Joseph Rowntree Foundation

They fund UK-wide poverty solutions addressing income adequacy, living costs, food insecurity, low-pay work, labour market barriers, social security reform, affordable housing, homelessness prevention, and regional inequality. They support work with children, young people, families, and diverse communities including ethnic minorities, and consider social determinants like climate-just transitions. Activities include research collaborations, anti-poverty coalitions, employment training, youth unemployment programmes, carer support, community-led advocacy, capacity building, movement-building against structural racism, and peer support groups. They prioritise collaborative, scalable models relevant across the UK, with devolved approaches in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Their geographic focus includes York, North Yorkshire, and the North East, with a particular priority on York.

They fund organisations only, including registered charities, community groups, and social enterprises. They seek grassroots charities and innovators that demonstrate lived experience leadership, systemic impact, and inclusive practice, prioritising children, families, low-income workers, isolated communities, and ethnic minorities facing exclusion. Their eligibility flavour centres on organisations with a local roots focus, particularly in York, North Yorkshire, and the North East, and those that show a commitment to co-production with people experiencing poverty. There is no religious restriction on applicants.

They do not fund individuals, projects outside the UK, statutory services, or activities that are not aligned with their mission to end poverty. They focus on collaborative, scalable models and exclude non-mission-aligned activities, ensuring all funding supports their core goal of accelerating a UK free from poverty.

They fund collaboratively, prioritising co-designed partnerships with people experiencing poverty. They welcome unsolicited applications and integrate research, policy influence, advocacy, grassroots movements, and impact investments. Their funding style emphasises evidence-based systems change and long-term progressive reform, supporting both research collaborations and community-led initiatives. They seek grassroots organisations that demonstrate lived experience leadership and systemic impact.