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NEW PHILANTROPISTS:Times are tough, not least for fund-raisers, but the president of the Ireland Funds, Kingsley Aikins, reminds SUSAN MCKAYof the old mantra: Philanthropy is about the three Ts: ‘time, treasure and talent’. Everyone, he says, can afford to give at least one

‘OUR GIG IS philanthropy. People think it’s a poncey word. They think it’s just for fat cats,” says Kingsley Aikins. “But it isn’t. My favourite definition of it is the kindness of strangers.” As president and chief executive of the Worldwide Ireland Funds, Aikins leads an organisation that in the past 10 years alone has distributed more than $200 million worth of the kindness of strangers, primarily to voluntary groups, in this country, North and South, and to Irish people elsewhere.