District Grand Charity Fund Trust is the charity arm of the District Grand Lodge of Madras. The assets held by a) the District Grand Lodge Fund of Benevolence, b) the District Grand Lodge Samaritan Fund Trust, c) the Madras Masonic Institution, and d) the Morley Memorial Trust were moved to District Grand Charity Fund Trust for application to Charitable purposes.
To reach and provide relief for worthy causes directly or through a participation with a Charitable Organization. The participation should be significant to be meaningful for the beneficiary.
Charitable disbursements are made from the amounts accrued from the contributions of the brethren, rental income from the Cornwallis Masonic Home, Interest accrued from the Corpus placed with Banks and Financial Institutions as fixed deposits, and any other income that accrues to District Grand Charity Fund Trust.
Disbursements are made from the budgets allocated for various Charities based on the projected accruals of the Funds.
The RW District Grand Master, the W.Dy.District Grand Master, and the W.Asst. District Grand Masters are the trustees of the Fund.
The RW District Grand Master is the Ex-officio District Grand President of the Charity and the W. Dy.District Grand Master is the ex-officio Dy. District Grand President. The members of the District Grand Charity Fund Trust are the brethren who are the members of the District Grand Lodge.
The District Grand Charity Fund Trust is managed by an Executive Council being an executive arm of the District Grand Charity Fund Trust.
The Executive Council is constituted by the District Grand President by appointing annually a President of Charity. The Vice President of District Grand Charity is elected annually by the Executive Council Members from among the members of the council.
W Bro Kannan Krishnamurthi
President, District Grand Charity
The Executive Council meets once in two months. It constitutes the Petitions Committee consisting of six members of the Executive council in March each year. The President and Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Council are Ex-officio members. Petitions Committee meets based on requirement to consider all petitions for Living Assistance, Scholarships, Medical Relief or any other relief.
Monthly living assistance is provided to a brother or his widow usually based on the recommendation of the inspecting officer of the Lodge in which the brother is or the deceased brother was a member.
The Secretary also recommends for relief from UGLE’s Masonic Charity Fund, wherever appropriate.
Medical relief is provided to a brother after he has exhausted all reasonable avenues of meeting the medical cost (e.g., Medical Insurance) and upon the recommendation of the lodge, in which he is a member.
This relief supports individual Brother’s Hospitalization / day procedures like dialysis, chemotherapy / medicines for critical illness. Any other relief that is considered by the Petitions’ Committee / Council and approved by the District Grand President.
On the recommendations of the Lodges, Educational Scholarship is provided to needy and deserving students in school (class IX onwards), Polytechnic, Arts & Science Colleges and Professional courses, who have passed in all the subjects in the examination immediately prior to the application/renewal.
Medical relief is provided to non-masons, who are financially weak to meet the medical expenses based on the recommendation from a Lodge or any Executive Council member.
The disbursement is against reimbursement of bills or directly to hospital /pharmacy / medical service provider.
District Charity Fund Trust has partnered exclusively with PRISM, a Charitable trust to reintegrate the juvenile prisoners in Saidapet Sub-jail as productive, responsible and law-abiding members of the society. Counselor, legal and de-addiction facilities are provided through PRISM to aid this transformation.