Foundation News

On Friday, February 2 to Saturday February 3, 2024, the Grand Lodge of Utah held it’s Annual Communication in the Salt Lake Masonic Temple. This annual meeting takes place each year to assemble all the individual Masonic Lodges inside Utah to meet, exchange ideas, give reports, and in general, to take care of all annual business requirements, including the election of officers for the ensuing year.

This annual event culminated with the public installation of the newly elected and appointed officers on the evening of Saturday February 3rd. Most Worshipful Brother Travis McGuire, Grand Master throughout the year 2023 turned over the leadership role to Most Worshipful Brother David B. Tingey, who will serve in the office of Grand Master for the ensuing year 2024.

The Masonic Foundation of Utah, as the charitable arm of the Grand Lodge of Utah, calls for the current presiding Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Utah to serve as one of the Foundation’s Trustees. The Masonic Foundation of Utah thanks Most Worshipful Brother Travis McGuire for his time served on our Board and for his on-going support of Masonry in Utah and welcomes Most Worshipful Brother David B. Tingey as our newest Board member.

In July of 2023, the Masonic Foundation of Utah met to determine the recipients of its annual Scholarship awards. This process is never easy because of the many applications but it is wonderfully rewarding to be able to support so many active students as they work towards their educational goals. Education and self improvement are cornerstones of Masonic philosophy and the Board is continually amazed at the quality and dedication of the individuals who have applied over the years.

This year the Masonic community in Utah through their Masonic Foundation were pleased and honored to award close to $97,000 distributed between 44 deserving students.

The Masonic Foundation of Utah received a nice thank you from the Scottish Rite Children’s Learning Center thanking the Foundation for their continued support of the Children’s Learning Center (See quote below) . The Learning Center was just one of many Utah Charities that the Masonic Foundation of Utah was honored to support.

“The Scottish Rite Foundation of Utah is sincerely grateful to the Masonic Foundation of Utah for their continued and generous financial support. These funds assist in our Mission to help children with all types of learning challenges related to speech and language. We are dedicated to helping children in their home and school settings by empowering them to reach their full educational and social potential. RiteCare Children’s Learning Centers (www.ritecareutah.org) Thank You!“

The Foundation is the charitable arm of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Utah and is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation under the Internal Revenue Code. The Tax Reform Act of 1969 and subsequent amendments passed by Congress places strict guidelines on the operation and distributions of public and private Foundations. Regulations of the Internal Revenue Service require that distributions be given only to qualified non-profit, tax exempt organizations for philanthropic, charitable, or educational purposes. Any distribution to non-qualified organizations or individuals is strictly prohibited.

Origins and Purpose:
The Masonic Foundation of Utah was created in February of 1929 by the Masonic Fraternity in Utah. Our purpose is to promote charity, education, relief and support to humanity. Since the foundation was created by, and is supported by, Masons throughout Utah, scholarships and charitable distributions are primarily awarded to people and organizations in Utah.
Occasionally, however, our support has also been given to qualifying organizations outside of Utah in times of great national need such as hurricane, tornado and other disaster relief.
Since the 1980’s, the Masonic Foundation has awarded well over 2 million dollars in college
scholarships and roughly 6.4 million dollars in charitable contributions.

2021 Activity:

Throughout 2021, the Foundation awarded $297,300 overall to worthy recipients. From that, $104,300 was given to 47 college scholarship recipients and $193,000 was given to 76 qualifying and deserving charitable organizations throughout Utah.
Events over the last two years have placed tremendous strain on our society and emphasis was given to organizations supporting basic human needs including children, the elderly, the homeless and the hungry. We also supported other charities since we realize that public
donations to them are down even though the demands on their resources are greater than ever. Historically, we often focus the majority of our efforts on charities specific to Utah where a few thousand dollars can make an important difference to them. This necessarily means that we sometimes shy away from large national charities that are already heavily funded. When we do award to these national charities, we specify that funding goes to their Utah group rather than the national headquarters.

Although the Masonic Foundation is an entity founded and administered by Masons, all donations of any amount are welcome and they are tax exempt to the doner. If you would like to contribute and help us benefit humanity, please consider a donation.