Our mission is not new. It is the same one written into the Trust's founding scheme on 17 January 1984 by the a parish priest, an early benefactor and a parish councillor. We have polished it once or twice. We have never rewritten it.
We are a welfare trust constituted to relieve, in cases of need, persons resident in the Parish of Eastham — near Tenbury Wells, in Worcestershire — who are sick, convalescent, disabled, or infirm, by providing items, services or facilities to ease suffering or aid recovery.
In practical terms, this means three things. First, we provide small, prompt, discreet grants to individuals in immediate financial difficulty — a heating bill, a school uniform, a fortnight's food after an unexpected hospital stay. Second, we run a small number of long-standing programmes — a befriending line, a food club, a mental wellbeing drop-in, a youth bursary, an allotment and a carers' respite fund — that quietly weave the district together. Third, we make modest grants to other voluntary groups whose work complements ours.
We do not work outside the parish. We do not campaign. We do not write to MPs. We do not run national appeals. We do not have a marketing budget. We accept that our smallness is the point.
Pay the heating bill before philosophising about why it was unaffordable. Theories of poverty come later, if at all. They never come instead of the bill.
Nobody we help is identifiable on our website, in our accounts, in our quarterly letter, or on a poster, without their explicit, written and revocable permission.
The Scheme of 1984 limits us to a tightly defined district and we have never asked to widen it. Charities that try to be everywhere end up being nowhere.
We start a programme only when we are confident we can hold it for ten years. We close one only after twenty, and only after a year of trying alternatives first.
Our no paid staff exist to make the trustees possible — never to replace them. A volunteer is not a free labourer; they are the substance of what a welfare trust is.
Our books are open to any donor or beneficiary who asks. We publish a one-page accounts summary every November for non-accountants.
The Trust's Beneficiary Charter was first written by the trustees in 2014 and is read aloud to every new trustee at their first board meeting. There are seven promises.
Even where great need exists immediately beyond our boundary. Other welfare trusts hold neighbouring parishes and we will refer with care.
You can call us yourself, walk in on a Wednesday, or ask a neighbour to call on your behalf. We do not need a doctor's letter or a council referral.
Every photograph on this website is of a paid staff member, a trustee, or a volunteer — with one exception, where a beneficiary specifically asked to be photographed for the news section.
We do not write open letters, run petitions, or take public positions on national policy. We are constituted for welfare, not advocacy, and we believe the distinction is worth holding.
If you wish to leave the Trust a gift in your will we will accept it gratefully. We will not write to elderly supporters about wills, and we will never employ a legacy fundraiser.
No trustee has been paid a salary, fee, allowance or meeting expense (other than verifiable travel) in over forty years. The Scheme of 1984 forbids it and our trustees prefer it that way.
Of every £1.00 received by the Trust in the year 2024–25, 94 pence reached a programme or grant. Six pence covered our overheads — rent, audit, software, insurance, the kettle. The chart below is our 'plain-English' breakdown.
