Our Philanthropy - a core mission

For the Worshipful Company of Insurers philanthropy takes many forms – grants to charities, educational initiatives, volunteering and supporting the Lord Mayor and the City in their charitable objectives.

Engaging with good causes is core to our mission. In addition to welcoming applications from potential Charity Partners, we also encourage members to get involved, either by volunteering their time or applying for matched funding for charitable activities they are personally involved with.

The financial contributions and volunteer time given by our members enable the WCI Charitable Trust to support charities based in the City and surrounding regions – charities helping vulnerable young people without family support who are seeking education, training and employment, the homeless, the elderly, newly released prisoners and our injured service men and women.

It is our policy to support carefully chosen educational and social welfare charities based in the City of London and the neighbouring boroughs which are among the most deprived areas in the country.

We have a separate Education Fund which supports local schools and a range of professional education initiatives.

Latest Philanthropy News

Wide ranging support

The range of charities and good causes supported by the WCI Charitable Trust is extensive and diverse.

Some benefit from long term support (these are known as our ‘Charity Partners’) while others receive one-off grants for specific projects or activities. Many of the charities that initially receive one-off grants later become fully-fledged Charity Partners

The charities supported range from those helping vulnerable young people without family support who are seeking education, training and employment, organisations working with homeless and many community initiatives, often modest in scope but for whom WCI support has a major impact.

The Charitable Trust also makes small one-off grants for specific projects or activities, usually between £2000 qnd £3000, to smaller charities, to which that level of assistance may make a significant difference. We make most of these grants to charities operating in London and its surrounding areas. The Charitable Trust does not normally award grants to support the activities of a charity that focuses exclusively on the benefit of members of a single cultural or religious group.

The trustees recently approved annual grants to Blind in Business, Action Tutoring, Mudchute Farm and XLP, to name a few.

Our philanthropic support also includes our highly valued service affiliations, both those with established units and those offering young people an opportunity to experience the adventure, discipline and skills of military life. The WCI is also proud to support those who work with our injured service men and women.

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Charity Partners

Building long-term relationships

The WCI recognises that many charities require long-term financial support to sustain the valuable work they do or that some projects only bear fruit if they are able to run for several years. This is why we have developed the concept of Charity Partners, simply defined as those charities with which we have deeper, more sustained, relationships.

This enables us to work with a large and diverse group of charities addressing a very wide range of issues and serving different communities. Our current Charity Partners are:

To ensure the relationships between the WCI and its Charity Partners are fruitful and mutually beneficial, a WCI member offers to lead the relationship with a charity, championing them within the WCI, representing the Company at charity events and offering support and advice when required. The two-way communication this facilitates is invaluable.

If you are interested in becoming a Charity Champion please contact the Clerk's Office.

Governance

The WCI Charitable Trust is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the Court. The full board of trustees meets at least quarterly, with a General Fund sub-committee meeting in between to carry out the detailed scrutiny of applications and the work of the organisations the WCI supports. the Charitable Trust will also have representation from trustees on the ECI Education sub-committee.

The current trustees are:

Katie Wade (Chair)
Ian Clark (Treasurer)
Sally Bramall
Kirsty Gray
Lucy Hodgson
Stephen McCann
Stephen Ross
Jaz Saggu

The Worshipful Company of Insurers Charitable Trust (Registered Charity Number: 1175425)