It's time to put our wealth in service to our mission

We have an exciting opportunity for an Associate Director of Investment. Could you lead our work implementing and steering a new mission-aligned investment approach that delivers both meaningful impact and financial returns, while cultivating an ecosystem of aligned investors, funders, and partners?

Meeting the challenge

We have a bold mission: to support and speed up the transition to a more equitable and just future, free from poverty, where people and planet can flourish. And to further that mission we have an amazing set of assets. These assets include the deep expertise of our own staff, the strengths and diversity of our many partnerships, and the reputation we hold with many different stakeholders. But, like other philanthropic foundations, a core asset – our foundational asset – is our financial endowment.

For many years, we have invested the wealth we hold to grow over time, and today JRF’s financial endowment is around £400 million. This investment approach allows us to both fund our annual work programme while also maintaining the real financial value of the endowment over the long term. Of course, we have long applied strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria to our financial investments, and we have also shaped a growing social investment portfolio. But it remains the case that the lion’s share of the wealth we steward has not historically been focused directly on furthering our mission, but instead on growing in financial value.

It is time to change our approach. Last year JRF Trustees made an important decision – to adopt a new strategy and move to a fully mission-aligned endowment over time. To make that a reality, in the years ahead, we will be moving the wealth we steward into a new mix of social, impact and transformational investments, better aligned with our mission: investments that will strike a new balance between financial return and contribution to mission, giving greater prioritisation to the latter. And we will do this alongside spending significantly more on mission-aligned activity and system-changing work, over and above historic levels.

This is not a ‘spend down’ approach. As a foundation we have a range of medium- and long-term obligations. Most importantly, we are the proud parent organisation of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT), continuing our founder’s legacy in York and the region, committed to meeting our long-term obligations to the Trust and to its tenants in creating permanent, thriving communities. But, while continuing to meet those long-term commitments, we will also take a new approach – making sure that the money we steward is not just growing, but working much harder to support the transition to a more equitable world, reallocating money from market-first to impact-first investments aligned with our mission.

During 2025 – a year that marks the centenary of the death of Joseph Rowntree – we will begin to make meaningful progress on this new endowment strategy. And we are now looking for someone to take on a brand new role leading this exciting new direction. Working closely with the JRF Executive, Trustees and our Investment and Social Investment Committees, the new Associate Director of Investment will lead the work to design, set up, implement and steer JRF’s new mission-aligned investment approach, while cultivating an ecosystem of aligned investors, funders and partners.

This is an immensely exciting new role, leading work that goes to the very heart of what it means to be a philanthropic foundation, and which is central to our commitment to support and speed up the transition to a more equitable and just future. 

If you feel excited by this challenge please do take a look at the new role.