Support for freemasons
Myth-busting about our TalentAid scheme
Our vision is simple yet powerful: to ensure that Masonic families are healthy, stable, and secure, providing them with the opportunities to participate actively in their communities and succeed in life. As part of this commitment, we aim to empower the next generation of young individuals who demonstrate exceptional talent and ambition.
Our TalentAid scheme assists the children and grandchildren of Freemasons who have a gift for music, sport, or the performing arts. TalentAid grants provide financial support to help cover the ongoing costs associated with pursuing their passions, whether that’s funding sports coaching, advanced music lessons, or even purchasing necessary items like musical instruments or sports equipment.
In this blog post, we tackle some of the myths surrounding the scheme, shedding light on how the MCF allocates funds and ensures that the support we provide truly makes a difference to the lives of talented young people across the Masonic community.
Myth #1: ‘The TalentAid scheme wastes money on hobbies.’
To receive a grant from the TalentAid scheme, the applicant must be able to demonstrate real potential of pursuing a career in their talent. Their application must include evidence of either passing recognised examinations, gaining entry to highly competitive schemes or performing at regional and national levels. TalentAid grants are not available to fund hobbies as we want to ensure our support has a lasting impact.
Read Charlie’s story, who without this support from the MCF, wouldn’t have been able to participate in the Winter Youth Olympics last Summer.
Myth #2: ‘The TalentAid Scheme just gives more money to those who can already afford it.’
Families who receive TalentAid grants must first meet our eligibility criteria, which includes a financial assessment. All our grants are awarded based on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Minimum Income Standard.
It is a myth that people pursuing music, sport, or the performing arts already come from money. The reality is that those from lower income families struggle to pursue careers long term, with financial barriers being the main reason why their talents are abandoned. Without financial support it can be almost impossible to sustain a career in these fields, with only eight per cent of those working in television, film, and radio industries coming from lower income background.
TalentAid helps to break down these financial barriers for families struggling to fund their children’s lessons, instruments, or sports equipment.
Myth #3: ‘TalentAid grants prevent money going to Freemasons and families in real financial need.’
This is one of the most common misconceptions we hear, which is of course untrue. At the MCF, we have allocated funds for different types of grants, this ranges from support for funeral costs, to mental health, mobility aids and much more.
For example, we want to highlight that grants awarded to support the development of talent would not take away from someone else’s ability to access a grant to help pay for daily living expenses if they are eligible. Each support area has a separate fund and is prioritised on a need’s basis.
All the grants we provide align with the MCF’s mission and values by supporting families in need, TalentAid represents a very small portion of the grants we award each year. Thanks to the generous donations of the Freemasonry community, we were able to award a range of grants totalling £13.7 million to support 3,036 individuals and families in 2023/24.
We hope you found this blog post reassuring and informative, if you have any further concerns or queries about the TalentAid scheme you can get in touch with us communications@mcf.org.uk.
