| AdminHistory | Organisations involved: Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, Paul S. Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd.
Previous titles and/or title variations: Society of Friends; churches; Friends; Society of Friends and other religious bodies; Meeting Houses.
Related grant categories: education; peace and international relations; Barrow Cadbury Fund personal.
Duration of use: 1931/1932 to 1992/1993.
Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): 1.
Charitable giving to Friends causes, organisations and Meeting Houses is common to both the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Paul S. Cadbury Trust. Quaker related subscriptions feature prominently in the earliest minute books of both trusts and reflect the religious values of their Cadbury founders and trustees.
The first formal use of the Society of Friends category appears in the 1931/1932 annual accounts of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust under the classification 'Society of Friends/other religious bodies'. Under a slightly amended title, this category was subsequently adopted by the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, appearing at the top of the first list of grant categories introduced in the 1961/1962 annual accounts.
Society of Friends grants were made to a variety of grantees. These include service organisations such as Quaker Peace and Service (now Quaker Peace and Social Witness), education and training institutions including Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, international groups such as the Friends World Committee on Consultation and various Friends Meeting Houses for the maintenance and repair of premises.
The assignment of grantees to the Friends category was not always simple. A grant to an individual working overseas on a Friends project could, for instance, appear under the classification 'Society of Friends and other churches', 'peace and international relations' or 'Barrow Cadbury Fund personal' depending on the nature of the application. Similarly, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre related grants could appear under the classifications 'education' or 'Barrow Cadbury Fund personal' in addition to 'Society of Friends and other churches'. The annual reports of the Cadbury Trusts provide a handy reference to grant categories and frequently include a list recipients assigned to each classification.
The Society of Friends category enjoyed greater prominence during the early years of the Cadbury Trusts. In 1930 two of the three largest Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust subscriptions were made to the Friends Service Council and The Mount School, York. In 1935 the top three subscriptions were allocated to Westhill Training College, Selly Oak, the Friends Service Council and the Friends Institute, Moseley Road. Following the appointment of professional staff in the late 1960s the significance of the Friends category began to diminish as giving was gradually redistributed to new areas. During 1988/1989 all Friends grants were placed under the remit of the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust where they would remain until the dissolution of the category.
Society of Friends and other churches grant files first appear in the late 1960s (though some of their contents date to the 1950s) and were subsequently assigned the number one as a category filing reference in accordance with Anthony Wilson's classification scheme for grant subjects. The preponderance of Society of Friends and churches grants were administered by Anthony Wilson or Eric Adams. A representative grant file label for the 1970s-1980s might read '1/4/1' to denote Society of Friends and other churches/overseas voluntary service grants/file 1. The initials of the administrator may also appear as a prefix though there is considerable variation in file references.
The Society of Friends and other churches category was eliminated as part of a general reorganisation of grant classifications prior to the merger of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust with the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust in 1994. It last appears as a separate category in the 1992/1993 annual report of the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. During this year the Trust and Fund committed a total of £15,750 to Friends grants compared to £543,930 for equal opportunities projects and £244,996 for peace and international relations projects. Following the merger all remaining Friends grants were transferred to other new grant categories. |