This year we have again granted more than £1.5 million to schools, Torah and chinuch across North West London, the second successive year our grants to local institutions have reached at least £1.5 million. The funding comes entirely from our annual surplus, which is fully donated to education.

Since 1979, we have followed a simple principle: 100% of our annual surplus is donated to educational institutions across the UK.

Mosdos hachinuch across the kehillah carry a large and continuing shortfall. It is not new and it is not the result of any single change. The cost of running these institutions has long outstripped what fees and local fundraising can cover, and our grants help meet part of that gap. Our grants support general running costs and day-to-day provision. They cannot close the shortfall, but they meet costs the schools would otherwise have to find elsewhere or cut.

Our Chief Executive, Matti Fruhman, sees the grants as the result of how the community uses AAC, and how carefully it is run:”Our members trust us to administer their giving properly, and their continued use of AAC enables us to generate the surplus we distribute to education. We keep our own running costs as low as we can, so that the surplus available for education is as large as possible. For the second year running, our grants to local chinuch have reached at least £1.5 million. I am fortunate to work with a team who take real care with what members entrust to us, day in and day out. And of course, my thanks go to the members themselves, whose giving makes all of it possible.”

We also heard from some of the schools we support. David Hersh, who chairs Tiferes High School, told us he is “deeply grateful to AAC for standing with our local schools year after year.”

Yehudah Neuberger, finance manager at Torah Temimah, described what the support makes possible: “The generous grants AAC gives to our community schools allow us to create opportunities for our pupils that would otherwise not exist. It is support that strengthens our mosdos directly.”

Our grants are funded from the surplus we generate by administering member giving. This year we facilitated more than £80 million in charitable giving.

For our Co-Chairs, Eli Katz and Akiva Hackenbroch, the commitment is a long-standing one:”The shortfall our schools carry is real and it is constant. Supporting local chinuch is one of AAC’s founding purposes, and that is not going to change. Every member who chooses to give through AAC is part of how it happens.”