Our mission

For us, ending poverty in the UK is a moral cause: to ensure dignity and respect for everyone, and to address exclusion and powerlessness.

We are working towards our mission through policy work, research, and campaigns. We also resource and partner with organisations that are doing the difficult and important work of redesigning the world they want to live in, to achieve deep, transformative change. You can read more about these organisations that we call ‘Pathfinders’.

Our work is supported by around 70 permanent staff across York, London and Glasgow.

Our heritage

We were established over a century ago by Joseph Rowntree, to help understand the root causes of poverty. You can read more about our unique heritage and our founder’s vision for lasting change.

Our role in York and the North East

We play an active role in York, with a number of heritage sites including Homestead Park which we run for the local community. We are also the parent organisation of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT), which provides affordable housing and care services in the North East.