Public sector leadership As cultural director of the Temple Bar project, she led the cultural arm of the transformation of a derelict site in Dublin’s urban core. As director of the Arts Council, she produced two successive strategy plans, securing a nearly three-fold increase in State funding during her 7-year term.
Working with others to make the case for the arts and culture in public policy, she developed new organisations (Music Network, DesignYard), edited publications (Temple Bar: the Power of an Idea) and organised national conferences (The Art of Managing the Arts, The Economy of the Arts). With colleagues in Australia, Canada, Finland and South Africa, she helped establish IFACCA, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies.

Social enterprise As an advisor to prominent Irish philanthropies, she developed the concept and governance structure for Music Generation. She also worked with colleagues at TCD to lay the foundations for the international Science Gallery network.
In 2015 she founded and led Benefacts, a nonprofit company that grew out of a five-country pilot funded by the European Commission, the Irish Government and Irish philanthropies. With a small dedicated team of data engineers, programmers and analysts, for seven years Benefacts provided Ireland’s only comprehensive nonprofit data infrastructure. It ran a free public website and sent a quarterly data feed to the Central Statistics Office. It produced annual reports on the sector and its philanthropic donors. It also produced bespoke reports and datasets for public, nonprofit and philanthropic clients, and free web services analysing State funding for the entire sector.

Governance review and advisory Currently she works mainly as a governance advisor to nonprofit, charity and non-commercial State boards. Her work includes governance reviews, board renewal and director evaluation. She often works with organisations in transition, on the governance and regulatory aspects of major change: establishment, merger, wind-up. She has served on many nonprofit boards and commissions in the State and nonprofit sectors including currently the Board of Marsh’s Library.
She co-authored the Arts Council Guide to the Governance of Arts Organizations with Linda Scales (2015, revised 2025), and in 2026 piloted a collective approach to sub-sectoral governance support for a group of State-funded organisations. Other recent assignments include feasibility research for philanthropic clients, and governance reviews for a major transnational research programme and for environmental, sports and social care nonprofits.

Professional approach Patricia Quinn has adopted the voluntary Code of Practice for board reviewers of the Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland to all her board review work, on an “apply and explain” basis. This means agreeing the scope, process and terms in writing before a review begins, telling the board about any other work or relationships that could affect her independence, and agreeing how to manage them. It also means not extending her relationship with any one client beyond six years. She keeps what she learns confidential, except where the law requires disclosure or unlawful practice comes to light. Access the Code here.

Research and teaching Her research addresses nonprofit sector analysis, governance, regulation and funding. (See for example this on philanthropic giving, or this on the State’s use of National Lottery proceeds).
She teaches charity governance as a faculty member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, and is completing a second Masters degree (in corporate governance). She is an active member of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) and the Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland.