The Freemasons’ Grand Charity
The Freemasons’ Grand Charity is the central grant-making charity of all freemasons in England and Wales. It was registered in 1981 and carries on a tradition of charitable support for both freemasons and the wider community which has been maintained since 1727. All of the funding for the Freemasons’ Grand Charity’s grant-making activities is provided by freemasons, mainly through annual contributions made by individual masons through their Lodges, as well as through major fundraising ‘Festivals’ held each year in one of the 47 Provinces in England and Wales.
The Grand Charity makes grants to:
• Distressed freemasons and
their dependants (Masonic Relief Grants)
• Other masonic charities
• Non-masonic national charities serving England and Wales
• Emergency relief work worldwide
Under its current guidelines for support to national charities, the Grand Charity makes grants for three main purposes:
• Medical research
• Care for the most vulnerable people in society (including a specific
programme of grants to hospices)
• Opportunities for young people
Grants in the year ended 30th November 2005 totalled £4.7M. (2004: £5.1M)
Masonic Grants
In 2005 grants were given by the
Masonic Relief Grants Committee:
• To provide financial help to freemasons, or their dependants, who
are in financially distressed circumstances.
• To assist other masonic charities in times of special need.
• To provide the central channel for giving to non-masonic charitable
causes – as a result of which the Grand Charity has become one of the
major grant making charities in the United Kingdom.
• To provide relief, throughout the world, to those affected by major
disasters.
Non-Masonic Grants
One of the primary reasons that the Freemasons’ Grand Charity was established in 1980 was to make donations to non-masonic charities. Over the years, a programme of support has developed for charities in the following fields:
• Medical research
• Vulnerable people (including older and younger people, those with
health or medical conditions and those with disabilities)
• Youth opportunities
• Hospices
• Emergency relief work
In the year ended November 2005, over £2.1M was donated to 324 non-masonic charities in England and Wales (2003: £2.3M to 299 charities). This includes 217 hospices and 36 charities nominated by four Provincial Grand Lodges under a pilot matched funding scheme. Grand Charity grants ranged from £500 for some of the hospices to four emergency grants totalling £234,200 to the International Red Cross for its relief efforts in relation to the South Asia earthquake, the Tsunami Appeal, the Philippines floods and Hurricane Katrina.
For further details in respect of these grants please refer to the Freemasons’ Grand Charity Review 2005.
Other Masonic Charities
• The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys is to relieve poverty and provide education in preparation for life for children of the families of a freemason and, where funds permit, for any children, as their fathers would have done had they been able do so.
The Trust looks after about 2,000 girls and boys. Some girls are at the Royal Masonic School For Girls and the rest at various schools up and down the country, as are all the boys.
• The Royal Masonic Benevolent
Institution is an organisation offering degrees of care, support and assistance
appropriate to individual needs. The Institution is a major provider of high
quality services for older people throughout England and Wales and more than
1,150 older freemasons and their dependants live in their homes. The Royal
Masonic Benevolent Institution has 19 homes, registered for both residential
and nursing care.
• The Masonic Samaritan Fund provides assistance to needy, sick and
infirm freemasons and their dependants.
• The Masonic Housing Association provides rented accommodation of a high standard for elderly persons who can generally lead an independent existence, but who would benefit from the help of a resident warden in an emergency.
Festivals
Festivals for the Grand Charity, the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and the Masonic Samaritan Fund are held each year. Each year a Provincial Grand Master accepts responsibility for supporting one of the main Masonic charities, principally with the help of the Brethren of the Province.
Over the past 6 years, freemasons in the Province of Gloucestershire have raised over £2M for the Masonic Samaritan Fund, the Province’s nominated ‘2006 Festival’. Impeesa Lodge members contributed £22,500.
Recent examples of support given
to local charities by Impeesa Lodge include:
• The Masonic Samaritan Fund
• Street Child Romania
• National Blind Children’s Society
• 70th Holy Trinity Stapleton Girl Guiding
• Bristol Oncology Centre
• Exeter Cancer Research
• The Bristol Royal Hospital Scout Group
• British Lung Foundation.