What many people may not know is that Freemasonry is a great contributor of charitable donations – second only to the National Lottery in the United Kingdom – and is solely funded through the generosity of individual Freemasons and their families with no contributions being collected from the public.
Built upon the founding precepts of the medieval Freemasons to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves, this work continues today not only supporting its members and their dependants, but the wider community with funds raised being given to non-masonic national and local charities in support of their work. This includes at a national level long-term funding for medical research into such things as prostate and ovarian cancer, while at a community level it may be something as simple as helping out the local scout group.
The national charity is the Masonic Charitable Foundation and if you would like more information on its work please visit the website. One of the methods used to fund this charity is for each province, in turn, to hold a “Festival” over a period of 5 years, the next one being held in this Province will culminate in 2027, it will be a big challenge to emulate the the magnificent sum of £7,746,319 raised for the last Festival in 2016 the highest sum to date by any province.
This Province of Hampshire & Isle of Wight also supports a number of Provincial charities and details of these can be found by following the link to The Provincial Grand Lodge of Hampshire & Isle of Wight