History of the Benevolent Fund

‘Benevolence’ was one of the original objects of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain when it was established by Royal Charter in 1843. Over the years, the Society continued to provide help and support to members in a variety of ways and in 1963 formally registered the Benevolent Fund as a charity. In 2004, in line with advice available at the time, the provision of benevolence ceased to be listed as a specific object of the Society when the most recent of its Supplemental Charters was granted. Instead, the Society retained explicit powers “to maintain any charitable or benevolent trusts for the relief of poverty or distress amongst members or former members or their dependants or students of the Society”. The fund has grown over the years as a result of the generosity of pharmacists.

How we operate

Today, the Society’s Benevolent Fund continues to operate as a registered charity, but its governing instrument is now a modern Declaration of Trust dated 27 November 2006. This replaces the preceding provisions contained in the Society’s previous Royal Charter and byelaws which set out the terms on which the Society held the Fund’s charitable assets. Although deemed fully adequate when the Fund was first established, these arrangements were increasingly seen as falling short of what is acknowledged as “best practice” for the governance and administration of charitable funds in the 21st Century. Similarly, the previous arrangement whereby Council members acted as trustees of the Society’s charitable funds was also considered unsatisfactory. Council members are elected for a variety of different reasons and this situation could have the potential of generating significant conflicts of interest. In consequence, the Council appointed a board of eight individuals to act as trustees of the Benevolent Fund.

The Future

In 2008, following extensive market research involving pharmacists from all sectors of the profession, the trustees have embarked on an ambitious project to relaunch the Fund. This includes attempts to raise the profile of the Fund and develop a range of services identified as more in tune with the needs of members in the 21st century. The first tangible demonstration of this commitment to respond to the needs of members will be to rename the Benevolent Fund as Pharmacist Support. This particularly reflects the increasing level of pastoral care the fund is called upon to provide. As indicated in the mission statement of Pharmacist Support, the main aim of the fund is continuing, "To provide financial and pastoral support to pharmacists, former pharmacists, pharmacy students and their dependants".

Pharmacist Support remains a key feature of the help available to members, a charity provided for pharmacists by pharmacists through the ongoing generosity of pharmacists. Further developments building on the heritage of the Fund are in hand and will be announced in the near future. Please revisit this site on a regular basis to find out how these improvements are progressing.

David Thomson
Chairman

Board of Trustees