Charities Reception
30th April 2025St Giles Cripplegate
Since the Benevolent Fund (BF) has now divested the Welfare Fund, Jon Fell, chairman of the BF and I felt we had to make the most of the opportunity to refocus the efforts of the BF on the charities supported by the BF, and also to get more members directly involved with the charities themselves.
For the first time ever within the Tobacco Pipe Makers, we therefore decided to hold a Charities Reception at St Giles Cripplegate in the Barbican (home of our very own Father Jack), giving an opportunity for our company members to meet directly with our Charities.
In the end members of 14 charities attended, with a good number of Liverymen.
After a welcome from Jon Fell and myself, each charity was given about 90 seconds to talk about themselves, what they are doing and what help they might need in addition to funding.
After the individual talks, I presented the Clarity in Charity Communications award to Physics Partners, who the BF had nominated for their efforts. It is a very fine piece of art and Sally Smith, the CEO, was delighted to receive the award.
We then had drinks and canapes, kindly prepared by the church staff, with an opportunity for further discussions and networking.
St Giles proved to be a very fine venue for the event, which everybody thoroughly enjoyed. Subsequent feeback from the charities was also extremely positive and they particularly enjoyed the opportunity of meeting each other and comparing notes.
Given the success of the evening, we should make this a regular event for all concerned, hopefully with more company members attending next time!