Benefacts has set out to transform the visibility and accessibility of Irish nonprofits.

We do this by gathering together all the data currently in the public domain, storing it in a database, and publishing extracts on this free public website. If you have the technical ability to read code, you can also access most of the public data as an API.

We believe that better data, freely accessible, will promote greater trust in and understanding of the work of Ireland’s ~19,000 nonprofit organisations. We are working with people in the sector, in government and in other interested communities (such as philanthropists, academics, professional service providers) to find ways of putting the data to work in ways they find useful.

In this first release of benefacts.ie, we are able to provide basic directory information for about half of the nonprofits listed, with more detailed financial and governance data for the rest. This number will grow as more information is filed with the Charities Regulatory Authority, and as we work with registrars and regulators to bring more nonprofit organisations into the database.

The data on this website changes every day, as people file updated information about their directors/trustees for example, or submit revisions to their constitutional documents.

Benefacts doesn’t charge nonprofits, and in fact doesn’t need them to do anything at all to be included in this website – the fact that they already make a return of some kind to at least one public regulator means their data is in the public domain.