Contact

Reaching the right place matters — especially when the question involves lodge membership, charitable programs, scholarship applications, or local chapter information. This page explains how contact with The Elks Authority reference office works, what to expect in terms of response time, and how the national BPOE structure connects to finding help at the local level.

Response expectations

The Elks Authority operates as a reference and information resource, not as a live helpdesk. Questions submitted through the site's contact form receive a response within 2 business days for general inquiries. Research-intensive questions — those involving lodge history, membership eligibility specifics, or records from the BPOE's founding era — may take up to 5 business days, simply because getting the answer right matters more than getting it fast.

A useful distinction:

1. Reference questions — facts about Elks rituals, scholarship programs, lodge officer roles, or organizational history. These fall squarely within what the site is built to answer.
2. Operational questions — lodge event schedules, dues payment, local meeting times, or membership applications for a specific lodge. These are best directed to the lodge directly, since 2,000+ individual lodges operate independently under the Grand Lodge structure.
3. National foundation questions — grant applications, the Most Valuable Student Award, or veterans program inquiries. These route to the Elks National Foundation, reachable at elks.org, not through this office.

Understanding which category a question falls into saves everyone time. The reference site handles category 1 well. Categories 2 and 3 have better homes.

Additional contact options

For questions that go beyond published reference content, 3 primary channels exist outside this site:

The Elks National Headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois, and serves as the administrative center for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The Grand Lodge maintains official contact information at elks.org, including staff directories organized by department — useful when a question involves national policy, Grand Lodge conventions, or formal correspondence.

The Elks National Foundation handles all scholarship, grant, and community investment inquiries. The Foundation awarded more than $3.29 million in scholarships in a single program year through the Hoop Shoot and Most Valuable Student programs, among others (Elks National Foundation). Directing scholarship questions there — rather than to a general contact form — gets applicants to the right desk.

Local lodges remain the most direct point of contact for anything membership-related. The lodge locator guide covers how to find lodges by state, city, or ZIP code. Lodge exalted rulers — the presiding officer of each lodge — handle new member inquiries directly, and the membership application process begins at the lodge level, not nationally.

How to reach this office

The contact form on this site accepts written inquiries submitted directly through the form field below this content block. When submitting, a few practices make the exchange more useful:

• Be specific about the source of confusion. "I read something about the 11 o'clock toast" is more actionable than "I have a question about rituals." The 11 o'clock toast page may already answer it.
• Name the program or topic. Referencing a specific scholarship, cardinal principle, or lodge role focuses the response.
• Indicate whether a lodge referral would help. If the question is operational — about joining, attending events, or speaking with an officer — noting that upfront means a response can include a direct lodge referral alongside any reference information.

Email correspondence is reviewed Monday through Friday. Submissions received after 4:00 PM Central Time on Fridays carry over to the following Monday. No phone line is associated with this reference office.

Service area covered

The Elks Authority covers the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks as it operates across the United States. The BPOE is a domestic organization — its lodges operate in all 50 states, with concentrations detailed in the lodge count by state breakdown. This site does not cover the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW), which is a separate organization with its own national structure, history, and membership, though the racial integration history page addresses the relationship between the two organizations in historical context.

Questions about Elks lodges in U.S. territories — Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — fall within scope, as the Grand Lodge structure extends to those jurisdictions. Questions about fraternal organizations outside the United States, or about organizations that bear similar names but operate under different charters, fall outside the reference scope of this site.

For comparative questions — how Elks membership differs from Masonic membership or Moose Lodge membership — the site maintains dedicated comparison pages that address organizational structure, membership criteria, and charitable focus side by side.