The Benevolence Committee of the Grand Chapter is established to provide some financial help to Royal Arch Masons in distress. Benevolence is a characteristic that is inculcated in Masons from initiation in the Craft Lodge and on into the Royal Arch chapters. In the Entered Apprentice degree, the Charity Lecture gives heavy emphasis on the practice of benevolence to the less fortunate members and makes it very plain that in a worldwide fraternity such as ours there are brethren in distressed circumstances. The Master Mason Degree adds a further emphasis in offering assistance to a brother when instructing them in the Five Points of Fellowship. One of the signs in that degree also suggests the necessity of helping brother masons.
The Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter have their charities which they support. Masonic districts and Royal Arch districts usually have charities which they stress. Many individual lodges offer assistance to the community charities where they exist. John Robinson, the noted Masonic historian, has noted in an appearance in an educational video/dvd that Masonic organizations across North America give one and half million dollars a day to a multitude of charities. That is monumental amount of money from Freemasonry. Our fraternity does not claim to be a charitable organization but rather a brotherhood which practices charity.
The Benevolence Committee of the Grand Chapter is established to offer assistance to worthy applicants who are in desperate need. Applications for such benevolence must come from a constituent chapter which is passed on to the Grand Superintendent and then to Grand Scribe Ezra. If both such officers feel the need is real, the application comes to the the Benevolence Committee for their consideration and disposition.