Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is a philanthropic grant making trust that supports work undertaken in the UK and Ireland, and previously South Africa. It is one of three original trusts set up by Joseph Rowntree in 1904.

In 1904, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT), along with sister organisations the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, were created by Joseph Rowntree, who gave about a half of his wealth to establish them. The original trustees of the JRCT were: Rowntree, his sons John Wilhelm, Benjamin Seebohm, Joseph Stephenson and Oscar Frederick, and his nephew Arnold Stephenson Rowntree.

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust calls itself: "a Quaker trust which seeks to transform the world by supporting people who address the root causes of conflict and injustice."

Since 2007, the trust has given three grants to CAGE, formerly known as Cageprisoners, described as a "controversial Islamic rights group", totalling £305,000, to support the work of Moazzam Begg. CAGE spokesman Asim Qureshi called on Muslims to support jihad at an extremist rally, and described militant Mohammed Emwazi, as a "beautiful young man".Lord Carlile, formerly the British Government’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said: "I would never advise anybody to give money to CagePrisoners. I have concerns about the group. There are civil liberty organisations which I do give money to but CagePrisoners is most certainly not one of them."