The Loyalty Lodge Benevolent Fund
Charity 510241
Overview
Summary
The Loyalty Lodge Benevolent Fund appears to be a member-supported grant-maker rooted in a Masonic lodge community. Its role is less about delivering services directly and more about converting member donations and modest investment income into discretionary support for other organisations. While its stated purpose prioritises poor or distressed Brother Masons and their families, its funding remit extends beyond that immediate community, creating a potentially useful bridge between Masonic mutual aid and wider charitable activity.
Operational geography
Coverage: Neighbourhood
Operational areas:
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Remaining uncertainties
- Direct evidence confirms that the fund makes grants, mainly to masonic interests but not exclusively, rather than delivering services from identified locations. It does not identify current grant recipients, their locations or any service venues.
- The registered address may be a correspondence or trustee address and is not sufficient evidence of an operational site.
- The fund's objects permit support for masonic charities and other charitable institutions without a stated geographic limit. This establishes potential, rather than evidenced current, reach beyond Birmingham.
- The neighbourhood coverage classification is a cautious interpretation; its actual grant-making geography cannot be determined confidently from the available public evidence.
Additional evidence needed
- The latest trustees' annual report or accounts identifying grant recipients and the places in which they are based or operate.
- Confirmation from the fund or its associated lodge of whether the registered address is an administrative correspondence address, a meeting location or a site from which charitable activity is carried out.
- A current grants list, minutes or official lodge communications showing whether donations are directed within Birmingham, across the West Midlands, or to national masonic charities.
Areas of work
- General Charitable Purposes
Who they help
- Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
How they help
- Makes Grants To Organisations
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A mutual-aid fund with an outward-facing grant role
The fund appears to combine internal solidarity within the Masonic community with the ability to support external charitable causes. Its primary orientation may be toward Masonic welfare, but its remit is not exclusively closed to that network.
Why it matters
This helps distinguish the organisation from a purely member-benefit fund. It may hold relationships and resources that can connect a longstanding mutual-aid tradition to other voluntary-sector organisations.
Show evidence
“The relief of poor and distressed Brother Masons or their widows and children is an object of the charity.”
Source:Charity Commission“Makes donations mainly to masonic interests but not exclusively so.”
Source:Organisation
Funding is governed through lodge-level discretion
The organisation appears to operate as a collectively governed giving vehicle, with decisions directed by the lodge in duly constituted meetings rather than through a separate service-delivery model.
Why it matters
Its capacity and priorities may depend substantially on member engagement, local lodge culture and the issues members choose to recognise. Understanding this decision-making structure is important for identifying potential relationships or routes to support.
Show evidence
“Support may be directed to Masonic charities or other charitable institutions, societies and objects as the lodge shall in duly constituted meeting direct.”
Source:Charity Commission“Makes grants to organisations.”
Source:Organisation
A small-scale pooled-resource model may shape its reach
The fund appears to rely on member donations and interest from bank or building-society accounts, suggesting a pooled charitable reserve rather than income from contracts, fundraising campaigns or direct trading.
Why it matters
This may make the organisation a steady but potentially capacity-limited source of discretionary grants. Its influence may lie in trusted local relationships and repeated small contributions rather than large-scale intervention.
Show evidence
“Makes donations from money donated by members or interest received from bank a/c or building society a/c.”
Source:Organisation“The charity helps other charities or voluntary bodies.”
Source:Charity Commission
- Which non-Masonic organisations or causes have received grants, and how often.
- Whether grants are mainly reactive hardship support, strategic charitable giving, or both.
- The scale of assets, annual income, grant amounts and geographic area of activity.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual returns or accounts showing income, reserves, grant expenditure and named recipients.
- Grant criteria, decision records or examples of awards made outside Masonic organisations.
- Information about the lodge's location, membership base and relationships with local voluntary organisations.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
Makes donations from money donated by members or interest received from bank a/c or building society a/c mainly to masonic interests but not exclusively so.
Charity objects
THE RELIEF OF SUCH POOR AND DISTRESSED BROTHER MASONS OR THEIR POOR AND DISTRESSED WIDOWS AND CHILDREN OR TO OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF SUCH MASONIC CHARITIES OR OTHER CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS SOCIETIES AND OBJECTS AS THE LODGE SHALL IN DULY CONSTITUTED MEETING FROM TIME TO TIME DIRECT.