Jackpot!
That feeling when you hit a milestone and achieve something impactful? The Haberdashers’ Company had that experience this week, when it hit a very significant ‘jackpot’.
The 265th member of the Company to set up a regular gift to the Haberdashers’ Foundation tipped us over into raising an impressive £100,000 each year.
This is the collective, annual total from all members who give regularly as part of the Habs 1448 Club.
Unbeknownst to him, Rhys Major – brand new member of the Freedom – set up his gift in the days following his Freedom ceremony. His contribution helped us reach that significant milestone.
This brings us to 265 regular donors, contributing £100,124 per year (not including Gift Aid) for the Company’s philanthropic work. 53% of the Livery and 10% of the Freedom give respectively.
In practice this does two things. Firstly, it builds the Company’s endowment such that the Foundation’s funds can be stewarded wisely (as has been the case for centuries) and awarded diligently by the Charities Committee.
Secondly, it enables the Company to award significant grants that deliver on the Company’s purpose. In recent years this includes substantial funds to the transformative ADAPT & THRIVE programme at Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby. Seed funding has also been provided for the Habs Aspire mentoring initiative.
There’s a lovely note of serendipity to Rhys’s giving. He was at school at Monmouth, and in 2017 he received a small grant from the Company as a contribution to the costs of a Legal Practice Course. His report from that experience includes the line ‘I look forward also to supporting and involving myself in as many ways as possible with the Haberdashers’ Company and contributing in any way with the work of the Company, as it is the least I can do to repay such generosity’.
Back in 2022 there were just 123 members giving regularly to the Foundation. Rhys’s new gift represents a 115% increase in the number of members giving regularly: a real cause for celebration.
If you’d like to join Rhys and the 264 other members in the Habs 1448 Club you can sign up here.
Thanks, Rhys, and to all of you who make a contribution to the work of the Foundation and our programmes with young people.
Jackpot indeed.
