The Freemasons’ Grand Charity supports masons and their dependants in need. It also contributes to a huge variety of non-masonic charities which address causes of concern to masons and society in general.
    Richard is a 20 year old who cannot read or write. The only employment he has known since leaving school is helping on his father’s pig farm. Now he is rearing his own weaners for the market.
    When 87 year old Mrs Smith slipped and fell on her kitchen floor, she was unable to get up again. Luckily she was wearing a signalling device which automatically alerted the emergency services.
    Bro George was already well into his 60’s when he was initiated into the craft. After war time service in the RAF he trained as a Quantity Surveyor. His achievements in business never matched his ambitions, to say the least, and he ended up seeing his house repossessed and owing large sums to the gas and electricity companies. Now in his 70’s and in failing health, he is still proud enough to resist accepting what he calls ‘a handout’.
    What do these three have in common? They have all, directly or indirectly, been supported by the Freemasons’ Grand Charity and therefore by all of you who have supported the Grand Charity recently. If you are a freemason you certainly will have done, either by contributing to one of the great Provincial Festivals for the Grand Charity, or simply by being a subscribing member of a Lodge in England or Wales. With the payment of annual dues to Grand Lodge, our lodges make a payment to the Grand Charity on our behalf - £5 from every London Lodge member, £4.20 from every Provincial member. If you are a Past Master or current Master or Warden, you are a full member of the Grand Charity and entitled to attend the bi-annual general meetings at Grand Lodge. The Grand Charity’s affairs are governed by a council of 25, including a President appointed by the Grand Master in his capacity as Grand President, and its Rules are in the Book of Constitutions for all to see.
    Richard, the would-be pig farmer, is one of a growing number of young people given a grant or low interest loan and relevant professional advice by the Prince’s Youth Business Trust. The Freemasons’ Grand Charity has given £175,000 to help the Trust nurture the imagination and drive of youngsters ready to make their own way in life with a bit of capital and some mature guidance.
    In 1991, the Freemasons’ Grand Charity committed £500,000 over five years to a joint project between Help the Aged and Age Concern called ‘Senior Link’ - a home alarm scheme which works through the telephone. These alarms are a vital way of enabling older people to remain in their own homes, giving peace of mind to them and their families. When Mrs Smith fell, she used one of nearly 700 alarm units funded by the Grand Charity.
    If anyone should mistakenly believe that individual poverty is a rarity in the modern welfare state, then a morning with the Grand Charity’s Petitions Committee ought to put them right. Bro George was one of those cases considered by the Committee after a petition was made on his behalf.
    Individual petitioners are the largest group of Grand Charity beneficiaries. Last year we gave a total of £1.8 million to nearly 1,500 of them, each case presented and considered in detail. They are widowers who have no money for their wife’s funeral costs; widows who cannot otherwise afford to have a leaking roof mended; a husband who cares full-time for an invalid wife. These are the “poor and distressed” freemasons and their dependants whom we try to help - and there are hundreds of them.
    Total expenditure by the Grand Charity on all good causes was £3.4 million last year, of which £1.6 million went to non-masonic charities. £300,000 went in minor grants to over 250 different charities of all kinds. £210,000 went to hospices. There is now a well established tradition of support amongst masons for these marvellous voluntary organisations, which have had such an influence on the development of palliative care for people with cancer and other terminal conditions.
    A small number of very deserving causes are selected each year for more substantial support. In past years the Freemasons’ Grand Charity has taken a keen interest in medical causes, with large donations being made to the Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund, to Marie Curie, to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and to the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, amongst others. Now the theme has shifted in favour of young people, with particular support for organisations working with youngsters growing up in disadvantaged circumstances or who are otherwise somehow at risk. In pursuit of this theme, besides the Prince’s Youth Business Trust, the Grand Charity has recently supported the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Fairbridge, Outward Bound, the Royal Philanthropic Society and D.A.R.E., the Nottingham based drug abuse prevention scheme.
    All the Freemasons’ Grand Charity’s money comes from masons or their families and close friends. We never ask the general public for money. Spending £3.4 million per annum wisely and doing justice to the generosity of the thousands of brethren who have made it possible, is not easy. So being a member of the Council of the Grand Charity is one of the most challenging and - at the same time - one of the most rewarding jobs in Freemasonry.

Andrew Ross is a member of the Council of the Grand Charity’s Appeals & Donations Commitee.