Warwickshire Freemasons Charity Report 2023/24
From: Geoffrey Walker PGstB, PProvGChStwd
This is my last report as the Provincial Grand Charity Steward as I stood down from office at Provincial Grand Lodge on the 8th June 2024.
Before I move on to outline the work of the WMCA in 2023/24 I would like to thank you all for your tremendous generosity over the last 5 years. Whenever the province has looked to you for support you have always stepped up to the mark. Just one example is the £37,000 you donated, in just five weeks, for our Ukraine Appeal in 2022. An absolutely fantastic response and one which you can all be very proud of.
The WMCA again donated £200,000 to local charities in the financial year 2023/24. The beneficiaries included our local hospices, our two local Air Ambulances and charities supporting our:-
military personnel and veterans, older citizens experiencing dementia and/or loneliness and isolation, children experiencing the effects of poverty, family bereavement, domestic violence, refuges and other services combatting domestic and sexual violence, homeless shelters and hostels, local cancer support services for adults and children, local services providing assistance to individuals with a wide range of disabilities, medical charities helping individuals manage the impact of Huntington’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Fahr’s Disease, MS and Brain Injuries etc.
A full list of beneficiaries appears below.
Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association 2023 Non- Masonic Donations | |||
| Hospitals, Hospices, Rescue Services & Air Ambulance | Area | Grant |
1 | Acorns Children’s Hospice | West Midlands | £7,060 |
2 | Arrive Alive | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
3 | Birmingham Childrens Hospital | West Midlands | £5,000 |
4 | Birmingham Children’s Hospital( Singing Medicine Ex-Catherdra ) | Birmingham | £4,000 |
5 | Hospice Charity Partnership (Birmingham Hospice ) | Birmingham | £4,000 |
6 | Fastaid | West Midlands | £2,000 |
7 | Friends of Water Search and Rescue Team | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
8 | Lifelites | Midlands & Nationwide | £5,000 |
9 | Marie Curie Cancer Care Hospice | Solihull | £4,000 |
10 | Mary Ann Evans Hospice | Nuneaton | £4,000 |
11 | Midland Freewheelers | West Midlands | £4,000 |
12 | Midland Air Ambulance | West Midlands | £4,000 |
13 | Myton Hospice | Warwickshire | £4,000 |
14 | Shakespeare Hospice | Stratford-upon-Avon | £4,000 |
15 | St. Giles Hospice | Staffordshire | £4,000 |
16 | Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance | Warwickshire | £4,000 |
17 | Zoe’s Place Hospice | Leamington Spa | £4,000 |
18 | University Hospital Birmingham Charity | Warwickshire | £3,500 |
|
|
| £69,560 |
| Aged, Children and Youth | Area | Grant |
|
|
|
|
1 | Age Uk Solihull | Solihull | £1,000 |
2 | Birmingham Boys & Girls | Birmingham | £1,000 |
3 | Birmingham Royal Ballet | Birmingham | £1,000 |
4 | Buddy Bags Foundation | Birmingham | £3,000 |
5 | When you Wish upon a Star | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
6 | Go Beyond | Midlands & Nationwide | £1,000 |
7 | Jessie May Trust | Nationwide | £1,000 |
8 | Jubilee Solihull Community Trust | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
9 | Little Sisters of the Poor | Birmingham | £1,000 |
10 | The Coventry Boot Fund | Coventry | £1,000 |
11 | The Little Princess Trust | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
12 | The Bradby club | Birmingham | £500 |
|
|
| £15,500 |
|
|
|
|
| Community | Area | Grant |
1 | Birmingham Crisis Centre | Birmingham | £3,000 |
2 | Birmingham Rape and Sexual Violence Project | Birmingham | £1,000 |
3 | Birmingham Settlement | Birmingham | £2,000 |
4 | Cavell Nurses Trust | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
5 | Coventry Haven | Coventry | £2,000 |
6 | Domestic Abuse Counselling Service | Nuneaton | £1,000 |
7 | Insight Counselling service | Bedworth | £1,000 |
8 | Harbury E-Wheels | Leamington Spa | £1,000 |
9 | Knowle Masonic Centre Community Fund | Warwickshire | £500 |
10 | Refuge | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
11 | Roshni | Birmingham | £1,000 |
12 | Solihull Bereavement Counselling Services | Solihull | £1,000 |
13 | St. Basils | West Midlands | £2,000 |
14 | Solihull Arden Charitable Trust | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
15 | St Anne’s Hostel | Birmingham | £1,000 |
16 | Taber House (Homeless Shelter) | Birmingham | £1,000 |
17 | Valley House( Homeless Shelter) | Coventry | £1,000 |
18 | Voluntary Action Coventry | Coventry | £1,000 |
19 | Warwickshire Search and Rescue | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
|
| £26,500 | |
|
|
|
|
| Religious | Area | Grant |
1 | Coventry Church Municipal Charities | Coventry | £2,000 |
2 | Coventry Cathedral ( Organ Appeal ) | Coventry | £5,000 |
3 | St Chads sanctuary | Birmingham | £1,000 |
4 | Solihull & District Hebrew Congregation Thursday Club | Solihull | £1,000 |
5 | Salvation Army | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
6 | The Collegiate Church of St Mary | Warwick | £1,000 |
|
|
| £12,000 |
|
|
|
|
| Armed and Ex-Services | Area | Grant |
1 | Cakes for Casualties | Birmingham | £1,000 |
2 | On Course Foundation | West Midlands | £1,000 |
3 | The Veterans contact Point | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
4 | Walking with the Wounded | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
|
|
| £5,000 |
|
|
|
|
| Medical Research | Area | Grant |
1 | Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
2 | The Holly Trust | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
|
|
| £3,000 |
|
|
|
|
| Medical Welfare | Area | Grant |
1 | Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis | West Midlands | £1,000 |
2 | Bowel cancer UK | Nationwide | £1,000 |
3 | Brain Tumour Support | Midlands/National | £1,000 |
4 | (Cheat) Childhood Eye Cancer | Midlands /Nationwide | £1,000 |
5 | Cycstic Fibrosis Trust | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
6 | Cerebral Palsy West Midlands | West Midlands | £1,000 |
7 | Coventry & Warwickshire Mind | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
8 | The Pam Britton Trust for Dementia | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
9 | Fahr Beyond | Nationwide | £1,000 |
10 | Healing Hands Network | UK/Overseas | £2,000 |
11 | Israel & Gaza Appeal | Overseas | £10,000 |
12 | Headway Birmingham & Solihull | West Midlands | £1,000 |
13 | Kids Cancer Charity | West Midlands | £1,000 |
14 | Macmillan Cancer Support | Midlands/National | £2,275 |
15 | MS Society | Rugby | £1,000 |
16 | Muscular Dystrophy Support Centre (NMC Midlands Ltd) | Coventry | £1,000 |
17 | Molly Olly’s Wishes | Warwick | £3,000 |
18 | Coventry & Warwickshire MNDA Group (Moter Neurone Disease Association Group | Warwickshire | £5,060 |
19 | The Neurofibromatosis Association ( t/a Nerve Tumors UK ) | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
20 | Parkinson’s UK | Midlands /Nationwide | £1,000 |
21 | Shine (Spine Bifida) | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
22 | Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) | Stratford-upon-Avon | £1,000 |
23 | (Stroke Association) | Coventry | £1,000 |
24 | SWFT | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
25 | Target Ovarian Cancer | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
26 | Teenage Cancer Trust | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
|
|
| £44,335 |
|
|
| £44,335 |
|
|
|
|
| Disabled | Area | Grant |
|
|
|
|
1 | Arden Riding Group | Warwick | £2,000 |
2 | Dogs for Good | Warwickshire | £2,250 |
3 | Fledglings | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
4 | Nuneaton Riding for the Disabled | Nuneaton | £1,000 |
5 | Way Ahead | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
|
|
| £8,250 |
|
|
|
|
| Sports and Recreation | Area | Grant |
| 1st Coleshill Brownie Pack | Coleshill | £1,000 |
1 | Coventry Masonic Pantomime | Warwickshire | £3,000 |
2 | Shirley & District Sea Cadets | Birmingham | £1,000 |
3 | The Narrow Boat Project ( LNBP) | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
4 | Shipton on Stour Sports and Social Club | Warwickshire | £2,000 |
5 | Stonehouse Gang | Warwickshire | £1,000 |
6 | 2nd Warwick Sea Scouts | Warwick | £1,000 |
7 | Wilson Stuart Scout Pack | Birmingham | £2,000 |
|
|
| £12,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL | £196,145.00 |
Plus a further £50,000
In addition and in support of the MCF we were able to donate a further £50,000 to International Disaster Funds offering assistance in the aftermath of the floods in Libya, the earthquakes in Syria, Turkiye and Morocco and the tragedies in Israel and Gaza.
This year is an important year for charitable giving in Warwickshire with the bringing together of our two charities, the Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association and the Warwickshire Masonic Benevolent Fund, to form our new combined charity the Warwickshire Freemasons Charitable Foundation. The new charity will be more efficient, effective and flexible but it will retain its core objectives of supporting: Freemasons and their families and dependent’s and Non-masonic charities operating in Warwickshire.
Your new Provincial Grand Charity Steward is W. Bro. Andy Staker, best known to you all for his work in distributing over 4,000 Easter Eggs, every year, to local disadvantaged children.
I know Andy will do a fantastic job as our Charity Steward and I know you will give him your full support. You can contact him on as.charity@warwickshirepgl.org.
In closing can I once again thank you all for your generosity which lets the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in Warwickshire know that “Freemasons Care”