At the event is Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Pamela Kearns; Minister of State and Dublin South West TD Colm Brophy; Lavinia Morris, General Manager of Microsoft’s EMEA Data Centre Operations; and local community changemakers Photo by Naoise Culhane
€100k to support groups and non-profit businesses
THE Microsoft Ireland Community Fund 2026 for south and west Dublin was launched this week with €100,000 to support individuals, community groups, schools and non-profits across the county.
The new fund will be managed by ChangeX to help community projects focused on environmental sustainability and digital skilling.
Minister of State Colm Brophy TD joined Microsoft at Áras Chrónáin in Clondalkin, to unveil the launch of the fund.
The event brought together 35 local groups, including schools, local sports clubs, NGOs, who received support from last year’s fund to celebrate their achievements.
As part of this year’s €100,000 fund, communities will be able to choose from a portfolio of ideas that have already had a positive impact in other communities around the world.
They include hands-on STEM workshops to enhance digital skills for students, an initiative to support the development of local biodiversity, a project to encourage sharing goods and resources across the community, and an educational programme to promote knowledge about renewable energy.
Last year’s fund alone engaged more than 11,000 local people near Microsoft’s data centre operations in Clondalkin.
In recent years, successive funds have supported 103 different community projects, focusing on the development of digital skills and empowering local sustainability, and benefitted nearly 30,000 local people.
Since 2008, Microsoft has invested €4.5m in projects supporting local communities near its data centre operations.
“At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person to achieve more. As we invest in and operate data centres across Ireland and globally, we recognise that this comes with both responsibility and opportunity,” said Lavinia Morris, general manager of Microsoft’s EMEA data centre operations.
