Is Freemasonry a charity?                                                                                                      

It is not, though it teaches and practices charity. American Masons give an estimated $1 billion dollars a year to charity, the largest sum of any private group in the world. All Lodges support local charities in their neighborhoods while the Grand Lodges have worthy causes they support within their jurisdictions and nationwide. All of this is in additional the charitable acts of the numerous Masonic organizations, both national and international in scope. The Shrine, which requires members to be Masons, as one example, has 23 hospitals in the United States, Canada and Mexico which provide, at no cost, orthopedic, burn and spinal-cord injury treatment to children without regard to race, creed or Masonic affiliation. And though Masons contribute monetarily and by service, their greatest contribution comes from living their lives in such a manner that the world is better because they live in it.