funding challenge

Rainbow of Hope

Bringing You the Gift of Hope

Few people consider the amount of money it takes to “run” Lough Derg. In actual fact, annual operating costs exceed €1 million. Costs such as electricity, heat, staffing, boats and insurance must be met, while improvements on the island over the past number of years have only been made possible through the generosity and support of pilgrims and friends.

In addition to these costs, Lough Derg has a loan to facilitate the development of island facilities and the annual repayment on this loan is €300,000. In previous years our annual draw has been able to cover this loan – but for many reasons proceeds from this draw have dropped quite significantly by as much as €50,000.

During the winter of 2009, the team at Lough Derg, in order to address this shortfall had to take a really close look at funding ideas and to develop a new approach to secure the future of this ancient Sanctuary. And so our Rainbow of Hope came about.

Based on the knowledge that 20,000 pilgrims visited Lough Derg in 2009, if every pilgrim left behind a voluntary donation of €20, our annual loan would have been repaid – an amazing gift of generosity to Lough Derg. As we know, a rainbow has 7 colours, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Therefore the challenge is – “Which Colour are you” with each colour representing a different level of donation.