About Us

The Professionals Aid Guild

From Shared Roots to a Shared Future

For more than a century, the Professionals Aid Council (PAC) and its associated charity, The Guild of Aid, operated as two separate organisations with aligned eligibility criteria and closely related objectives. Both charities frequently supported the same beneficiaries, who often received grants from each entity. Over time, the two organisations came to share operational resources, including staff, office space, and administrative costs.

In 2015, the respective boards began exploring the benefits of merging the two funds to streamline administration and further enhance support for applicants. This process concluded in Autumn 2016 with the signing of the Deed of Transfer of Charitable Undertaking, through which The Guild of Aid transferred the majority of its assets to PAC, retaining only a small balance to maintain its legal continuity.

Following the transfer, the boards agreed to adopt a unified identity under the name Professionals Aid Guild (PAG). While PAC retains its original registered company name at Companies House—meaning Annual Reports and Financial Statements continue under the PAC name—The Guild of Aid maintains its Friendly Society status. Together, they now operate as a single, consolidated organisation dedicated to delivering effective, compassionate financial assistance to professionals in need.

Our Impact

1. Practical Support When It’s Needed Most

We provide tailored grants that help with essential living costs, household items, vital home repairs, and school related expenses – offering stability during period of financial hardship

2. Helping Students Stay on Track

When funding unexpectedly breaks down, we support students with contributions towards fees, textbooks, research materials, travel and basic living needs, ensuring their education can continue uninterrupted.

3. Fair, Personalised Decision -Making

Every application is reviewed carefully by specialist committees who consider individual circumstances, ensuring assistance is fair, compassionate and genuinely life-changing.

History Professionals Aid Council
The Guild of Aid

History

Professionals Aid Council

At its founding in 1914, the aim of the Professionals Aid Council was to help members of various professions and their dependents, for whom such help was not otherwise available. Then, as now, there were many occupational funds offering advice and financial aid to their members. PAC differed in that it has a more “open” policy and is able to assist individuals and families from any professional background who hold an eligible qualification, rather than being restricted to a particular profession.

Following the deed of transfer in 2016 the Professionals Aid Council now operates under the name Professionals Aid Guild (PAG). The charity continues to help professionals and graduates throughout the UK, and can make a real difference to those affected by redundancy, illness, disability, family breakdown or poverty in retirement. Where appropriate, applicants are advised to contact their own professional body, however, there are still many applicants who are regarded as professionals, but who do not qualify for help from a specific professional fund. For individuals such as these, the charity can frequently offer advice and support – and often may be the only organisation which can help at a time of financial hardship.

Guild of Aid

Set up by Hearth and Home magazine in 1904, readers became members of the Guild by paying one guinea subscription and were entitled to nominate people they felt could benefit from the Guild’s funds. The Guild answered these requests for help through directly granting specific gifts such as clothes and bedding as well as monetary support. At a time when the Welfare State was still undreamed of, the Guild soon became a popular benevolent fund, helping those worst affected by poverty in the UK. The objects of The Guild of Aid were to help men and women of “gentle birth or good education” and their families. In 2010, the objects were updated to make them more relevant to the current climate. The Guild continued to help people in difficulty, interpreting the aims and objectives as broadly as possible. It paid particular attention to the educational background of applicants and, where appropriate, of their parents and spouse.

History

The Guild of Aid