Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

Archived Active citizenship Communities Cross community Democracy and freedom good relations Human rights and equality Human rights and justice Multiculturalism Peace and reconciliation Policy, advocacy and campaigning Racial equality Refugees and asylum seekers Social partnership Victims and survivors Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Europe and Russia Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain International Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000) Medium (up to £60,000) Small (up to £10,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

The information below provides a brief overview of JRCT’s five grants programmes.

1) Peace and Security

The Peace and Security programme is open to applications.

Account registration deadline (you need to have applied for an account by this date): Thursday, February 13, 2025.

Application deadline: Midday, Thursday February 27, 2025.

Challenging militarism
Scrutiny of counter-terrorism measures in the context of human rights and peacebuilding
Building support for alternative approaches to defence and security
Responding to harms of systemic racism

2) Power and Accountability

Next round opens in 2025.

Strengthening corporate accountability
Strengthening democratic accountability
Encouraging responsible media
Responding to dual harms of COVID-19 and systemic racism

3) Rights and Justice

The Rights and Justice programme has completed a strategic review process and they hope to share this soon. They tentatively hope to open to new applications by the end of the year (2024) and they will keep their webpage updated.

Protection and promotion of human rights and their enforcement in the UK
Promoting rights and justice for minorities who face the most severe forms of racism
Promotion of rights and justice for refugees and other migrants by identifying and tackling structures and systems that may deny them their rights

4) Sustainable Future

The Sustainable Future programme is not currently accepting applications. They are expecting to have an open grant round in March 2025. Please note that the Sustainable Future Programme can only accept applications in response to deadlines that are advertised.

They remain committed to supporting existing grantees, and grant staff will be in touch to discuss continuation funding.

Better economics
Beyond consumerism
New voices
Responding to dual harms of COVID-19 and systemic racism

5) Northern Ireland

Please note that the Northern Ireland programme is currently closed to new applications. Grants staff will be in touch with existing grantees as they approach the end of their grant, to discuss continuation of funding. They expect to re-open to new applications in March 2025. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust aims to fund work which will contribute to the ongoing transformation of the Northern Ireland conflict. Its vision is of a Northern Ireland with the following characteristics:

a constitutional settlement which takes account of the range of political views of the people of Northern Ireland, Britain and the Republic of Ireland and which is underpinned by the principles and values of participation, human rights and equality
a non-sectarian political culture which is inclusive, transparent, responsive and accountable
effective processes and mechanisms for managing societal and political conflict without recourse to violence
a respectful and inclusive public discourse about the Troubles, which promotes a shared understanding of the root causes of past violence, and a public policy framework which facilitates truth, justice and reconciliation
a vibrant, pluralist and activist civil society, responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable and able to hold the government to account.

JRCT is interested in funding work which:

addresses the root causes of violence and injustice, rather than alleviating symptoms
cannot be funded from other sources
is likely to make a long-term, strategic difference
addresses injustices around the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and class.

At this time of crisis, JRCT is also keen to support work that responds to the dual harms of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. They have amended their funding policy to reflect this.

JRCT has identified the following priority areas:

1. Strengthening human rights and equality

This includes work to secure and monitor implementation of human rights commitments by the state, work which strengthens a culture of human rights, as well as new initiatives on economic, social and cultural rights.

2. Supporting inclusive, non-sectarian and participatory politics

This includes initiatives which strengthen the voices of marginalised groups in public policy-making, foster positive, non-violent approaches to expressing and managing political difference and which cultivate the independence of the community and voluntary sectors. In this area, the Trust is particularly interested in supporting work that promotes increased participation of women in politics, and also greater inclusivity in political decision-making and policy work.

3. Supporting processes of demilitarisation

This includes initiatives which encourage groups engaged in armed struggle to take steps towards exclusively non-violent strategies and to engage in comprehensive processes of transition to civilian life.

4. Dealing with the past

The Trust is concerned primarily with work that promotes a shared understanding of the root causes of past violence, or which encourages government to implement initiatives to address the legacy of violence at a societal level.

5. Responding to dual harms of COVID-19 and systemic racism

At this time of crisis, JRCT is keen to support work that responds to the dual harms of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Specifically, they wish to encourage work that scrutinises the responses and policies of powerful institutions and actors, and which envisions and builds support for transformative social change based on justice, peace and sustainability, including work which:

Scrutinises and challenges any systemic inequalities, injustices or abuses of power arising in Northern Ireland the context of Covid-19.
Responds to the Covid-19 crisis by building support for progressive reforms which strengthen a culture of human, economic, social and cultural rights.
Creates opportunities for black and minority ethnic people to organise around new forms of inclusive, participatory politics, to strengthen the anti-racist voice in systems of power and accountability in Northern Ireland.

Other factors

JRCT is particularly interested in receiving applications related to women’s participation in all of these areas.

In addition to applications from Northern Ireland, it is open to receiving applications from Britain and the Republic of Ireland for work related to the above areas, and for work across the island of Ireland.

Local work will be supported only where it is likely to have a wider impact, for example if it is testing a model which can then be replicated, or is addressing a local issue that has wider social or political implications.

Please note that applications proposing work of any kind in Northern Ireland will be considered through the Northern Ireland programme only.

Cross-cutting

They anticipate that the majority of their funding will fall under one of the five priority areas specified above. However, if you judge that your application directly relates to more than one area, and are able to clearly demonstrate this in your proposal, they will consider a cross-cutting application.

The cross-cutting route is simply a mechanism to allow the Trust to consider applications that relate to more than one programme area. It does not confer any greater opportunity to secure funds. Applications are allocated to the most appropriate grant committee and are dealt with through their normal grant procedures.

For information on grants awarded, visit the website here