Newcastle-based insurance broker Lycetts is aiming to help reach a £250 million charity target as part of ambitious plans of rebranded parent company, Benefact Group.
The Group, formerly known as Ecclesiastical Insurance Group – the fourth biggest corporate charity donor in the UK1 – hopes to hit the target by 2025.
The new name2 and brand identity has been chosen to more accurately reflect its diversity, breadth and purpose. ‘Benefact’ derives from the Latin for ‘to do well by supporting a person or good cause’.
Lycetts will continue to operate under its own name, as will more than 30 other specialist financial businesses within the Group.
Charles Foster, CEO of Lycetts, said: “We are proud to be part of a group that is committed to improving lives and communities, and whose individual trading brands share the same high ethical standards. Each of us is united in the belief that better business can be a force for good, giving hope and help to those who most need it. Integrity matters.”
Originally created to protect parish churches from fire, the Group is owned by registered charity, Benefact Trust, and has been in existence for more than 130 years. During that time, it has grown to become an international family of three divisions – insurance, investments and broker and advisory – with operations in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia.
In recent years, the Group has given more than £100 million of its available profits to good causes through various programmes such as the Movement for Good awards, which accepts charitable nominations from both its customers and the wider public.
The Group’s giving supports a wide range of causes across different sectors including education and skills, rural, heritage, arts, faith, climate change, animal and wildlife charities.
Mark Hews, Group Chief Executive at Benefact Group, added: “Benefact Group is a very different financial service group. We are owned by a charity which means all our available profits can be given to good causes.
“As a company whose purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society, charitable giving is at the heart of what we do. I’m very proud of our new name which reflects our unique purpose, the breadth of our offering to our trading partners and marks an ambitious new chapter for the Group and our family of specialist businesses.”
1 UK Guide to Company Giving 2021/2022.
2 The Group has changed its name from Ecclesiastical Insurance Group to the Benefact Group.