Grand Charity

The Freemasons’ Grand Charity offers a number of grants to fund publications and activities for the development of Scouting. Carol Ward, fundraising manager at The Scout Association, investigates.

Does your section or group struggle with finding the funds to buy uniforms?
Do you need money to create recruitment posters and flyers?

If so, there is help available, thanks to a partnership with The Freemasons’ Grand Charity.

The generous five-year funding plan from the Freemasons is split into three distinct sections.

The grants for each year are:

• £50,000 for activity grants.
• £25,000 towards programme resources.
• £25,000 for start-up grants.

Activity grants

There are 10 grants of £5,000 available each year to counties to use for development activities. Counties are selected by the Development Grants Board in a different area of the UK every year. Once a county has been selected for funding, application forms need to be completed and submitted to the Development Grants Board to make sure that the planned projects follow the guidelines agreed with the Grand Charity. Activity grants are awarded where a substantial amount of money is needed to help counties expand their planned development and grow Scouting.

Annabel Grout, head of non-Masonic grants at The Freemasons’ Grand Charity, explains why the charity chose to allocate part of the grant to the activity grants.

‘The overall aim of the grant is to help expand and develop Scouting, especially in communities that have not previously had Scouting activities available for young people, and these major activity grants are intended to enable a county to make a significant investment in development activities. The second tranche of counties have now been selected and notified about their activity grants, and the projects started in January 2012.’

There are still two years of activity grant funding left, so for those counties who haven’t yet been approached, it could be you next!

Start-up grants

These small £100 grants can have a big impact on a group. Steve Altria is a group scout leader who has used the grant to grow Scouting in his local area.

‘We used it to buy uniforms for three new beaver scout leaders as well as new resources. The new colony was quickly filled with 23 young people.

‘Receiving the grant has allowed us to attract more young people into Scouting, which in turn requires more adults. We are now on our eighth section. Having a larger group gives us more talents, skills and experience that enrich the programme for the young people and make life more interesting and fun for the adults.’

Programme resources

The new Our Sporting Adventure pack that was sent out with the October/November Scouting magazine was made possible thanks to the Masons. With activities for each section that are based on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will help you to inspire your young people and to feel part of London 2012. And don’t forget the online competition – www.scouts.org.uk/oursportingadventure

Growing strong

Kent scouts received an activity grant last year. Beccy Martin, county projects manager, reveals how it helped them to recruit more members.

The Freemasons’ Grand Charity Grant enabled us to run a recruitment project.

We recruited beaver and cub scouts for east Kent. We trained our volunteers to deliver school assemblies for years 1-6, and produced a range of resources for schools to display in their foyers or libraries. We have recently extended the project to include adult recruitment events.

It has really helped us develop Scouting in the county

The 7th Faversham Scout Group was reopened as a direct result of the project, with more than 30 young people becoming members. Other successes include Thanet and Ashford districts, which have seen an increase in enquiries from potential members, as well as young people joining colonies and packs as a direct result of school assemblies.

The local Freemasons were very supportive from the start

I wrote to the local Freemasons and spoke to one of their members, who was very supportive of Scouting. We have also made an application for an activity centre.

If your county is contacted about an activity grant, I’d say go for it!

It has enabled us to have a go at a project that we have wanted to initiate for a long time, but for which funding was unavailable.

Find out more

To find out how to apply for all grants available, visit www.scouts.org.uk/grants or email the fundraising team on fundraising@scouts.org.uk