A charity run by a Wicklow-based businessman received more than 170 warnings from the Charities Regulator over its failure to file annual accounts over a period of six years.
Earlier this year the Shauna Kavanagh Foundation (SKF) company was listed for strike-off after it failed to file accounts for the last six years.
The charity was formerly called the Olive Foundation after entrepreneur Brendan Kavanagh’s educational technology company. Olive supplies schools with laptops and tablets for students and has contracts with Education and Training Boards.
The charity was renamed after Kavanagh’s daughter Shauna, who died at the age of 30 in 2017 from cystic fibrosis.
A number of investors and former Olive staff have said they have fundraised and donated to this charity, which aims to help people facing long-term hospital stays due to conditions such as cystic fibrosis.
At his 60th birthday party last year, Kavanagh, whose other investments include Grinds360 and the sports app SocialTies, encouraged guests to donate to the SKF instead of giving him gifts.
Documents released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws show that between 2020 and 2026 the Charities Regulator wrote 172 warning letters or emails to SKF directors, including Kavanagh and his son Dylan.
The first warning was issued in November 2020, warning that the SKF’s annual report was overdue by 10 months and that the charity risked “deregistration” for breaching the Charities Act.
The warning notices said it was an offence to miss annual filing deadlines and asked the charity to file its returns. The bulk of the letters were automated correspondence sent up to 2023.
The charity filed overdue accounts and returns earlier this year after it was again quizzed by the regulator about its continuing noncompliance with the Charities Act.
On March 19th last, Philip O’Hanlon, from the regulator’s compliance team, wrote to the SKF to raise further concerns about the lack of an independent majority among SKF’s trustees.
“It would appear that two of the three trustees of the charity may be related,” he wrote.
The letter pointed out that the Charities Governance Code recommended that trustees be independent and unrelated parties should form a majority on a board.
“In light of this, you may wish to review the composition of the board of trustees in line with best practice for charities.”
The registered trustees and directors of the charity remain Brendan Kavanagh, his son Dylan and Marcus Hammond, a director and executive within the Olive group of companies.
A “final warning” was issued to the charity on April 23rd, warning that the charity’s continuing failure to file up-to-date annual returns meant it was at risk of a criminal prosecution and that the trustees could face a €300,000 fine or 10 years’ imprisonment on conviction on indictment.
Dylan Kavanagh responded to say the charity was working with accountants to file its overdue accounts. He said the trustees took their responsibilities seriously.
The returns were subsequently filed and the strike-off notice lifted.
Its 2025 accounts showed income dropped from €42,542 in 2024 to €19,032 in 2025.
The Charities Regulator said it does not comment on individual charities.
“Enforcement is a last resort, we give charities and charity trustees every reasonable opportunity to come into compliance,” the regulator said.
The Olive group did not answer questions.
Earlier this year, it said the charity had no employees and operates entirely on a voluntary basis.
It said the filings in 2020 were disrupted by the Covid pandemic and then the death of John King, a solicitor and Olive executive who was the SKF’s company secretary until his death in May 2021.