About Us
Our Work
Benefact Trust exists to make a positive difference to people's lives by funding, guiding and celebrating the work of churches and Christian charities; empowering the most vulnerable and giving people, communities and places a renewed opportunity to flourish.
We are working to change lives and communities for the long-term. It's more than supporting the repair, restoration, protection, improvement, reach and growth of places of Christian worship; our grants are designed to have a positive impact on the wider community, tackling social issues from homelessness and poverty, to climate change and cultural cohesion.
Our Trustees
Benefact Trust is governed by a board of trustees, who not only secure our status as a company limited by guarantee - a common governance model for charities - but also give their time, expertise and care to ensure beneficiaries experience all the help and support the Trust was set up to provide.
Tim Carroll
Chair
Chair
Carrie Coombs
Trustee
Trustee
Francois-Xavier Boisseau
Trustee
Trustee
Paul Davis
Trustee
Trustee
Ian Moore
Trustee
Trustee
David Paterson
Trustee
Trustee
Patrick Rudden
Trustee
Trustee
Nick Sykes
Trustee
Trustee
Denise Cockrem
Trustee
Trustee
Denise is a Chartered Accountant with significant industry experience, predominantly in financial services, having held senior finance roles at EY, Barclays, RBS, RSA and Good Energy Ltd. She has helped to support sustainable, profitable growth, both organically and through M&A and to strengthen governance and oversight. Most recently she was Group CFO and Executive Director for Benefact Group, before retiring from her executive career in June 2024.
She has been a non executive director / trustee since 2012 for a number of purpose led businesses including MacIntyre Charity and Skipton Building Society. She is currently a Non Executive Director at ITM Power plc, Julius Baer International Ltd and Chairs the Audit, Risk & Compliance Committees for the broking and asset management divisions within Benefact Group. In October 2024 she was appointed Chair of MacIntyre Academy Trust, a multi-academy special education trust and a Trustee / Director of Benefact Trust.
Our Trust
Benefact Trust was built on a simple, but ambitious idea - to be one of the UK's most impactful Christian grant-making charities.
This idea is at the heart of everything we do, it has defined our ownership of Benefact Group - which is made up of specialist financial companies whose available profits go towards funding our charitable giving.
Our Team
Benefact Trust is underpinned by a small but dynamic team of expert individuals, each of whom plays a key role in shaping and communicating our grant programmes.
Helen Gray
Trust Director
Trust Director
Sue Jenkins
Head of Communications and Marketing
Head of Communications and Marketing
Amy Eastwood
Head of Grants
Head of Grants
Andrew Bass
Senior Grants Officer (North of England, Scotland and Ireland)
Senior Grants Officer (North of England, Scotland and Ireland)
Paul Playford
Senior Grants and Operations Officer (Wales, West Midlands, South & South West)
Senior Grants and Operations Officer (Wales, West Midlands, South & South West)
Lisa Friel
Grants and Impact Officer
Grants and Impact Officer
Joanna Luck
Grants Officer (London & South East)
Grants Officer (London & South East)
Usman Saeed
Grants Officer (East and East Midlands)
Grants Officer (East and East Midlands)
Iain Hearn
Grants Administrator
Grants Administrator
Danielle Nash
Grants Operations Assistant
Grants Operations Assistant
Alice Garwood
Senior Content Marketing Specialist
Senior Content Marketing Specialist
Dexter Jameson
Graphic and Multimedia Designer
Graphic and Multimedia Designer
Joining Benefact Trust at the beginning of 2024, Dexter will be supporting the team to execute their marketing and communications over the next year as our Graphic and Multimedia Designer. With a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Design, and more recently a Master of Arts in Service Design from the Royal College of Art, Dexter brings a fresh perspective and a host of skills to compliment the Trust’s marketing team. In Dexter’s own words, “I’m excited to support Benefact Trust’s marketing team in promoting our incredible beneficiaries and the wonderful ways they continue to help communities in need”.
Tyra Sirandula
Content Marketing Executive
Content Marketing Executive
Report and Accounts - 2023
Our Reports
Our Policies
Our History
Benefact Trust was born from the idea that things needed to be put in place to protect the vulnerable. In 1887 - following a series of fires that left parishes with ruined churches and no means of repair - Ecclesiastical Buildings Fire Office was established.
Founded by two MP's, three clergymen, a barrister and a clerk of the House of Lords and its directors which comprised of five clerics and five laymen, Ecclesiastical provided a reliable insurance service for parishes in times of struggle. Through a genuine need and good business acumen, profits started to accrue and the decision was taken that these should be shared through good causes.
As the scope of the business, profits and grant-making increased, it was decided in 1972 that Ecclesiastical's ownership should be transferred to a separate independent charity, hence the formation of Benefact Trust (formerly Allchurches Trust). To this day the Trust continues to award grants to good causes with all available profits from the Benefact Group and the specialist financial businesses that sit within it.
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