Hospital Molecular Pathology Lab at the beginning of the year. We were delighted to formally open the new facilities, made possible by Val Marren’s generosity and in honour of his wife, the late Kay Marren in 2025. See here for more details.
Income listed as “Donations” includes receipts from Revenue under the tax-back scheme. We can claim tax on personal donations of €250 and above in a year, at no extra cost to the donor. We are grateful for our generous supporters who give at this level and sign the relevant form to allow us to boost their donations by up to 40%.
Many of our donors choose to support us with a gift in memory of a loved one and we are always touched by the families that think of us when faced with bereavement. Throughout the year these donations make a significant contribution, particularly for patient care. We hope there is comfort for those coming to terms with loss knowing that others will benefit from their kindness.
Community Events and Fundraising (21% of overall income):
We are incredibly fortunate to have a supporters who step up to organise and participate in fundraising events, appeals and challenges. From running marathons, baking, selling sunflowers, swimming, head-shaving …. and much, much more, we have truly energetic and hard-working fundraisers who hail from all over the country.
Income from this source has increased by 17% on the previous year and is particularly important to us as each event helps spread awareness of St. Vincent’s Foundation as well as generate funds. Our thanks go to everyone that has chosen to support us in this way and to all their family members, friends and colleagues who have sponsored, donated and purchased to get behind the various events.
We always love meeting our supporters and you can see photographs of some of our friends here.
Trusts and Grants (6% of overall income):
We received 10 trust and grant payments in 2024, the majority of which support education and training for hospital frontline staff. We are proud to play a part in the ongoing development and retention of our medical staff through covering costs of conferences, courses and qualifications.
Legacy Donations (5% of overall income):
We received 2 bequests in 2024, from supporters that took time to consider our work and include a gift for us in their will. Such legacy donations can be a specific donation amount or a percentage of an overall estate. We are always grateful and touched by such kind support and we extend our thanks to families, executors and solicitors who help us with these important donations.
We are a proud founding member of My Legacy, an umbrella organisation dedicated to encourage charitable gifts in wills now, to benefit future society.
Corporate Support (4% of overall income):
We thank our corporate supporters, who in 2024, supported patient care and research in the fields of orthopedics, cardiology, liver, sarcoma and cancer. Our corporate donations also include our CIF (Common Investment Fund – historic covenants) dividends for St Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.
How our Funds are Received:
As with previous years, most of our funds are given with requests to support a specific hospital or specialty. We are proud to honour every such request as we understand supporters have a personal connection to our staff, a ward or specialist area of care.
We also appreciate the unrestricted support we receive as this gives us flexibility to use in the most relevant or best ways – for education, research and some of the “behind the scenes” work in our laboratories that our medical teams rely upon for example.
In 2024 95% of our income was restricted, 5% was unrestricted.
How We Spent Our Funds:
In 2024 our financial outgoings were €1,572,216. The vast majority of this, €1,530,377, was in support of our charitable aims and was made through direct disbursements across our hospitals. Our spend through these grants, saw an increase of 80% on the previous year. In total we made 48 grants and this included;
€530,000 for the construction and equipping of our first “Simulation Laboratory”, named after the late Dr Enda McDermott and made possible thanks to the generous support of his family and our friends at University College Dublin. Our so-called “Sim Lab” now brings cutting edge technology for medical students and teams to learn and practice theatre skills and patient care.
€500,000 for Molecular Pathology technology, allowing our team to analyse more than 500 genes simultaneously instead of the previous 5-10. We are now able to provide complex diagnostic results for up to 40 cancer patients every week.
€37,500 for ongoing Breast Cancer research.
€2,000 for our End-of-Life “Print to Keep” initiative, so loved ones can cherish memories. This award-winning scheme goes from strength to strength and confirms our status as part of the national “Hospice Friendly Hospitals” community.
We are always pleased to support our frontline teams in their continued education, training, development and research. In 2024 our grants covered areas such as obesity, ICU and cancer.
We are also pleased to supply grants for equipment and furniture for our St Anne’s Ward and Nephrology Department, amongst others.
A full list of our 2024 grants can be found here, along with all grants from previous years.
Without the support of our voluntary donors, fundraisers and supporters this work would not be possible. Together we make a lasting difference across our hospitals that impact our patients of today and their families, our frontline staff and our researchers who continue to drive improvements for future care.
The cost of generating funds in 2024 amounted to €4,056 with a further €37,783 covering our costs of governance, audit, website, production of our donor magazine “Friends of St Vincent’s”, commission payments to our platforms (e.g. iDonate and Stripe) and other items.
In 2024 our CEO was held in a voluntary capacity, until his retirement in October and there were no staffing costs.
For any information about our fundraising income and expenditure please contact us at stvincentsfoundation@svhg.ie, or during office hours call us on 01 221 5065.
St. Vincent’s Foundation is registered with the Charities Regulator, Charity number 20001872 and we have the green tick on their website indicating our accounts are filed accurately and on time.
Thank you for your continued support
Full details of the 2024 accounts will be available here shortly.
2019 SVF accounts file