The Connacht Hospitality Group this week announced that they raised over €90,000 for a range of good Irish causes throughout 2022.
The group, which owns well-known Galway establishments including The Connacht Hotel, An Púcán, HYDE Hotel, Residence Hotel & 1520 Bar, and the Galway Bay Golf Resort, held a range of events at various stages of 2022 to fundraise for charities.
Across 2022, the Connacht Hospitality Group helped raise funds for four incredible charities: Claddagh Watch Patrol, National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI), Galway Hospice, and Make-A-Wish Ireland.
The announcement of over €90,000 worth of funds raised by the Connacht Hospitality Group for national and local charities comes off the back of the past 12 months which saw the group aim to make Corporate Social Responsibility a core part of their identity. This focus allowed them to become more aware of the causes that need assistance while also raising the profile of many of the charities.
The Connacht Hospitality Group arranged a diverse array of events to raise funds, and they had lots of imaginative ways of grabbing the public’s attention. One event saw people attend HYDE Bar to savour a menu made by a mystery celebrity. In the end, it was revealed that TV personality Gráinne Seoige was the Executive Chef on a night that generated over €8,000 for the NBCRI.
Another event saw Connacht Hospitality Group staff take part in a ‘Sunrise Swim’ in Salthill – and the public unselfishly donated in their droves. All money raised went towards Claddagh Watch Patrol, an organization that works to make Galway’s waterways safer by preventing accidental death and suicide.
One of the most successful fundraisers held by the Connacht Hospitality Group in 2022 was the Galway Bay Golf Resort’s Golf Classic which raised over €22,000 for Galway Hospice.
“Ultimately, it’s about making a difference to our community and to the charities that we support,” Brian Lynch, Group Head of Finance at the Connacht Hospitality Group, said about the reason behind the push to raise money. Brian added that he was delighted to see the group create such an ambitious target 12 months prior.
For Brian, the ‘Sunrise Swim’ was a personal highlight of 2022 – and he took part himself on the day.
“That was a great morning, and we were very lucky because it was a very nice morning, and the water wasn’t too cold. The golf classic was a great event, too, because I think it was the greatest single event we’d ever done. It wasn’t open to the public – we invited our commercial partners and stakeholders in the business to put teams in and we had enough teams to hit our target,” he said.
The Connacht Hospitality Group had previously set fundraising targets of some €15,000 for previous years, so to see them increase their target so immensely in 2022 highlighted just how ambitious the group was to do even more for worthy causes.
“It was our first year of increased engagement – and we’re really only scratching the surface,” Brian Lynch added.
“We’re looking to bring it to another level in 2023 by increasing our target and hosting a number of other exciting events as well. We’re looking to partner with a small number of charities that are local and that we believe will engage with us.”
Already this year, Croí have been announced as one of the Connacht Hospitality Group’s charity partners – there was a photocall at the Connacht Hotel on Wednesday, January 18, with a number of Croí representatives, and the Connacht Hospitality Group is delighted to be partnering with the Irish heart and stroke charity.
Connacht Hospitality Group’s Marketing and Product Innovation Manager Eveanna Ryan spoke about the announcement:
“We’re delighted to partner with Croí as one of our 2023 charity partners. They are a fabulous organization that does such important work fighting heart disease, and we’re really looking forward to helping raise vital funds that will help them in their mission to increase awareness and help people live heart-happy lives,” she said.
Another plan for 2023 will involve the individual companies within the broader family of Connacht Hospitality Group taking the lead on certain events. So, in addition to the group-wide events to raise money for charities, the likes of An Púcán, 1520, and HYDE Hotel will be involved in running events of their own. All of this will be part of the strengthened push to hit an even bigger number by the end of 2023.
