Sixteen plain questions, sixteen plain answers — the ones the Lodge Secretary is most often asked at the coffee morning, and one or two besides.

A small Masonic benevolent fund, registered with the Charity Commission on the fourth of February, 1963 (charity number 218915), based at 85 Kennel Lane, Fetcham, in Surrey. We exist to help Brethren of Astede Lodge and their families through times of difficulty, and to give what we can each year to a handful of local good causes.

Very small. For the year ended 31 December 2024 our total income was £954 and total expenditure £325; we made eleven small gifts in the year. The reserve at the end of the year was £629. The Annual Returns of every year since 1963 are available on the Annual reports page or on the public Charity Commission register.

James Desmond O'Hara and John Green. Both are registered on the public Charity Commission record at register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. There are no other Trustees at present. The Lodge Almoner (currently Philip Westwood) advises but is not a Trustee.

Astede is the old Anglo-Saxon name for Ashtead, the village in Surrey from which the Lodge takes its name. It appears in this form in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Lodge itself dates from the late nineteenth century; the Benevolent Fund was registered in 1963.

Not in any formal or governance sense. The MCF is the national charitable Foundation of English and Welsh Freemasonry. We are an independent charitable trust which happens to be supported by, and which supports, the same Masonic family. We make a small annual cheque to the MCF's Surrey Festival, but we are not part of the MCF and the MCF has no decision-making role at our fund.

If you are a Brother of Astede Lodge, or a family member or widow of one, please speak to the Lodge Almoner in confidence — his details are with the Lodge Secretary at any regular meeting, or you may write to [email protected] and we will pass your enquiry to him discreetly.

If you are not connected to Astede Lodge but live in one of our four parishes and are in difficulty, please first contact your parish church, the Citizens Advice in Leatherhead, or the Surrey Hills Hospice; we are too small a fund to act as a first port of call for general hardship.

Confidential cases are raised by the Lodge Almoner, who has come to know the Brethren and their families over many years. He brings the request to both Trustees; they consider it together, with reference to the trust deed and the year's remaining reserve, and either approve, decline or refer the request. We do not means-test and we do not require receipts.

We aim to make a decision within a working week of first hearing of a need, and to send a cheque within ten working days. In 2024 our average elapsed time, from first conversation to posted cheque, was six days. We have twice — most recently in 2019 — taken longer than ten days; the honest paragraph on the Mission page explains what happened.

Yes. Names of confidential beneficiaries are not recorded in any document beyond the Trustees' minute book, and they do not appear in any public report, dispatch, or thank-you letter. We do not require permission to help; we do not publish photographs; we do not name names in the dispatches.

The simplest route is the online form. If you would prefer a cheque, please make it payable to The Astede Lodge Benevolent Fund and post it to 85 Kennel Lane, Fetcham, Leatherhead, KT22 9PR. For BACS details, please email [email protected]. In-person gifts can be made at the annual coffee morning.

The fund itself is not recognised by HMRC for Gift Aid — we are too small for the administration to be worthwhile (HMRC's smallest-scheme reliefs are themselves of larger annual value than our turnover). We hold a Gift Aid declaration form for donations channelled through the Provincial Office, however; if Gift Aid matters to you, please write to us and we will explain the route.

You can. Please ask your solicitor to use our full name (The Astede Lodge Benevolent Fund), our charity number (218915) and our registered office address. The Trustees would be glad to acknowledge a notification of intent by letter, but this is not required.

Not in the conventional sense. Our registered office is the home of one of our Trustees in Kennel Lane, Fetcham. There is no public-facing office, no staffed reception, and no walk-in service. The Trustees meet four times a year, on the second Saturday of February, May, August and November, around a kitchen table.

By letter to the registered office, by email to [email protected], or by ringing 01372 454336 (the Lodge Secretary's home line) during office hours. The Trustees themselves do not have a direct phone line; they prefer to reply in writing.

The accounts are not audited. As a trust whose income falls comfortably below the audit threshold under the Charities Act, we file a single-page receipts-and-payments statement each year, inspected by an independent examiner — a retired accountant from Leatherhead who has done this small kindness for the fund, unpaid, since 2011 (with a successor appointed in 2025).

Please write in the first instance to the Trustees at the registered office, or to [email protected]. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and reply substantively within four weeks. Our short Complaints Procedure is in the Resources library. If you are not satisfied with our reply, you have the right to complain to the Charity Commission or — in matters of data protection — to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk / 0303 123 1113.