News

CSIS CHARITY FUND MAKES BIGGEST EVER GRANT AWARDS & NEW IDENTITY STRENGTHENS CONNECTION TO ITS FUNDER

A record breaking £1.152 million has been awarded so far this year by the CSIS Charity Fund to charities supporting people in the civil and public services in need, hardship and distress, with provision for even more grants to be awarded later in the year. This has been made possible by a record £1.25 million donation from the charity's main source of funding - the Civil Service Insurance Society

It coincides with the unveiling of a new logo for the Charity Fund, aimed at reflecting the close relationship between the charity and the Insurance Society. The new logo echoes that of CSIS, acting as an important reminder of the direct link between the success of the insurance business and the impact the charity's grant giving can have on the lives of individuals, some of whom are in desperate need through no fault of their own.

This year's grant awards will help bring about an increasingly wide range of assistance provided by the 31 organisations the charity has supported, including counselling services, befriending to reduce loneliness, responding to increased demand for financial support especially from first time applicants, volunteer support, action against domestic abuse and much more.

Some of the largest grants - totalling nearly £500k - will go to the main benevolent funds giving financial and other support to current and former civil and public servants, including:

• The Charity For Civil Servants - £250k
• BT Benevolent Fund - £75k
• Rowland Hill Fund - £65k
• Post Office Orphans Institution £40k
• Civil Service Retirement Fellowship -£35k

In addition, just over £500k has been allocated to a wide range of smaller charities that often struggle to get funding from other sources and which also support serving, former or retired public servants who have fallen on hard times. These range from The Railway Benefit Fund (£40k for financial support advice and development of information resources), Northern Ireland Prison Officers' Central Benevolent Fund (£35k to expand a home visits programme and events for widows), The Ambulance Service Charity (£40k to support growing demand for their services) and the Social Workers Benevolent Trust (£20k to help uplift their grants programme).

In keeping with the roots of the charity, which date back well over 100 years, spouses of deceased CSIS policy holders who face particular hardship will receive more than £21k through regular grants to augment poor pension provision, assistance with energy bills, and other help as appropriate.

The charity is independent of the insurance business, a not for profit insurance intermediary that markets products exclusively to current and former civil and public servants. However, the Insurance Society is bound by a deed of covenant to transfer virtually all its annual trading surplus to the Charity Fund, providing the money for its annual grant giving.

Gill Noble, who chairs the Charity Fund said: "We were thrilled to be told about the size of the donation we could expect from CSIS this year which resulted from a one-off profit share from past trading. We decided to share the windfall with the charities we support. We know the extra money we have been able to provide will make a real difference to the individuals they help, many of whom work in the very services from which CSIS's business is generated. It is a great example of successful "recycling" - a real "win, win".

We have also been pleased to adopt a new logo which emphasises and celebrates the links between the two organisations. The previous logo was chosen when we had just established the charity as a fully independent charitable company with its own clear, strong governance structure. At the time, it was important to underline that independence. We now feel it is right to have a logo which makes it clear that we are "sister" organisations - part of a family - which we hope will bring greater awareness of the special connection between the success of the insurance business and all the good work the charity can do."

July 2018

On 31st October 2017 we met at Admiralty House to celebrate a decade of helping Public Service Communities. We were pleased to be joined by over 90 guests from various organisations and charities. Our Chairman Gill Noble gave the following speech

Welcome to everyone, and thank you very much for coming to help us celebrate our 10th birthday. It is really lovely to see so many of you here, both from so many of the charities we support but also from so many of the organisations that work with and support our sister organisation, the Civil Service Insurance Society.

The Insurance Society is very important to the charity because they are the source of all the money we give to good causes. When I go to conferences and people ask in a slightly bemused way "so what exactly is CSIS Charity Fund", I always say: "We are a charity linked to an insurance company that markets good quality insurance to civil and public servants, they are very successful in doing that and they make lots of money. All of their profits are paid into the charity and we then give the money away. We give quite a lot of it to the main public service welfare charities but quite a lot of it goes to a whole range of other good causes - and sometimes we can just spread a little bit of stardust around where we think it can make a big difference".

People then ask how much funding we receive, and when I say that the Insurance Society typically earns between a half and three quarters of a million pounds each year for us, and the jaws drop. How can such a small insurance company can earn such a huge amount of money? The answer, of course, is by providing excellent customer service - an old fashioned idea, but it still seems to work for CSIS.

And it is also amazing what a huge amount of good the charities represented in this room can do with that money when we pass it on to them. So today is to celebrate what you all do, and to say a big thank you to all of you. Thank you especially to all the staff of the Insurance Society down in Maidstone. And thank you to all of the charities here today for all the good work you do. It is a real privilege to be able to help you with that work.

Although we are calling this our tenth birthday, we are over a hundred and ten years old. We can trace the charity back to 1906 when a benevolent fund was set up to support the widows and orphans of CSIS policyholders. The charity was reconstituted as a company ten years ago today - today is our actual anniversary - and as part of that process we managed to get our Objects reworded and clarified so we could start to expand our grant giving. And once we started there has been no stopping us. I am very pleased to be able to report that we have managed to give away £7.4 million to over 100 different organisations over the past decade, a stunning achievement.

To mark our birthday, we have produced a 10th Anniversary Celebration Review (click here to view) which tells the charity's story. But for many of you in this room it also tells your story. It illustrates the wide range of good causes we are able to support with that money and showcases the work of the charities we support.

Everyone in this room should look at this document and feel justly proud of the story it tells. Some of you here may think you are just involved in the insurance business - but this will tell you otherwise. You are also helping to generate the funds that can make it possible for the charities in this room to make a real difference to the lives of individuals who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.

Seriously - how cool is that! Who else can say that just by doing their job they can generate three quarters of a million pounds of charitable funds to help the sort of charities we have in this room today. We call it a virtuous circle - putting the money back into the public service communities where it was generated - and I think that just sums it up beautifully.

Gill Noble, Chairman, CSIS Charity Fund - 31 October 2017

CSIS Charity fund news release

Gill Noble, Chairman and Chris Furlong, Grants Chairman cutting the 10th Anniversary celebration cake

INCREASED GRANT GIVING BY CSIS CHARITY FUND IN 2017

Charities supporting people from the civil and public services facing hardship are to receive more than £900k this year from the CSIS Charity Fund, in one of its biggest distribution of funds in its history. Projects range from physical rehabilitation programmes and stress counselling to activity breaks for bereaved families and expanding home visiting services to combat loneliness.

Nearly £400k will be awarded to benevolent charities which give direct support to current and former civil and public servants and their families such as the Charity for Civil Servants (£250k) and BT Benevolent Fund (£60k), while £293k will go to smaller charities which often struggle to get funding from other sources, and to trade union welfare funds. These include Education Support Partnership (£60k), Railway Benefit Fund (£40k) and Cavell Nurses Trust (£30k), which help retired or current workers and their families who are in need and distress.

The CSIS Charity Fund is an independent charity linked to the Civil Service Insurance Society (CSIS), a not for profit insurance intermediary which markets products exclusively to current and former civil and public servants. Virtually all CSIS's annual trading surplus is transferred to the Fund under a Deed of Covenant, allowing grants to be made to the dependants of policy holders and, via appropriate charitable organisations, to those from the public services who face hardship.

The Fund is keen to foster joint working among the charities it supports and also to spread its reach and more than £16k has been allocated to pump prime collaborative projects between charities in the Fund's portfolio. An additional £100k has been earmarked to donate to charities that are new to the Fund and following research, a number of charities will be invited to apply for grants this year in an effort to support those in the sectors of nursing, transport and social care. Smaller charities feature in the Fund's grant making, such as Music in Hospitals which will receive £5k towards the cost of providing live music concerts for the benefit of patients and staff in ex-service care homes. Splitz, which assists military families and others at risk of exposure to domestic violence in three West Country counties, will receive £10k.

Commenting on the grants awarded, Chairman, Gill Noble, said: "The Charity Fund's origins began more than a century ago and it has remained true to its longstanding objectives of helping people in the civil and public services facing the uncertainties of hardship, illness and loss of income. The present Charity Fund has much to be proud of since its current governance arrangements were established in 2007. In that time, thanks to the generous donations received from the insurance business, we have been able to donate more than £7.4 million to good causes.

"It is heartening to see the benefits of drawing our charities together to combine resources and encourage partnership working. Our recent seminar on 'Caring' ensured valuable experience was shared among our family of charities and, as a result, tangible progress has been made towards supporting individuals and their families."