The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders
The Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Trade Benevolent Fund
The Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Trade Benevolent Fund (Charity no.1135646) was formed in 2010 through the merger of our Livery Company’s Benevolent Fund with the Tobacco Trade Benevolent Association, first established in 1860.
The welfare of its members was one of the original functions of any Livery Company. Members paid a fee called quarterage which was used to support those too ill or infirm to work, or to pay for funerals. Livery Companies were also seen as reliable bodies to act as trustees for more general charitable bequests.Today, the Fund provides a wide range of funding to UK registered Charities (detailed below) and through the Welfare Fund continues the work of the Tobacco Trade Benevolent Association offering a helping hand to anyone who has worked in the tobacco trade in any capacity, or to their dependants. The Fund makes regular quarterly grants and one-off payments, subject to strict criteria and review.
Each of our members is asked to make an annual donation to our Benevolent Fund. These donations (which can qualify for Gift Aid) provide the money to support our charitable giving. The merged Funds are managed by a single Board of Trustees and are divided between a General Fund and a Welfare Fund.
Our General Fund: Liverymen can seek support from the Fund for their own charitable fund-raising efforts, up to a maximum of £1,000 per request. Such requests will be given special status and consideration by the Trustees. Click here to make an application for General Fund support. (Liverymen only.)
Our Welfare Fund: All applications are considered on the basis of need and on length of service in the tobacco trade. Click here to make an application for Welfare Fund support.
If you would like to support the work of the Fund please press the donate now button and thank you - to the charities and people that you are supporting every penny makes a real difference.
Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation
The Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation gives disadvantaged children and young adults the opportunity to take part in an annual programme of cricket tournaments, teamwork and coaching in Arundel Castle’s grounds in West Sussex.
Our Benevolent Fund supports two particular schemes.
Special Needs Programme
A programme for children and young adults with a variety of special needs and disabilities. Over 6,000 young people have made visits to Arundel and benefited from the scheme since it began in 2000. Many of them stay overnight, often experiencing their first time away from home.
Inner London Development Programme
A programme providing opportunities to young children living in London boroughs where opportunities for sporting activities, especially cricket, are often scarce. The Foundation works in partnership with another charity, Capital Kids, to target children from particularly deprived boroughs.
Barrow Farm Riding and Carriage Driving for the Disabled
Barrow Farm is a purpose-built riding centre in Essex and a dedicated Riding for the Disabled school. It enables people with special needs and disabilities to enrich their lives through horse riding and carriage driving. More than 100 children and adults each week enjoy riding or driving at Barrow Farm.
The Benevolent Fund makes annual donations to help with equipment, feed and running costs. We also provide funding to find horses that are particularly suited to being with children with special needs.
The late Past Master John J Adler MBE served on the Board of Trustees.
The Children’s Magical Taxi Tour
Every year a convoy of licensed London taxis take over 200 children, suffering from a range of chronic debilitating illnesses and life-limiting conditions, on a three-day trip of a lifetime to Disneyland in Paris. This Magical Taxi Tour, a unique charity event, has brought moments of great joy and happiness to sick children and their families.
Organised annually by the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, dedicated taxi drivers give freely of their time and use of their vehicles. Sponsors give generously to cover the expenses of the trip. For some youngsters, the Magical Taxi Tour could be one of their last adventures, a once in a lifetime opportunity. But the tour is not just for these poorly children; the special trip also gives sorely-tested siblings and parents a real break, during which they don't have to think about anything except enjoying themselves.
More information can be found on www.magicaltaxitour.com
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London
The Guildhall School of Music & Drama is one of the world's leading conservatoires and drama schools. It offers aspiring musicians, actors, stage managers and theatre technicians an inspiring environment in which to develop as artists and professionals. The School provides a wide range of scholarships to students from all over the world. These awards are supported by a variety of donors including City Livery Companies. The Benevolent Fund provides grants to help students assessed by the School as showing particular talent, potential or financial need.
Spitalfields Crypt Trust
Founded in 1965, Spitalfields Crypt Trust helps people facing homelessness and drug and alcohol addictions transform their lives. Based in the heart of Shoreditch, East London, the charity supports the community with a number of programmes which include:
- A Drop-In Service for the homeless that provides food and drink, toiletries and clothes. Individuals can seek advice on and connection to relevant shelters, organisations and agencies to meet specific needs as well as a wide variety of health services.
- Residential Supported Housing offers individuals safe and reliable housing allowing them to begin a journey of reintegration into the community and recovery. Addressing both physical and emotional wellbeing, the charity provides counselling and ways to manage legal, debt and family issues. This programme has two-phases.
- A Training and Development Centre provides a range of free courses that allow students to acquire valuable new life skills or job training. The dedicated specialist addiction team apply themselves to determining an individual’s interests, capabilities and needs to provide not just new skills but also the self-esteem to apply them in a constructive way.
- ‘Choices’ is a peer-led initiative that helps individuals at the later stage of rehabilitation to avoid and prevent relapse as they embark on their re-entry into the wider community and the workplace. Structured around weekly social activities, this end-stage support from the charity is as crucial as the earlier stages to get individuals back onto constructive paths for their future lives.
The work of the Spitalfields Crypt Trust provides a complete pathway for people with alcohol and drug addiction and with complex needs. The Drop-In Service sees over 500 homeless people a year, serving around 6,000 meals at the charity’s East London premises. Success rates are high with 50% of people in first-stage supported housing still in abstinent recovery a year after entering the programme and 84% for those in the second-stage of the programme.
Katherine Low Settlement
Tracing its history back to the early 20th Century, the Katherine Low Settlement is a charity serving the community in Battersea, South West London from its premises in the High Street. It has a small staff and a lot of volunteers that run a range of projects supporting children and young people and their families, older people, refugees and newly arrived communities. Initiatives include:
- the Love to Learn programme directed at 200 children and young people from refugee backgrounds and their families and carers, providing friendship and mentoring, advocacy and casework, homework clubs and trips and activities.
- the 60 Plus programme where the charity supports members with their wellbeing and physical health. The programme promotes friendship and community care through wide-ranging activities.
- courses that teach English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) as well as maths courses and childcare courses for ESOL students. With four teachers and eleven volunteers, this free service supports around 120 students.
The flow of community activities at the charity’s premises sees over 500 people a week passing through its doors. Funding is sourced from supporters, trusts and foundations to enable it to reduce poverty and isolation and to bring the community together.
Bobath Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy
The Bobath Centre is the UK’s leading cerebral palsy treatment and training charity, and is piloting an early intervention programme in London to detect and treat cerebral palsy in the very young. The longstanding medical view was that neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy could only be diagnosed once a child should have passed key development milestones. The early intervention programme, with early assessment and intensive therapy, can substantially mitigate the impact of cerebral palsy, resulting in improved outcomes.
Physics Partners
PhysicsS3 (Success in Shortage Subjects) aims to improve the teaching of physics in schools. Set up in 2008, it focused on the important subject of physics because it was the most under-represented of the three sciences at A level and 70% of state secondary schools had no qualified physics teacher. The organisation works with schools to encourage local partnerships, often between state schools and local independent schools. It also delivers high quality training in particular schools where multi-school partnerships may be difficult to set up. The Benevolent Fund is providing financial support for specific programmes in deprived areas of London.
Mark Evison Foundation
Lt Mark Evison died in 2009 from a gunshot wound while serving as a British army officer in Hellmand Province, Afghanistan. He was attempting to get the platoon to safety following an ambush. The Foundation was set up in his memory and it is his values and character that are the driving force within it. The mission is to promote the personal development of young people aged 19 to 25 through the undertaking of challenges.
Foundation staff typically visit schools in and around London to address sixth-formers in school assemblies. They introduce the charity and extend an invitation to the students to create and plan projects that are personally challenging. Applications must be self-designed and created from scratch for consideration by the charity. For accepted applications, the Foundation provides mentoring and expenses funding up to £500 (£5,000 for Major Awards, usually groups). Any successful challenge must be well outside the individual(s) comfort zone, non-curricular and non-commercial. Examples of challenges include:
- Hadrian's Wall Hike
http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/bishop-douglas-school-2018/ - Creating a Short Animated Cartoon
http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/hatcham-college-2017-2/ - Building the Evison Wind Turbine
http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/jewish-free-school-2015/ - The Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge
http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/darrick-wood-school/ - Organising a Fashion Show
http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/pimlico-academy-2017-2/
With its emphasis on schools in deprived areas, this young charity has achieved a remarkable reach. In the 2017-18 academic year, the Foundation team delivered Year 12 assemblies in 64 maintained schools in London addressing over 7,500 students. More than 1,600 individuals responded and a total of 225 final applications were received. 67 awards were granted allowing 253 young people to undertake and complete their challenges. The feedback from participating schools has been very positive with more schools seeking out the Foundation for its support.
The London Regiment, D Company (London Irish Rifles), Welfare Fund
The London Regiment is the only Reserve regiment in the Guards Division. It provides highly trained infantry soldiers to reinforce the five regiments of the Foot Guards on operations all over the world. The regiment offers a range of light role capabilities with specialisms in both individual and support weapons. Since its foundation in 1908, the regiment has answered the call of duty for every British conflict, major and minor, from the trenches of the First World War to the streets of Baghdad.
We provide financial support to D Company (London Irish Rifles)’s Welfare Fund to sustain both servicemen and their families. We are always very proud to welcome representatives from the London Regiment and the London Irish Rifles to our Livery dinners and functions.
Pembroke Academy of Music / Inclusive Dance Project
Pembroke Academy of Music (PAM) is an open access music project for around 50 children and young people aged 6 and above. PAM provides high-quality music tuition in a range of musical disciplines, at subsidised rates for all pupils in order to make tuition affordable to children who would otherwise not be able to afford it. Over 77% of parents say they would not be able to pay for music lessons elsewhere. Professional tutors teach music theory, practice and choral singing, to encourage a love of music and help students grow in confidence and teamwork. PAM has no lower skills limit.
Pembroke House Inclusive Dance Project enables learning-disabled young people aged 16-25 to grow in confidence and independence by learning movement and social motor skills through creative dance classes. It helps those disadvantaged by low expectations, low aspirations and limited opportunities for personal development. It consists of 60 sessions per year run by a qualified Leader, an assistant and 2 volunteers, supported by a live musician/drummer. The success/measurement of the outcome for each participant is recorded after each session by a detailed report which is then discussed with participants, parents/guardians to monitor patterns of behaviour both in and out of class.
More information can be found on www.pembrokehouse.org.uk/pam
The Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund
This charity was created over 200 years ago and is focused on helping ex-prisoners get a new start in life. It helps to reduce re-offending by making grants for training, tools of trade, clothing and household equipment. The Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund gives ‘small, practical and timely grants to ex-offenders on probation in Greater London’.
