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Ireland is seen as the poster child for recovery, says Kieran McLoughlin, chief executive of the Worldwide Ireland Fund.

2009 was the worst year in the history of philanthropy in the United States. Top-tier donors diminished by 74%, donations by corporations contracted by $670m and giving by individuals, which makes up 85% of giving in America, dropped by $2m over the course of the year.

It is predicated that 150,000 US charities went bankrupt during the year, and only 12% generated a surplus. The American Ireland Fund came through the year relatively well, in so far as we are in that 12%.

The reason for this continued success is that our people have remained remarkably loyal and committed and we ensure that we remain at the forefront of their mind. Some charities chose to withdraw somewhat from the market and reduce their levels of activity, we took the opposite approach and chose to work that much harder and convince our donors all the more of the validity of the case. The Irish diaspora are remarkably loyal and committed and want to play their role in the national recovery.

We are in a brave new world. The philanthropic industry will see an end to a significant amount of giving before 2011, and at that time it is not expected to get to anything like the pre-2008 level.

Since the beginning of the Celtic Tiger, we've had to show our people in America that needs in Ireland persist. We've had to explain to them that despite the welcome ending to the Troubles, there is still a long road to be travelled in Northern Ireland in terms of reconciling the two sides.

We've also had to explain that, despite the benefits of the Celtic Tiger, there are those that are marginalised in society and that they still need our help. In addition, we still explain to them all the positive things that are happening in Ireland, for example, the North is a model for peacemaking around the world, and the South is probably one of the most beneficial places to invest in terms of activity and taxation issues.

At our core, the American Ireland fund is a groundbreaking foundation which has raised over $300m over the last 30 years. But if you look beyond those numbers, you'll find that we are a great network and that our people represent a great source of advocacy for Ireland in terms of political and business contacts. Many of the members of our network would have made business decisions which would have benefited Ireland. Others will mentor Irish companies and provide them with access to customers or capital in the US or elsewhere.

We have to work very hard to ensure that we maintain the interest and the loyalty of the upcoming generation. Ten million Irish Americans are under the age of 18, and by definition, they are one more generation separated from Ireland than the generation before them. They are generally being brought up in better economic circumstances, further up the socio-economic ladder, which means they have more choices, more activities and they travel further. So we have to work hard to ensure that we retain their affinity and their loyalty, and we are responding to that.

We have launched our young leaders programme which is for young professionals connecting with the organisation, and we put on specific types of events for them where we bring in younger Irish-American stars such as Denis Leary and Conan O'Brien.

We bring them over to Ireland and connect them directly with the projects that they are supporting. Despite last year being the toughest of years, the New York young leaders achieved their goal of raising $1m a year early, which is a remarkable achievement for young people in their thirties.

The political influence of the Irish community at the highest level in America still remains. Under normal circumstances, the President of the United States only travels to Capitol Hill twice a year, once for the State of the Union address and the other occasion is on St Patrick's Day. It is quite extraordinary that on St Patrick's Day, the entire political establishment of America is focused on Ireland.

That's not to say that we should be complacent, we have to ensure that the relationship evolves and I think that the Department of Foreign Affairs has done a fantastic job and is very well respected. We have become partners in helping them to craft their policy on diaspora relations.

Hilary Clinton, very gratifyingly, has held up the American Ireland Fund as the model for diaspora organisations around the world. We are now organising an international conference on diaspora relations which should happen by the early part of next year.

During the period of the Celtic Tiger, one would have thought that the American Ireland Fund would have faced serious problems raising money for Ireland, because people would assume that we didn't need any assistance externally.

On the contrary, we had a boom time. The reason for that was that Irish Americans were proud to be associated with an Ireland that was so successful and an Ireland that was achieving.

When the downturn hit, I think that our donors were absolutely bewildered by the speed of the downturn in Ireland, probably greater than any other nation. However, now they are hugely admiring of the resoluteness with which Ireland is dealing with our problems. As one donor put it to me, Ireland was once the poster child of the boom, now it is the poster child for the recovery.

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