“It’s about support, empowerment, building connections, resilience, and confidence – values our organisation strives to instil in women.”
While gaining charity status in December 2023 has accelerated the expansion of Sister Sheds, it has also brought with it a whole host of new challenges for its co-founders.
That’s where Elavon, a global payments company with offices in Cherrywood and Arklow, came onboard as a corporate partner. While Elavon made a financial donation to Sister Sheds, it’s the skillset program it’s offering that has been most beneficial to Sherin and Rachel and others involved in Sister Sheds.
The program sees Elavon employees – including senior leadership – lend their time in areas of risk, finance, governance, marketing, and mentoring to ensure Sister Sheds can learn the business ropes, and continue to focus on helping women.
“As Sister Sheds grew, it became a struggle trying to keep it afloat. There were just so many elements of running a business and a charity that we didn’t know about. Having Elavon come onboard and being able to learn from its people has been a huge kickstart for us,” said Sherin.
When Orla McGuinness, Head of Marketing at Elavon in Europe, was introduced to Sherin and Rachel at a conference in Dublin last year, she knew Elavon had to be involved with Sister Sheds. She took the idea to its Managing Director, Declan Lynch, Maureen Stanley, Chief Risk Officer, and Stephen Groarke, Chief Financial Officer of Elavon in Europe, and leader of its Corporate Social Responsibility program.
“Hearing the work that Sherin and Rachel had done with Sister Sheds was inspiring. Their goal to empower and elevate women, and foster a sense of community aligned perfectly with our own goals,” Stephen says.
“We stepped back and thought, hang on, what can we offer Sister Sheds other than a cheque, that will give them real, tangible long-term benefits. As a large organisation, we have phenomenal people with diverse skills in running a business. We have a strong culture which is passionate about making a difference in our communities and brilliant people who want to make a personal and professional contribution. Giving Sister Sheds access to our people, and our skillsets, just made sense.”
“We see this as a long-term partnership. We want to help Sister Sheds expand across Ireland and give many more women a safe space to connect and find support.”
Sherin says the support of Elavon came at a pivotal time.
“We know how to support women, we know how to grow, and how to help women grow but the governance, the business side of things is something we’ve never done before. We’re blessed Elavon came in at the right time.”
