BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY
We listen first, act with humility, and walk alongside our communities – using the resources available to us to build resilience, tackle poverty, strengthen systems and reflect God’s love.
About Us
Our Vision
Communities where poverty no longer defines people’s future; where every person feels like they matter, are supported and are able to flourish across generations.
Our Mission
We listen first, act with humility and walk alongside our communities – using the resources available to us to build resilience, tackle poverty, strengthen systems and reflect God’s love.
Our Story
The McCann family, through the faith, trust and guidance of Peter and Patricia, have been Grown in Grace. The Grown in Grace Foundation is a legacy to their example and to them both. The Foundation was established to support people and communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage and lack of opportunity, particularly in the places and communities that have shaped the family’s own story.
The Foundation’s roots begin with Peter and Patricia McCann and a lifelong commitment to helping others through faith, compassion and practical action.
For more than 40 years, Peter has worked to bring people together across Lurgan and Craigavon. During the divisions of Northern Ireland in the 1980s, a chance encounter between Peter, a Catholic, and David Hamilton, a Protestant and former UVF member, led to a shared moment of prayer and the beginning of a lifelong friendship. That experience of reconciliation and hope continues to shape the Foundation today.
Alongside raising their eight children, Patricia dedicated much of her life to supporting others through her work as a counsellor and within the community, while Peter became involved in local initiatives including Drumgor Youth Club, local football teams and leagues, and the establishment of The Well YMCA in Lurgan.
Together, Peter and Patricia sought to create spaces where people felt welcomed, supported and encouraged. Today, with the support of the wider McCann family, the Grown in Grace Foundation aims to carry that legacy forward for a new generation.
Our approach to philanthropy
The Foundation has been shaped by a growing belief within the family that many charities and communities are working under increasing pressure, resulting in too many individuals and families continuing to experience poverty, isolation and lack of opportunity without the joined-up support they need.
We also believe there is an opportunity to support charities and communities differently.
Too often, organisations doing important work are constrained by short term funding, excessive bureaucracy and fragmented systems that can make long term planning and meaningful collaboration difficult.
In response, the Foundation aims to take a more relational, long term and trust-based approach to philanthropy – one that seeks to back people and organisations patiently, reduce unnecessary complexity, and create the conditions in which charities and the sector can thrive.
Our approach draws on principles often associated with venture philanthropy: absorbing risk where appropriate, investing dynamically and patiently for the long term, and strengthening leadership and organisational resilience so that charities are better equipped to create lasting change.
We balance this with the principles of trust-based philanthropy. We believe charities and community leaders are closest to the challenges they’re seeking to address and are therefore best placed to determine how change should happen in practice. Our role is not to direct or burden organisations with unnecessary process, but to support them relationally, responsibly, and over time.
In practice, this means providing significant, unrestricted, and flexible funding to organisations that align with our values and vision, while removing the need for written application and reporting requirements. We aim to learn alongside our partners through open relationships built on honesty and trust.
Alongside funding, we provide access to expert support in areas such as governance, finance, strategy, leadership and organisational development, so charities can access additional expertise where it’s useful and appropriate to them.
We don’t claim to have all the answers, and we recognise that no single organisation can solve the challenges facing communities. But we believe meaningful and lasting change becomes more possible when people, charities and communities are supported fully, consistently, and with trust.
Our work
The Foundation currently focuses its work in two main ways.
Firstly, by supporting charities and community organisations working to address poverty, strengthen communities and create long term opportunity. We aim to work collaboratively and relationally over time, providing support in ways that strengthen organisations and the people they serve.
Secondly, through the development of the GiG Community Hub in Lurgan town centre. We hope this will become a welcoming and community focused space designed to bring people together, support local connection and provide practical support, encouragement and hope.
We also hope that, over time, the Foundation’s work might encourage wider conversation about how philanthropy, business, and government can work together differently to improve the conditions for charities and those in need.
At the heart of the Foundation is a simple belief: people matter, communities matter and lasting change happens through relationships, trust and showing up consistently for others.
Our Values
GiG stands for Grown in Grace.
This reflects both the family’s own journey and a belief that people and communities flourish best when they’re met with dignity, opportunity, encouragement and hope.
We hold many values as a family. While we honour them all, these are our core and guiding values. Shaped by our collective experiences and our faith, they guide how we work, make decisions, and show up for others.
Forgiveness (Make a space for grace)
We believe everyone matters. Where systems often punish or enable failure, we will instead create space for grace, second chances, and new beginnings. Without forgiveness, hope can be hard to grasp.
Hope (Look for the light)
We choose to see potential and possibility in and for everyone, even in the darkest places of hardship.
Compassion (Have humanity)
We treat everyone with dignity, empathy and care, recognising the humanity in every story. We listen deeply so that we can respond appropriately to each individual.
Humility (Set aside your ego)
We listen first, respect others’ expertise and act without ego.
Resilience (Keep up the good work)
We stay the course, learning and adapting when challenges arise, and we don’t give up easily.
Accountability (Action speaks louder than words)
We are transparent, keep our promises and measure ourselves by the difference we make.
