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General Matters
Legacies and Bequests
Since the last General Meeting, the Grand
Charity has received £968,301 from legacies
of £1,000 or more.
General meetings
Arrangements have again been made with
the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London
to hold a General Meeting of the Grand
Charity on Wednesday, 21 June 2006. The
meeting will be open to all members of the
Grand Charity, who may also bring guests.
Further details will be made available later.
Lodge contributions
The Council has recommended to the Board
of General Purposes that contributions to
the Grand Charity, payable by Lodges under
Rule 271, Book of Constitutions, in respect
of each of their members, for the year 2007,
should be not less that £11.50.
Overall financial position 2005
The surplus for the general unrestricted fund
(in the accounts described as “net movement
in funds”) was £2,657,594 (2004 surplus:
£2,741,700), after accounting for net gains
on investments of £3,028,600.
After taking into account the operating
surplus and the net gains on investments, the
General Unrestricted Fund at 30 November
2005 was £20.9m and the General
Designated Fund was £1.7m.
In addition, further costs relating to the
operation of the Relief Chest Scheme and
the Transferred Beneficiaries Fund have been
borne by the unrestricted fund, as part of the
Grand Charity’s service to Freemasonry.
The accounts, which have been prepared
in accordance with the SORP (Statement
of Recommended Practice, dated October
2000) for charities, include the restricted
funds of £26.7m held in the Relief Chest
Scheme and £10.8m in the Transferred
Beneficiaries Fund.
The Relief Chest Funds are administered
free of charge to the holders. They are
disbursed only on the instructions of the
Chest holders and are, therefore, presented
as a restricted fund.
The Transferred Beneficiaries Fund is
a separate restricted income fund to make
payments to former beneficiaries of the
Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.
Three factors are primarily responsible
for the increase in the Grand Charity’s
overhead expenditure, the Craft’s
significantly increased use of the Relief
Chest, IT development work to improve
the Relief Chest’s functionality and the
production of a Grand Charity Annual
Review which was distributed with MQ
to over 230,000 members.
Raising the awareness of members of the
Craft about the assistance available from the
Grand Charity is essential if the Charity is to
reach those who need support.
In addition, costs of administration and
due diligence review for the Tsunami appeal
were borne by the general overheads of the
Grand Charity and were not deducted from
the donations contributed by members for
the victims of this disaster.
Left to right:
Raymond Lye, President
of the Grand Charity,
Laura Chapman, Chief
Executive, The Rt Hon
Lord Lane of Horsell,
Vice Grand President
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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