Corporate Social Responsibility
AIB Better Ireland Programme
The AIB Better Ireland programme awarded almost 2 million euros to deserving children’s projects all over Ireland in 2008. Local communities had the final say in choosing the 185 most deserving children's projects to receive funding. By voting each community chose which group in their area would receive 10,000 euros from their local AIB branch.
AIB’s Better Ireland Programme received nearly 1,300 applications for funding nationwide. These applications were then short-listed to 547 children’s projects. Applications ranged from a wide variety of groups including homework clubs, teen clubs, autistic services, community creches, schools and colleges as well as drug and alcohol services for youth.
Voting took place from 6th May to 6th June and we had an overwhelming response with 308,011 votes received. All the votes for each group were counted and verified and the winning group in each branch received a 10,000 euro prize.
Also all the proceeds from the text votes (approx. 23c per vote), after operator charges and VAT are deducted, have been given to the relevant shortlisted projects.
Runner up projects also received an additional top-up donation from AIB, in recognition of the huge efforts made by all the shortlisted projects to secure text vote support from their local communities. The project with the second highest number of votes in each branch received €300, while the project that came third received €200.
To see a list of the 185 winning groups across the participating branches just click on the "List of Winning Groups" tab in the related information section.
Local participation, local voting and local benefit are what the new AIB Better Ireland Programme is all about.