About the data in Benefacts Database of Irish Nonprofits

Using open data regulations, we build and maintain the database by accessing regulatory materials filed by nonprofits and made available by public authorities. Benefacts does not “scrape” the websites of individual nonprofits.

These public authorities include the Companies Registration Office, the Charities Regulator, the Department of Education & Skills, Revenue, and the Standards in Public Office Commission. Here’s the full list, together with the frequency with which we access each source. The database gets updated every day with new filings by nonprofits to their respective regulators.

As well as re-using data from public sources, we harvest all available non-personal data published by Church governing bodies and by Public Participation Networks (PPNs). This data feeds into our analysis reports in aggregated, anonymized form – we only republish information on this website where we have the authority to do so (for example, we have a data sharing agreement with Fingal Public Participation Network). This means there are thousands of nonprofits in our database with no listing on this website.

We store data on nonprofits after they have been wound up/de-registered, and we identify new nonprofits when they are established/regulated.

We are always interested to grow the database and we do this with help from sector network leaders and governing bodies, and from funders.

If you are interested in more information about specific datasets or sub sectors, or you would like to help us grow the database, contact us.

Last updated 21 May 2020