The Basketmakers' Company

www.basketmakersco.org

The Basketmakers Company are one of the many ancient Livery Companies which are the descendants of the City Guilds of the middle ages. Their Charitable trust was created in 1982 when the Court of Aldermen required all companies applying for Livery status to have such a fund. Approximately 100 individuals make regular contributions to the Trust. Apart from supporting training in the craft, the Lord Mayor's Appeal and St Margaret Pattens, the guidelines are based on three premises. The first premise is that, as a small charity, support by them for major national charities in such fields as medical research would be so infinitesimal as to be ineffective. The second is that they can, from the applications they receive and enquiries and visits they make, support small charities who have innovative solutions to problems. The third is that the City is the wealth hub of the nation, surrounded by a belt of deprivation in the inner boroughs.