Benefit society
Encyclopedia
A benefit society or mutual aid society is an organization
or voluntary association
formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance
for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.
Benefit societies can be organized around a shared ethnic background, religion, occupation, geographical region or other basis. Benefits may include money or assistance for sickness, retirement, education, birth of a baby, funeral and medical expenses, unemployment. Often benefit societies provide a social or educational framework for members and their families to support each other and contribute to the wider community.
Examples of benefit societies include trade union
s, friendly societies
, credit unions, self-help groups, landsmanshaftn, immigrant hometown societies
, Fraternal organizations such as Freemasons
and Oddfellows
, coworking communities
, and many others. Peter Kropotkin
posited early in the 20th century that mutual aid affiliations predate human culture and are as much a factor in evolution
as is survival of the fittest
.
A benefit society can be characterized by
.
Mutual aid was a foundation of social welfare in the United States until the early 20th Century. Early societies not only shared material resources, but often advanced social values related to self-reliance and moral character. Many fraternal organizations were first organized as mutual aid societies.
Medieval guild
s were an early basis for many Western benefit societies.
A guild charter document from 1200 states:
This charter shows the importance of 'brotherhood', and the principles of discipline, conviviality and benevolence. The structure of fraternity in the guild forms the basis for orders such as Freemasons, friendly societies, fraternal orders and modern trade unions. Joining such an organisation a member gained the 'freedom' of the craft; and the exclusive benefits that the organisation could confer on members.
Historically, benefit societies have emphasised the importance of social discipline, in conforming to the rules of the organisation and society, and acting in a morally uplifting and ethical manner. Conviviality and benevolence are important principles.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries benefit societies in the form of friendly societies and trade unions were essential in providing social assistance for sickness and unemployment, and improving social conditions for a large part of the working population. With the introduction in the early twentieth century of state social welfare programs, and industrial, health and welfare regulation, the influence and membership of benefit societies have declined in importance.
Oaths, secret signs and knowledge, and regalia were historically an important part of many benefit societies, but have declined in use during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In other cases, signs and ceremony have become the mainstay of fraternal societies that no longer focus as much on mutual aid.
But new technologies have provided yet more new opportunities for humanity to support itself through mutual aid. Recent authors have described the networked affiliations that produce collaborative projects
such as Wikipedia
as mutual aid societies. In modern Asia
rotating credit associations organized within communities or workplaces were widespread through the early 20th century and continue in our time. Habitat for Humanity in the United States is a leading example of shared credit and labor pooled to help low-income people afford adequate housing.
In post-disaster reactions, formal benefit societies of our time often lend aid to others outside their immediate membership, while ad hoc benefit associations form among neighbors or refugees. Ad hoc mutual aid associations have been seen organized among strangers facing shared challenges at such disparate settings as the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival
in New York in 1969, during the Beijing Tiananmen square protests
of 1989,for neighborhood defense during the Los Angeles Riots
of 1992,and work of the organization Common Ground Collective
which formed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
in 2005. The Rainbow Family
organizes gatherings in National Forests
of the United States
each year around age old models of ad hoc mutual aid.
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
or voluntary association
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.
Benefit societies can be organized around a shared ethnic background, religion, occupation, geographical region or other basis. Benefits may include money or assistance for sickness, retirement, education, birth of a baby, funeral and medical expenses, unemployment. Often benefit societies provide a social or educational framework for members and their families to support each other and contribute to the wider community.
Examples of benefit societies include trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, friendly societies
Friendly society
A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose...
, credit unions, self-help groups, landsmanshaftn, immigrant hometown societies
Hometown society
A Hometown society is a society of immigrants from the same town or region. These aid organizations were established to deal with social, economic, and cultural problems, and provided a social framework for mutual assistance. Among the most common activities was the provision of insurance...
, Fraternal organizations such as Freemasons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and Oddfellows
Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows , also known as the Three Link Fraternity, is an altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 18th century, at a time when altruistic and charitable acts were...
, coworking communities
Coworking
Coworking is a style of work which involves a shared working environment, sometimes an office, yet independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent...
, and many others. Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
posited early in the 20th century that mutual aid affiliations predate human culture and are as much a factor in evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
as is survival of the fittest
Survival of the fittest
"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase originating in evolutionary theory, as an alternative description of Natural selection. The phrase is today commonly used in contexts that are incompatible with the original meaning as intended by its first two proponents: British polymath philosopher Herbert...
.
A benefit society can be characterized by
- members having equivalent opportunity for a say in the organization
- members having potentially equivalent benefits.
- aid would go to those in need (strong helping the weak)
- collection fund for payment of benefits
- educating others about a group's interest
- preserving cultural traditions
- mutual defence
History of benefit societies
Examples of benefit societies can be found throughout history, including among secret societies of the Tang Dynasty in China and among African-Americans during the post-revolutionary years, such as those who organized the Free African Society of PhiladedelphiaFree African Society
The Free African Society was founded in Philadelphia in April 1787. The leaders were Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, free blacks whose goal was to create a non-denominational religious organization that served the spiritual, economic and social needs of Philadelphia's African-American community...
.
Mutual aid was a foundation of social welfare in the United States until the early 20th Century. Early societies not only shared material resources, but often advanced social values related to self-reliance and moral character. Many fraternal organizations were first organized as mutual aid societies.
Medieval guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s were an early basis for many Western benefit societies.
A guild charter document from 1200 states:
- "To become a gildsman,..it was necessary to pay certain initiation fees,..(and to take) an oath of fealty to the fraternity, swearing to observe its laws, to uphold its privileges, not to divulge its counsels, to obey its officers, and not to aid any non-gildsman under cover of the newly-acquired 'freedom.'" (C Gross, The Gild Merchant, (1927))
This charter shows the importance of 'brotherhood', and the principles of discipline, conviviality and benevolence. The structure of fraternity in the guild forms the basis for orders such as Freemasons, friendly societies, fraternal orders and modern trade unions. Joining such an organisation a member gained the 'freedom' of the craft; and the exclusive benefits that the organisation could confer on members.
Historically, benefit societies have emphasised the importance of social discipline, in conforming to the rules of the organisation and society, and acting in a morally uplifting and ethical manner. Conviviality and benevolence are important principles.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries benefit societies in the form of friendly societies and trade unions were essential in providing social assistance for sickness and unemployment, and improving social conditions for a large part of the working population. With the introduction in the early twentieth century of state social welfare programs, and industrial, health and welfare regulation, the influence and membership of benefit societies have declined in importance.
Oaths, secret signs and knowledge, and regalia were historically an important part of many benefit societies, but have declined in use during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In other cases, signs and ceremony have become the mainstay of fraternal societies that no longer focus as much on mutual aid.
Current benefit societies
Many of the features of benefit organizations today have been assimilated into organizations that rely on the corporate and political structures of our time. Insurance companies, religious charities, credit unions and democratic governments now perform many of the same functions that were once the purview of ethnic or culturally affiliated mutual benefit associations.But new technologies have provided yet more new opportunities for humanity to support itself through mutual aid. Recent authors have described the networked affiliations that produce collaborative projects
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
such as Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
as mutual aid societies. In modern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
rotating credit associations organized within communities or workplaces were widespread through the early 20th century and continue in our time. Habitat for Humanity in the United States is a leading example of shared credit and labor pooled to help low-income people afford adequate housing.
In post-disaster reactions, formal benefit societies of our time often lend aid to others outside their immediate membership, while ad hoc benefit associations form among neighbors or refugees. Ad hoc mutual aid associations have been seen organized among strangers facing shared challenges at such disparate settings as the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
in New York in 1969, during the Beijing Tiananmen square protests
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
of 1989,for neighborhood defense during the Los Angeles Riots
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...
of 1992,and work of the organization Common Ground Collective
Common Ground Collective
The Common Ground Collective is a decentralized network of non-profit organizations offering support to the residents of New Orleans. It was formed in the Algiers neighborhood of the city in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.-History:...
which formed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in 2005. The Rainbow Family
Rainbow Family
The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a loosely affiliated group of individuals committed to principles of non-violence and egalitarianism. They put on events known as Rainbow Gatherings....
organizes gatherings in National Forests
United States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
each year around age old models of ad hoc mutual aid.
Selected past and present benefit societies
- Knights of ColumbusKnights of ColumbusThe Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
- Woodmen of the WorldWoodmen of the WorldWoodmen of the World is a fraternal organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members....
- Modern Woodmen of AmericaModern Woodmen of AmericaModern Woodmen of America is the third-largest fraternal benefit society, with more than 750,000 members. Total assets passed US $9 billion in 2009.-Financial Standing/Rating:...
- Thrivent Financial for LutheransThrivent Financial for LutheransThrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services organization with dual corporate headquarters based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Appleton, Wisconsin...
- Canadian Fraternal AssociationCanadian Fraternal AssociationThe Canadian Fraternal Association is a trade association for fraternal benefit societies in Canada which engages in advocacy on their behalf as well as providing services.It represents fraternal organizations with approximately 400,000 Canadian members...