Full coverage: Charities

A former government minister is at the heart of the intensive UNICEF operation to get essential supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip. Peter Power discusses its progress and applauds Irish companies for contributing vast amounts of money to this and other global projects.

The regulator of housing charities has decided to send inspectors with extensive investigative powers into the nationwide homelessness organisation after it reported financial difficulties.

PWC has been tasked with assessing the solvency of the leading Dublin-based homeless charity and highlighted the need for exceptional funding over the coming months.

As its auditors and Audit and Risk Committee work to complete its accounts, Scouting Ireland has deferred its AGM. It declined to comment on “members under suspension” to ensure fair process.

Scouting Ireland is facing serious financial issues and new estimates of how much its legal liabilities will cost reveal the scale of the crisis facing it in the years ahead.

UNICEF says Irish businesses have been fast-acting in their response to its emergency fundraising appeal for Ukraine. But the scale of the crisis means the UN agency needs much more support.

Fiona Cormican has been instrumental in turning the non-profit into Ireland’s largest private landlord. From the era of grant-funded council homes to the brave new world of investment funds and cost rental, she details what has happened to Ireland’s housing market – and what needs to happen now.

By law, the proceeds of the National Lottery must be spent on good causes, but budgetary procedures have drowned this funding stream into wider government spending and made it difficult to track to individual grants – until Benefacts compiled it all into a database.

Self Help Africa has secured a new multi-million EU contract to inject capital into private enterprises in the Zambian food value chain. Although most African agribusiness remains far from bankable, the organisation sees its role as “priming the pump”.

The housing charity is increasingly working with property developers and investors to provide much-needed supported housing. But Francis Doherty, the man in charge of its housing portfolio, says more landlord incentives are needed to stop tenants losing their home in the first place.