Every ten years, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust steps back to review its work and set a strategy for the decade ahead. It is a chance for us to look forward with hope, and to think about how we can best support people working for a more just and peaceful future.
JRCT was founded on the belief that lasting change is possible when we confront the root causes of society's most urgent challenges. Our founder Joseph Rowntree asked trustees to respond to the needs of their own time.
Our strategy review is how we want to answer that call for the next ten years.
Why now?
A lot has changed since our last review in 2017–18. Democratic space has come under pressure, inequality has deepened, and new technology is changing who holds power and how people take part in public life.
We know many people are working with determination for a fairer, more peaceful world. As a Quaker organisation, we believe in people's power to bring about change together.
What we heard
Over the past year we have talked to grantholders, applicants, young people, Quakers, other funders, researchers and many others. Thank you to everyone who took part.
People told us to keep the things that work: our Quaker values, our trust-based approach, and our willingness to fund work that others overlook.
They also asked us to make clearer choices, offer longer-term support, recognise how issues connect. You can read more about this here.
What we heard during these conversations chimed with our internal reflections about how we could better serve the sector. Together they pointed to a more joined up approach, with deeper, longer term, and more joined up funding.
What's changing
Our new strategy will launch in January 2028. It is built around four connected themes based on the Quaker values that have always guided our funding and the needs we see in society now: Truth, Equality, Peace and Repair.
Truth: the conditions that let societies find, test and debate knowledge.
Equality: how power, resources and opportunities are shared, and how historical injustice has shaped that.
Peace: the conditions that let conflicts be resolved without violence.
Repair: charitable reparations for the public benefit, in connection with the origins of JRCT’s endowment.
We are still developing these themes and will share more about each one during 2027.
We know that lasting change takes time. Bringing these themes together means we can support work that cuts across issues and make longer commitments. It also means we can fund in a sustainable way - and continue to invest responsibly and in line with our mission - so we can keep doing this work for generations to come.
We will offer a mix of longer-term grants and shorter, responsive funding. We will also go beyond grants by commissioning research, bringing people together, and helping the groups we fund reach wider audiences.
Over the next ten years we want to help build a society where truth is valued, power and opportunity are shared more fairly, conflicts are resolved without violence, and past harms are acknowleged and repaired. We will keep funding across Britain and Northern Ireland/the North of Ireland, and we will share more about each theme during 2027.
Our commitment to repair
Our Quaker values have always guided our funding, and they will continue to. Those values mean being honest about our own history.
JRCT's endowment comes from the profits of the Rowntree Company. The company benefited from colonial-era trade built on enslaved and forced labour, and its South African subsidiary took part in oppressive and exploitative practices during apartheid.
We have a responsibility to acknowledge this and to act on it. That is why repair is one of our four themes, and why our reparations programme is a core part of the new strategy.
What happens next
- 2027 is a transition year. We will not accept new applications while we put the new strategy in place. We know this is a real gap for many groups, and we did not take the decision lightly.
- Existing grants will be honoured in full. We have already been in touch with everyone we currently fund.
- By the end of 2027, we will publish our funding priorities and explain how to apply.
- From 2028, any organisation whose work fits the new strategy can apply, including those we fund now.
We will continue to share updates about our strategy here on our website and via social media.