Royal & Select Masters 150th Anniversary Celebration Appeal
At the RSM 150th Anniversary Celebration meeting on Tuesday 3 October 2023 the Grand Master launched an Appeal to raise £150,000 for good causes in celebration of the occasion. The Appeal will run until 31 December 2024 with the aim of raising £150,000. We can all play our part in raising this money.
Districts haven’t been set a formal target but there are 225 Councils in England and Wales so this target works out to be £7,333 for the East Midlands District to use as a basic target, based on our number of Councils.
Each Companion can make a contribution and individual donations can be Gift Aided (if the donor pays income or capital gains tax), as a Relief Chest has been opened with the Masonic Charitable Foundation for this Appeal and future use. It would be marvellous if each Companion felt able to make a minimum donation in the region of £30.00 plus Gift Aid, this would meet our basic target.
Donations can be made directly using the green button on this page, through your Recorder or Treasurer with the downloadable forms (white button) or by phoning the MCF on 020 3146 3333 to make a donation over the phone, quoting Relief Chest RSM5015.
You can also send a cheque to: Relief Chest Scheme, Masonic Chartable Foundation, 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ. Please make the cheque made payable to ‘Relief Chest Scheme’ and ask for it to be credited to RSM5015.
An easy way for individuals and Councils to donate to the Appeal would be to undertake a collection at each meeting using Gift Aid envelopes or the appeal QR Code (available to download on this page via the blue button) and deposit it in our own Relief Chest, which can then be transferred in an individual's name with Gift Aid (if it qualifies).
If you should have any questions or queries about donations please talk in the first instance to your Council Recorder or Treasurer and they will be able to assist you with your query.
May I thank you for supporting this initiative.
Please return completed forms to your Council Recorder or Treasurer.
UPDATE - 12/11/2024
I am pleased to advise you that the appeal continues to receive donations from Individuals and Councils plus I am now receiving nominations for this money from individuals.
In September, I stated that we were well on the way to achieve £15,000 for the Appeal. I am now very pleased to say that we have exceeded that amount and have now donated £19,400 - which is an absolute fantastic effort by all who have donated thus far. I am sure that we can get the total to £20,000 which will not only equate to £82.00 per member but will possibly be the largest amount raised by a District, an achievement that we must all be very proud of, but we still need that extra £600 to achieve it.
If you haven’t yet made a commitment to the Appeal, then it is not too late to do so.
To date I have received just five nominations which total £8,785 which is substantially less than what we have contributed. I would therefore urge individuals to nominate charities that could benefit from the fund and these need to be submitted to myself before 24 December 2024 as both the donations to the fund and charity nominations will close on 31 December 2024.
Below is the criteria that is applied to nominations and I would stress that you must supply all of the requested information.
Any registered charity is acceptable, where a small grant is likely to make a large difference. If the charity is an “excepted Charity”, (as defined by the Charity Commissioners) please provide details. Your choice(s) should reflect benefit to your local community. The fund is limited, so please give careful consideration to your choice(s).
If you would like to nominate a charity or charities, you need to provide the following information directly to me (use the red button):
- Charity Name
- Charity Number
- Charity Contact Name and position
- Charity Contact email address
- Charity web address
- Purpose of Charity
- Is the Charity part of a National Charity?
- Approximate Net Assets of the Charity: (please provide as equivalent in Sterling (£)
- Annual Income of the Charity: (please provide as equivalent in Pound Sterling (£)
- Why was this Charity chosen? (in 200 words or less)
- Amount requested: (in Pound Sterling (£))
- What will the grant be used for?
- Is the Charity willing for the receipt of the grant to be publicly promoted in the press and social media?
Please do not supply any further information or attachments at this point in time. If you require any further information, then please drop me an email - use the red button.
Yours sincerely and fraternally,
Martin Wilson
District Grand Master East Midlands District
Contact me directly with the information about your nominated charity.
