Volunteer Charity Grants committee member

This is an opportunity to share your professional skills, life experience and to further strengthen the Charity Grants Committee of the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ Charity). 

The MCF is funded entirely through the generosity of Freemasons and their families and is one of the largest grant-making charities in the country. We build better lives by enabling opportunity, advancing healthcare and education and promoting independence.

Our mission is to be a force for good by providing support, care and services to Freemasons and their families in need, and supporting other charities to help the most disadvantaged in society.

Being part of this Committee is a rewarding role which will support the MCF Board of Trustees in helping to shape the overall strategic direction of the Charity Grants programme, and to make decisions regarding the charity applications put forward to the committee.

We are particularly interested in applicants who have knowledge and experience (either lived experience or service delivery/policy knowledge) of the areas that are of particular focus within MCF’s Children and Young People or Later Life programmes.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Charity Grants Committee is responsible for:

Overseeing all Charity Grants activities and reporting back to the Board.  

Developing and proposing the strategy for achieving the charitable objectives for agreement by the Board.  

Overseeing and developing policy that supports the achievement of the agreed strategy.  

Making recommendations to the Board relating to the areas considered for funding, charity eligibility requirements, assessment criteria and grant levels.  

Assessing the impact of Charity Grants charitable activities and use of evidence in making strategic recommendations to the Board.  

Ensuring charity partners and community stakeholders are involved in developing the scope and provision of Charity Grants.  

Ensuring that appropriate support and meaningful engagement is provided to Provinces and Metropolitan Grand Lodge in facilitating their Charity Grants grant making, specifically but not exclusively, in relation to;  

Festival Grants Matched Funding Grants  

Monitoring performance, service standards and delivery against charitable objectives as agreed with the Board.  

Oversight of the decision-making process and agreeing levels of delegated authority.  

To oversee and ratify small grants and hospice grants already approved by staff below Committee level.  

To consider and approve large grant and partnership applications and/or escalate appeals as required to the Board.  

To make recommendations to the Board regarding applications outside of planned and/or budgeted activity requiring the Board’s approval.  

Monitoring of all planned expenditure.  

Any and all unplanned expenditure costed, reported to and agreed with the Board.  

Providing an audit function that reviews grants decisions.  

REQUIREMENTS

Experience of charitable grant-making and/or charitable service delivery Knowledge or experience (either lived experience or service delivery/policy knowledge) of the areas that are of particular focus within MCF’s Children and Young People or Later Life programmes. These funding priorities are:  

•           Early Years (children 0-5 years of age) especially those in extreme poverty

•           Children affected by Domestic Abuse

•           Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

•           People living with Dementia and their carers

To be an appropriate role model and to ensure that the Committee promotes equity, diversity and inclusion.  

TIME COMMITMENT

• Committee members are required to attend six meetings per year, held either at the offices in Great Queen Street or over zoom. Some additional time will be required to study papers and to carry out occasional visits to charity applicants. This position is of a voluntary nature, however travel expenses can be claimed

APPOINTMENT AND TENURE

Committee members are appointed for an initial period of three years and appointments may be renewed at the end of the first period of office, subject to satisfactory appraisal by the Chairperson. Committee members are not eligible to hold office for more than six consecutive years unless approved by the MCF Nominations Committee. Committee members are appointees not employees. To ensure that MCF values are maintained at all times, Committee members are required, on appointment, to agree to, and abide by, the Code of Conduct.  

APPLICATION

An expression of interest should be sent via email to the MCF Head of Charity Grants, Rebecca Lloyd  (charitygrants@mcf.org.uk ) by 5pm Tuesday 12th November 2024 and include a summary curriculum vitae and a covering letter, with the letter setting out:

Your experience, qualifications and contributions relevant to the role, if these are not included in the summary curriculum vitae; Your motivation(s) for wishing to be a member of the Charity Grant Committee. The covering letter and summary curriculum vitae should, in total, be approximately two to three pages in length.