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THIS MORNING SEES the launch of a new database of Ireland’s non-profit organisations (NPOs), one which could see a heightened level of accountability seen in the likes of charities and educational institutions here.
Benefacts, which you can access here, is a free online information portal containing data on all 18,600 of Ireland’s NPOs.
Benefacts itself is a non-profit company, established in 2014 to promote transparency and accessibility for Irish NPOs.
It’s an online tool that has been two years in the making, and it’s very impressive indeed.
Given the controversy seen in recent years over the likes of remuneration of top executives at Irish charities, the benefits of Benefacts towards accountability are obvious. However, while transparency is a very-welcome side effect, Benefacts is more about creating accessibility to a sector that managing director Patricia Quinn describes as having been “hidden in plain view”.
Click here to view a larger image
Crucially, the information contained within the database is not provided by the NPOs themselves, but rather is accumulated from regulatory submissions to the likes of the Revenue Commissioners, the charity regulator and the companies registration office.
The kind of data that can be accessed includes:
All of it is extractable, while the site itself is very simple to navigate. It can be searched right now, although the launch of the sector-search tool won’t go live until the official launch this morning at 10am.
Basically, while exceptionally useful for someone who’s in the market for setting up a non-profit of their own, it’s also a data lover or journalist’s dream.
“A lot of work has gone into this,” says Quinn. “We’ve had great people working on it and it shows”.
We present the maximum amount of available data in a neutral and impartial way, to support better-informed decisions, to help build public trust, and reduce the cost of doing business with government.
We should stress this is information that the public could already access – however not in such an easy, streamlined fashion.
Click here to view a larger image
One noteworthy omission is the lack of executive salary information etc, although that is something that Quinn says may well change:
“At present that information isn’t published because too few non-profits disclose it in their audited financial statements,” she says.
That’s likely to change as nonprofits are required to report to new standards this year. Once it’s reported, we will collect and re-present the data.
At present there are more than 108,000 people employed in NPOs in Ireland, which turn over more than €7 billion in revenue each year.
Benefacts form is based on a similar project in the US called Guidestar.
“It’s free to use, like Guidestar, and we’d like to keep it that way,” says Quinn.
Public transparency is a fundamental part of our mission.
Crucially, those non-profits who disclose less information regarding their workings can be pinpointed within Benefacts.
“We have started to get calls from people who say they’re embarrassed that their data isn’t up to scratch on our site,” says Quinn.
They want to know if there’s anything they can do about that.
Everything we have is public knowledge, it’s just far more accessible now.
We see ourselves as stewards of this data, and we’re very conscious of our responsibilities as such.
One thing is for sure, Benefacts is set to be an invaluable tool for people from all walks of life going forward.
You can visit the Benefacts site here. All elements of the site will officially go live from 10am this morning.
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Why is there no video footage from the front line???
@John Fahy: there is actually a half decent Instagram page called “realnewsnobullshit” with front line footage uploaded daily.
@John Fahy: There is, but you can imagine there won’t be much of it. Some people aren’t stupid enough to stand out holding their phones up when bombs are dropping. They have more important things on their minds.
@John Fahy: Go on to reddit and you’ll see plenty on r/combatfootage but if you want Russian footage then download Telegram and find a group called ‘Intel Slava Z’. There’s so much footage out there and it’s easy to find. I don’t understand why people can’t grasp the concept that a war is happening.
@John Fahy: because war is brutal and footage from it can be quite distressing and disturbing to watch..its not like the movies..if you want to see footage you can easily find it on the likes of twitter and reddit among other sites..however most news agencies won’t be showing any footage for obvious reasons
@John Fahy:
They’re not letting many journalists near the front, not sure if it’s to keep moral high among the people or that there’s too high a risk of journos getting killed or a bit of both. I’m in Dnipro now and it’s very difficult to go anywhere east from here
@John Fahy: go on Telegram. Plenty of videos.
@Dave Walsh: is that not the job of journalists and news crews? I grew up during the Vietnam war and there was video footage on the news every day. Something is very suspicious here
@John Fahy:
The war here is very different to Vietnam for journalists, Russia are pounding and destroying everything in front of them with artillery with better range than the Ukrainians and moving forward, artillery is blind, particularly Russian artillery
@John Fahy: I believe that the Ukrainian Army asked people to stop sharing videos of their attacks on line as it exposed and revealed their positions. Since I read that somewhere (some time ago) I have noticed a significant reduction in videos – it may or may not be the reason – but it makes sense. Still I am surprised by the lack of footage myself.
@Calvin James: Technology exists today to put unmanned cameras in place that transmit footage to a remote location.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh:
This is also true, I got rumbled taking a photo of a mural and had to wait to get questioned by secret police, they informed me that a Turkish ship was docked and took footage of missiles being fired, he shared it and it made MSM in Turkey, Russia destroyed the facility an hour later. As I also explained earlier in the thread it’s an artillery war, you’d be an absolute idiot to be within 15km of the front line with the way the war is being fought
@John Fahy:
Such technology would give away Ukrainian positions
@John Fahy: you will find all you want on VK
@John Fahy: it’s called IPsec
@John Fahy: Goodman John, why don’t you do a bit of freelancing to satisfy your suspicions…
Of course, Ukraine’s future is part of the EU. Well the western part anyway as it’ll likely be absorbed into Poland. The southern and eastern will be unlikely to join as they’ll be part of Russia which probably won’t get EU status anytime soon.
@Seán: wrong Ukraine will get all of its territory back.
@shligo boyzz: You are living in an alternative world if you really believe that the m.upp.et zelensky will get the territory back,they’re part of russia now, and THEY are not going to give them up as easily as zelensky did.
@Darren Murphy: youre a m0ron if you think ukraine is giving up anything easily
@Rian Lynch: I can’t wait till all the pro Russian heads on this app are proved wrong.
@shligo boyzz: Like they took back Crimea? They’re retreating from the Donbass currently so exactly when are they going to start this massive counter-offensive? Winter is coming and that means gas bills, Western governments are going to start caring about their own citizens protesting the cost of living crisis and kicking them out of power and less about delivering arms and defeating Russia. That means the west suing for peace, putting an end to the Ukraine crisis and normalizing ties with Russia to some degree.
@Seán: the big counter offensive has started in the south with Kherson that’s more important than anything in the east atm I’m only a armchair general but Russia is weakening they focused 4 fronts into 1 in the east and all they can get is a tiny bit of land. And I’m in no way underestimating Russia they may be stupid but have a numerically advantage in man and equipment. It will be though but I think eventuality get back the pre feb 24th borders and god knows what will happen after that.
@Seán: who said Crimea is lost. There is already several ukrainian offenses on all though there seems to be no real effort going on to push on with them. Russia has run out of guided weapons and is using inaccurate weapons systems like artillery. They are still making very little progress with some Russian forces turning on their commanders in the dombass region. To say Russia has this won is well wide of the mark. They could win it but on current form it looks like Russian military forces in the east of Ukraine are being destroyed slowly. An analyst I listened to yesterday claimed that the Ukrainian forces are in a position to force Russian forces out of many areas but seem to be holding off. He’s unsure why but thinks the Ukrainians are trying to destroy Russia forces. These places the
@Allora: Russians are gaining are not valuable in relation to military strategic positions. They appear to be political assets. Severodonetsk is a city divided in 2 by a river. It appears the Russians are entering the city to be destroyed by the Ukrainians. Its another stalingrad for Russia.
@Darren Murphy: why are you calling zelensky a muppet? most rational people think he is one of the greatest leaders a country has ever seen. If you’re simply pro-russia and the war, then fair enough, i get it.
@Darren Murphy: Not sure how fighting for 100 days against a massive assault can be stated as “giving them up easily”
The Ukrainians are doing fantastic work; holding the invaders back whilst grinding them into the ground to allow the Kherson offensive to get underway.
Russia is finished, thankfully.
@Stephen O’Neill: which Ukrainians are doing fantastic work…… the Nationalists or the Republicans…. if only Zelenskyy had kept his election promises…if only…… none of this would have happened.
@Fergus Quinlan: which election promises ?
@Fergus Quinlan: Which election promise?
Because he didnt make overtures to NATO until AFTER the Russian troop buildup along their border.
NATO military assistance has been ongoing since 2014. Well before Zelensky was elected.
The commies are awake I see
@Fergus Quinlan: Ah Fergus, the man that used an article on the slaughter of 21 kids in Uvalde to push his anti Ukraine/pro Russian agenda (that took some doing I’ll give ya that) ….. a true humanitarian
Every week Zelenski sounds more and more like Comical Ali. “We are beating them back”, “They are losing so many men they cannot continue”, “We are holding our ground and will not retreat”
have your say