Charities Supported and Monies Raised

Masonic charity is exercised at every level, individual lodges make gifts and give aid to their local communities and every Province contributes large sums of money to regional charitable causes. Nationally, our efforts are channelled through the Masonic Charitable Foundation.

Lifelites

Lifelites is a charity that started as part of the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys. They supply IT equipment to all the children’s hospices up and down the country. They also provide full support for the equipment and renew it every 4 years. In Suffolk  local donations have been made from some lodges. The Ipswich Hospice (Treehouse) has just had its equipment renewed and Roger Nash was there for the handover. Bill Bunn was nominated some years ago as the local masonic support person – Please see the Lifelites website: www.lifelites.org.

Somerset Flooding

Freemasons to help flooded Somerset communities with £25,000 emergency relief grant.

Following the widespread UK flooding, the Freemasons’ Grand Charity has reached out to the affected Provinces offering support. In response to an appeal from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Somerset, the President of the Freemasons’ Grand Charity has authorised an emergency grant of £25,000 to be donated to the Somerset Community Foundation (SCF), to support relief efforts in the badly affected communities of the Somerset Levels. This is in addition to £5,000 that was donated at the start of the crisis, bringing the total support for the flooded Somerset communities to £30,000.

Since the flooding began at the end of December 2013, the situation has considerably worsened with rainfall twice the January average in addition to the initial East Coast storm surge. Thousands of acres of land have been underwater for more than a month, and this has badly affected many households, farms and small businesses, with numerous village and hamlet communities having been cut-off by road for weeks.

The donation from the Grand Charity is made in conjunction with a donation from the Province of Somerset and will form the base of the Somerset Masonic Flood Recovery Fund (to be administered by the SCF). This will support the longer term reconstruction and recovery of the area once the immediate relief efforts have ended. The Provincial Grand Master, Stuart Hadler, has set a target of £50,000 for the Masonic Flood Recovery Fund and anticipates that donations will be made to it by local Lodges, the Royal Arch Chapters and the Mark Masons of Somerset.

Speaking about the donation, the Freemasons’ Grand Charity Chief Executive, Laura Chapman said: “While much of England and Wales has been badly affected by the ongoing and worsening adverse weather, communities in the Somerset Levels have had to endure tremendous hardship for weeks. Freemasons are greatly concerned about the welfare of local people, and are always keen to offer support where it is most needed. We hope that this donation will help to relieve some of the distress that has been caused.”

Individual Lodge Charities

Each individual Lodge decides on the local charities which they want to help in addition to their support for the Masonic charities.

Donations to local good causes from individual Lodges from throughout Suffolk amounted to £67,000 in 2007 and £64,000 in 2006.

Provincial Grand Lodge of Suffolk Charities

Suffolk Freemasons continue to support the Teddies for Loving Care initiative. We supply Teddies to the local Hospitals for distribution to child patients who are extremely vulnerable when undergoing nursing care. This is funded by donations from individual Lodges.

Central Masonic Charities

The Grand Charity, Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and the Masonic Samaritan Fund are now part of the Masonic Charitable Foundation and for more information please visit the MCF page or the MCF website
The Foundation brings together the work of four national Charities which had been operating separately under various names since the early 18th Century.

These charities are The Freemasons’ Grand Charity, the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, the Masonic Samaritan Fund and the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

During their time of operation, the four charities each provided a specific type of support to meet various charitable aims in support of Freemasons and their families.

Although much of the support provided took the form of financial grants, the charities also operated a number of institutions: the Royal Masonic School for Boys, the Royal Masonic School for Girls, the Royal Masonic Hospital and 17 residential care homes operated by the RMBI Care Company.