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Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

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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. The Trust supports work in five programme areas: peace and security, rights and justice, power and accountability, sustainable future and Northern Ireland.[1]

History

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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.[2] 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.[3] The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s values are rooted in Quakerism. Joseph Rowntree, who was a Quaker, believed that it is only possible to make a lasting difference by addressing the root causes of a social or economic problem.[4] Quaker values include peace, equality, simplicity, integrity and stewardship of the earth.[5]

Current day

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The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust describes itself as "a Quaker trust which seeks to transform the world by supporting people who address the root causes of conflict and injustice."[6]

The Trust says that in order to engage in philanthropy that effects real change, “JRCT does not shy away from supporting those working on unpopular or contentious issues”. It also believes that change can “take many years to achieve”.[7] The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust offers grants to around 100 different charitable organisations a year.  In 2018 these included Reprieve, Fawcett Society, Operation Black Vote and Fair Tax Mark.[8] It makes grants in excess of £10 million a year.[9]

Cage controversy

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The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust said it works to “strengthen the hands of those leading change” and recognises that such work carries a level of risk.[10]

Between 2007 and 2011, the trust gave 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.[11][12]

Cage describes itself as "an independent organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror" and has spoken out against the UK's anti-terrorism laws.[13]

CAGE spokesman Asim Qureshi called on Muslims to support jihad at an extremist rally, and described militant Mohammed Emwazi, as a "beautiful young man".[14] 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."[11]

Speaking in 2015, the human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith defended the "vital" work of Cage and denied they are apologists for terrorism. He said: "They do important work and the UK authorities need to understand that alienating moderate Muslims is the worst thing that could possibly be done at this time. I myself represent those said to be 'terrorists' and since Magna Carta, in 1215, we have presumed people innocent rather than guilty…it is clear beyond dispute that when we jettison our principles we make ourselves hypocrites and hypocrisy is the yeast that ferments extremism."[13]

Ethical investment

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The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust invests its endowment sustainably and responsibly. It does not invest in the arms industry, gambling, the tobacco industry or nuclear power.[15] The Trust has also divested from fossil fuel extractive companies.[16] In 2019 it was among a coalition of 20 charities which asked the attorney-general and the Charity Commission for England and Wales to seek a ruling on whether the public benefit of charities means they should be required to align their investment policies with their own objectives and commitments to wider society.[17]

In September 2019, JRCT was named a “global leader” by the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment for its commitment to ethical and responsible investment.[18] The global leader group also included the Church Commissioners for England and the Environmental Agency Pension Fund.[19]

Ethical Funding Controversy

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There was some controversy in 2024 concerning the JRCT’s continued funding of a public participation and deliberative democracy charity, the Involve Foundation,[20] due to the links of one of Involve’s trustees to the tobacco industry, Andrew Cave, despite the JRCT’s explicit rejection of this industry on ethical grounds. Also, some of Involve's activities are in the health sector[21] and this is also seen as a conflict of interest, given this trustee’s background.[22] The JRCT gave Involve its very first funding of £25,000 in 2004, and has continued to contribute regularly to its funding ever since.[23] JRCT’s funding principles, however, preclude investment in the tobacco industry: "The Trust seeks to avoid material investments in armaments, gambling, tobacco and new generation nuclear power."[24] It is unknown whether the JRCT was consulted about Involve’s appointment in April 2023 of this trustee from the tobacco industry, yet difficult to imagine they would approve it, given the fundamental conflict with their principles which Cave’s resume demonstrates.

Andrew Cave was Head of Communications at Philip Morris International (PMI) from 2012 to 2022.[25][26] During this time, he was involved in their push to subvert the World Health Organization's global anti-smoking treaty.[27] After leaving PMI, he continued to work alongside other former PMI lobbyists at So What Communications.[28]

His LinkedIn profile states, "At Philip Morris International (PMI), I led regulatory communications across the UK and EU, advising senior leadership on PMI's unprecedented transformation to a smoke-free future." The term 'smoke-free' is misleading, however, as the report "Addiction at any cost: Philip Morris International Uncovered" by STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) demonstrates: "Industry documents revealed that smoke-free products were seen as a way to create a new form of tobacco use among those no longer willing to take up smoking and “make new profits rather than cannibalise existing profits from cigarettes”."[29] Stanford University School of Medicine's extensive research has also exposed PMI's claims to move away from cigarettes and become 'smoke-free' as propaganda.[30]

The description of himself in his LinkedIn profile as a promoter of PMI's 'smoke-free' initiative could perhaps explain why the Involve leadership appointed him as a trustee, if they accepted it at face value without investigating further, i.e. without performing due diligence. Indeed, on his profile on the Involve Foundation website, Cave also claims misleadingly that while heading the communications division at PMI he was “directing many of its initiatives to move away from cigarettes.”[31] He failed to reveal, however, that this move was not simply away from cigarettes but towards vaping products, including ones aimed at children.[32]

Investigations by Reuters have shown that Philip Morris International (PMI) secretly infiltrated tobacco control negotiations and Andrew Cave[33] then lied about it: "Asked in an earlier interview whether Philip Morris conducts a formal campaign targeting the treaty’s biennial conferences, Cave gave a flat “no.”"[34]

All of the above information on Cave and PMI is freely available and easily discoverable with simple search queries, making the Involve board’s decision to appoint this former tobacco industry executive hard to fathom, given the multiple conflicts of interest with the values of its stakeholders and funders, including both the JCRT and another related Quaker organisation, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.[35]

Shortly before becoming a trustee at Involve (April 2023), Cave also became a director of another non-profit operating in the deliberative democracy field, the Sortition Foundation (January 2023). His profile page there makes no mention of the 10 years he spent working for PMI, however.[36] This constitutes a notable concentration of tobacco industry influence, since Involve and the Sortition Foundation are the two main providers of public participation services in the UK, and both have clients in the healthcare sector. It undermines trust in the outcome of deliberations on health policy organised by them, especially in view of recent moves by the UK government to strengthen anti-smoking regulations.[37] Also, the fact that a top tobacco industry executive obtained influential posts in key public participation organisations within a year of leaving his position must be viewed critically in the context of the World Health Organisation's commitment to promote public participation in health policymaking in its member countries.[38][39][40]

In the UK, the Chief Medical Officer Prof. Chris Whitty, who called for politicians to push back against tobacco industry lobbying,[41][42] has been asked to stop the National Health Service (NHS) from cooperating with Involve and the Sortition Foundation on public deliberation projects to counter any possible undue tobacco industry influence on their recommendations.

This conflict of interest between Involve Foundation trustee Andrew Cave’s background with the JRCT’s values and investment principles calls into question the adequateness of the oversight and governance of JRCT’s grantmaking facilities.[43]

References

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  1. ^ "Funding priorities".
  2. ^ "History and Heritage". Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
  3. ^ Freeman, Mark (2003). "Victorian Philanthropy and the Rowntrees". Quaker Studies. 7 (2). George Fox University. Art. 5, p.3.
  4. ^ "History and heritage".
  5. ^ "Quakers in Britain: Our values".
  6. ^ "About Us". Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
  7. ^ "JRCT - about us".
  8. ^ "JRCT Annual Report 2018" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust announces plans to significantly increase grant spending" (PDF).
  10. ^ "JRCT- about us".
  11. ^ a b "Mainstream charities have donated thousands to Islamic group fronted by terror suspect". The Telegraph. 1 March 2014.
  12. ^ "Charity defends decision to keep funding group fronted by terror suspect Moazzam Begg". Birmingham Mail. 9 March 2014.
  13. ^ a b "Cage: Important human rights group or apologists for terror?". BBC News. 27 February 2015.
  14. ^ "Jihadi John: Activist who praised Mohammed Emwazi as "beautiful" caught on video backing jihad". The Telegraph. 27 February 2015.
  15. ^ "Finance and investment".
  16. ^ "Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust among organisations with assets amounting to $24 billion to pledge to divest from fossil fuels" (PDF).
  17. ^ "Coalition demands landmark ruling on 63bn of charity investments for public benefit". Pioneers Post, 5 March, 2019. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  18. ^ "Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust recognised as global leader in responsible investment" (PDF).
  19. ^ "Leaders' Group 2019".
  20. ^ "Who funds us?". Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  21. ^ "Our projects (Issue filter: Health and social care)". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  22. ^ "Involve is threatening me..." LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  23. ^ "Involve@20" (PDF). Tim Hughes, Involve Foundation, 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  24. ^ "Finance and Investment". Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  25. ^ "Tobacco Tactics, Listing for Andrew Cave". Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  26. ^ "Andrew Cave profile page". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  27. ^ "The Philip Morris Files, Part 1, Treaty Blitz: Inside Philip Morris' push to subvert the global anti-smoking treaty". Reuters Investigates. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  28. ^ "Andrew Cave profile". So What Communications. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  29. ^ "ADDICTION AT ANY COST: Philip Morris International Uncovered, Chapter 3, Philip Morris International: Its Smoke-free Rhetoric Doesn't Reflect Its Behavior" (PDF). STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations & Products). Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  30. ^ "Propaganda Crusades by Philip Morris International & Altria: "Smoke-Free Future" & "Moving Beyond Smoke" Campaigns - Exposing the Hypocrisy of the Claim: "A Tobacco Company That Actually Cares About Health"" (PDF). Robert K. Jackler, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA), 2022. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  31. ^ "Andrew Cave profile". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  32. ^ "Philip Morris International: money over morality?". The Lancet, 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  33. ^ "Andrew Cave profile page". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  34. ^ "The Philip Morris Files, Part 1, Treaty Blitz: Inside Philip Morris' push to subvert the global anti-smoking treaty". Reuters. Reuters Investigates, 2017. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  35. ^ "Introducing: Involve and the Network for Democracy". Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, 2021. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  36. ^ "Andrew Cave profile page". Sortition Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  37. ^ "Tobacco and vapes bill". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  38. ^ "Implementing citizen engagement within evidence-informed policy-making: An overview of purpose and methods". WHO, November 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  39. ^ "Citizen engagement in evidence-informed policy making: A guide to mini-publics". WHO, February 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  40. ^ "World Health Assembly endorses resolution on social participation". WHO, May 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  41. ^ "Protecting children, families and vulnerable from tobacco harms". UK Government, Department of Health and Social Care, Professor Chris Whitty, 2024-11-05. 5 November 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  42. ^ Gregory, Andrew; Quinn, Ben (16 April 2024). "Chris Whitty urges MPs to ignore lobbying and pass smoking ban". The Guardian. The Guardian, 2024-04-16. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  43. ^ "People at JRCT". Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
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