members

Members of The Giving Circle are based in Ireland and are committed to giving their time and money to social causes in a strategic and meaningful way.

Currently the following individuals comprise the membership of The Giving Circle, representing a range of interests, skill sets and backgrounds.

Barbara O’Connell

Eamonn Conlon

Ellen Pinschmidt

Faye Walsh Drouillard

Vincent Drouillard

Catherine Duffy

Patrick Kelly

Patricia Meeks

Aoife Miller

Bernadette Shanahan

Paddy Shanahan

Founder

Faye Walsh Drouillard

Faye founded The Giving Circle to inspire, engage and meet the needs of the new generation of philanthropists so they will be active in their lifetime.  She is passionate about harnessing the power of entrepreneurship, innovation, finance and philanthropy to create sustainable social and financial impact.  Founder and Board Chair of two collective giving foundations, The Giving Circle of Amsterdam and The Giving Circle of Ireland, she hopes to inspire donors and investors to create more impact.

Faye is Founder and General Partner of WakeUp Capital, and early stage climate and impact VC fund based in Ireland that invests in for-profit impact businesses creating a more inclusive and sustainable future. She backs visionary founders tackling climate change and social inequities in areas such as sustainable food, agriculture and energy systems, accessible healthcare and inclusive education and financial services.

Following work in a law firm and in politics in California, she served as Executive Director of Freedom Writers Foundation, an education enterprise through its feature film release “Freedom Writers” by Paramount Pictures starring Hilary Swank. Consultant and investor in numerous start-ups, funds, social enterprises and foundations in the US and Europe, Faye is also an ecosystem builder and promoter of the practice of impact investing and increased diversity in finance as a pathway to better business results.

Chair of HBAN Impact Syndicate; Boards: Magrowtec, The Community Foundation for Ireland, Center for Sustainable Finance and ChangeX. Founder of The Giving Circles of Amsterdam and Ireland. B.A.: University of Washington; MBA: UCLA Anderson School of Management. She is based in Dublin with her husband and their three French-American children.