About us

Our Mission - to make every £ go further

The Rev. Ted Baines Charity was established by the Baines and Whittome families in 2019. It is based on a unique concept – that we can make every £ raised or given to charity go further.

We do this by:

• Encouraging the older generation to give some of their income or "windfall" wealth to help bridge the inter-generational divide
• Encouraging generosity BY the next generation by match-funding their own giving and fundraising efforts
• Supporting the charitable choices and priorities of the next generation and so passing control over the use of money to younger people
• Encouraging Christian churches to participate and by doing so, reconnect Christian churches with the young people of their church and communities

Our story so far

The Rev. Ted Baines Charity was established as a direct result of a sermon preached in Holy Trinity Church, Nailsea, Bristol in December 2017, which inspired Tim Baines to establish a charity to encourage generosity BY and FOR the benefit of the next generation.

Our charity is based on the Christian principle that giving and generosity are fundamental to a caring and successful society. But today this is harder than ever - the Social Mobility Commission recently warned that Britain could soon become "permanently divided" as a result of intergenerational inequality. So, today’s young people will be the first generation for a long time to be worse off than their parents. Find out more about the inter-generational divide.

The Rev. Ted Baines Charity wants to change this and in doing so demonstrate the Christian truth that "It is better to give than receive", words spoken by Jesus (the founder of the Christian faith), recorded in Acts chapter 20, verse 35.

Rev. Ted Baines

The initial funds of the Charity were provided as a gift by Tim Baines using monies left to him as a legacy by his father, The Rev. Ted Baines, who died in 2017.

Further funds have been kindly provided by his wider family and friends and we are encouraging others to give to support our aims.

In naming the charity after Rev. Ted, we don’t want to put him on a pedestal – he was a humble man and would not have wanted this. However, we are recognising that in his outlook and example, he was someone who both encouraged and practised generosity to others. The brief biography below is included simply to show him as a “real” person, as he followed his faith through all the ups and downs of life.

Rev. Ted was born on Christmas Day 1929 (his first name was Noel but he didn't much like it!). His family was never well-off, with his grandfather killed in World War 1 and his house in London bombed out in World War 2. His father also suffered a life-changing injury in an accident during WW2 and died in his 50s.

Rev. Ted became a Christian as a teenager, and this became the centre of his life and outlook. He was ordained in 1957 and was a parish priest in Rainham, Tolworth, High Brooms and Eden Park. He later became an RE teacher but took ill-health retirement in his early 50s. In 1958 he married Mary Silver, a doctor, who later became one of the founders of the Hospice Movement and was awarded an OBE. Mary’s sister Janet married Peter Whittome, a farmer, in 1960 but sadly they both died in their 60s.

The charity was formed by members of the Baines and Whittome families and is based on the Christian principles of generosity we all learned from Ted and Mary, Janet and Peter. However, we now want to interpret this for a new generation – by encouraging them to be generous and by supporting initiatives which help the next generation.

The Charity has 3 trustees

The charity's three trustees are Tim Baines (Chairman), Richard Whittome and Rae Baines (Secretary). Information about each is shown below.