Charity

Appeals:

With the donations to the lodge relief chest, Royal Leopold are able to donate £1200 to the Air Ambulance Appeal. This was voted on at the April meeting and is winging it's way to the fund.

The relief chest scheme have provided a way of donating to the lodge relief chest on line, which is available and easy to use by clicking on the link 'DONATIONS'. Alternatively you can send donations to our treasurer or the charity steward made out to Royal Leopold Lodge 1669. These will be gratefully received and faithfully applied.

London Freemasons reach £2 Million in their ongoing pledge to support the Up Against Time Appeal, as of 18 APR 2024

We’re thrilled to announce that the London Freemasons have officially reached £2 million in their fundraising efforts, following their pledge to raise £3 million for our Up Against Time appeal in March 2023.

The London Freemasons have had a long-standing relationship with this charity and this latest partnership aims to raise a fifth of the £15 million total required to replace the ageing helicopter fleet by September this year. This is the single largest commitment of support received by the charity and brings them closer to reaching the £15 million needed to replace the helicopter fleet. Every contribution made as part of the partnership helps to ensure we continue flying and saving lives.

Matthew Christmas, Chief Operating Officer of London Freemasons, said: “This is the fastest we have ever raised this kind of money and I am utterly confident that we will have raised the remaining £1 million by the end of this year. London Freemasons all know how vital it is that London’s Air Ambulance Charity has the state-of-the-art helicopters it needs.”

London’s Air Ambulance’s Medical Director, Dr Tom Hurst, expressed his personal thanks to all those who have contributed to ensure we can continue flying and saving lives. He said: “Thank you for your hard work, your dedication, your commitment – it’s an amazing achievement to have hit the £2 million mark in just 12 months as you contribute to our hugely important Up Against Time appeal.”

London’s Air Ambulance Charity would also like to express its thanks to the Head of London Freemasons, Sir Michael Snyder, who steps down from his role this month. Under his leadership, London Freemasons have stepped up to support us when we’ve needed it most, including funding our current fleet of emergency response cars and providing £2.1 million towards the launch of our second helicopter in 2016. This legacy of support means we can be there for five seriously injured patients each day, providing life-saving care on-scene.

Freemasons mainly collect money for charity in the lodge meetings, also from Lodge social events and from Masonic events, we do not normally go out and collect money from the general public but will accept any donation offered.

All Lodge meetings include a Charity collection and most will also hold a raffle or similar event where all the profits are given to charity. As raffle prizes are usually donated, this can be 100% of the proceeds!

The Worshipful Master for the year has the privilege to choose any charity for his year and all money raised, except certain small collections dictated by the lodge, go to this charity/charities. The Masters chosen charity for this year is to be agreed.

Some of the charities the Lodge have donated to are: The Richard House Trust children's hospice, Cystic Fibrosis, St Thomas Hospital cancer unit, St Joseph Hospice, Teddybears, and many more.

2016-17 £375 was collected for the Masters charity which was The Richards House Trust.

In 2023, £250 was donated to the Ukraine Appeal and £250 to the Orient Lodge 4085 Chaplains Challenge for their local Cancer centre, in memory of Josie Holland, wife of WB John Holland. A total of £4000 was raised by this lodge to purchase 2 special treatment chairs for the centre.

It has been stated that the Masons are the second bigest charity givers after the National Lottery.

Extracts From Freemasonry Today

The MCF Logo

The Freemasons' Grand Charity

The Freemasons' Grand Charity is a grant-making charity, which is funded by Freemasons and their families. In one year it gave grants totalling nearly £7 million to support people in need and fund the work of charities helping the wider community.

London Fire Brigade Appeal

This took place at the annual London Grand Rank Investiture meeting of Metropolitan Grand Lodge, where a party from London's Fire Brigade were welcomed into the Grand Temple, led by Steve Apter, London Fire Brigade Director of Safety and Assurance, and Dr Fiona Twycross, Chair of London Fire EPA. They were presented with the first instalment of a cheque for £375,000.

These appliances will be in addition to the extra resources for extended height aerial vehicles already requested by the Commissioner as part of a Mayoral review into the Brigade's resources in July. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton thanked Sir Michael Snyder for their generosity: 'We are very grateful to Sir Michael Snyder and London Freemasons for this first donation and their commitment to raise the significant sum of money to buy such important equipment. It's important that we have the most effective resources for the city environment in which we serve, so we not only have to consider the reach of our aerial appliances but whether they are agile enough to move around the capital's narrow streets. This has been an incredibly busy and emotional year for everyone connected with London Fire Brigade and we welcome this recognition.

To read more see the Freemasonry Today web site.

First of the 'Super Hi-Lift' (64m) turntable vehicles parked outside Freemasons' Hall and liveried with the square and compasses and the words; 'Donated by London Freemasons'.

This was the fruits of the hard work of many brethren in response to the challenge set by the Metropolitan Grand Master, Sir Michael Snyder two years ago to raise £2.5 million for the purchase of two of these vehicles for the London Fire Brigade..Metropolitan Grand Master Sir Michael Snyder surprised a packed Freemasons Hall on 2nd November 2017 when he announced the launch of a £2.5 million appeal to purchase two extended high rise aerial vehicles for London Fire Brigade

London Fire Brigade Fast Responce

On a particularly joyous note, in addition to the two super aerial platforms the money raised also paid for six fast response vehicles for the London Fire Brigade.

Donations to the London Ambulance Service

Thursday (12th March 2020) we will also hand over a further three fast response vehicles to London Ambulance Service to add to the five purchased awhile ago.

Australian Bush Emergency:

People who have lost everything in the catastrophic Australian bush fires will be among those to benefit from a grant of AUS $150,000 (£79,000) from Freemasons to the Disaster Relief Funds set up by Freemasons in Australia.

The grant comes through the Masonic Charitable Foundation, which is funded by Freemasons, their families and friends, from across England and Wales will see AUS$50,000 given to the Australian Freemasons’ Disaster Relief Funds in each of the three states most affected by the blaze: New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The Masonic Charities

The Masonic charities are briefly outlined below. Please click on the links for more information about each one.

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution assists older Freemasons and their dependants. It established its first home in 1850 and now runs 18 homes in all areas of England and Wales.

The Grand Charity helps poor and distressed Freemasons and their dependants as well as being the primary interface to non-Masonic charities. It dates its origins from the Committee of Charity set up in 1725. The Charity also operates the Relief Chest Scheme, helping the Craft to donate to charity easily and tax-effectively.