A Quaker tradition underpins the whole of the third sector - its values, its staff and, crucially, its funding. Several charitable trusts were set up with Quaker money by Quaker trustees. So does that tradition continue to have an affect on today's grant-makers?
"It's interesting that within the foundation sector and the sector as a whole, there are more Quakers per head than elsewhere," says Stephen Pittam, secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Quakers are members of the Religious Society of Friends, a denomination founded by people who were dissatisfied with the other interpretations of Christianity in England in the 17th century.
"Joseph Rowntree felt that his wealth had a broader ownership than just one person," says Pittam. "He felt it belonged to the community. I don't think that was exclusively a Quaker view, but it was perhaps more commonly held by some of the Quaker business people of the time."
Danielle Walker Palmour, chief executive of the Friends Provident Foundation, says there is a Quaker emphasis on causes as well as manifestations of poverty and disadvantage. This dates back to the Quaker response to the Irish famine of the 1840s, says Pittam.
Walker Palmour says: "It's the move away from the soup kitchen end of charity towards social change philanthropy."
Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs, chief executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust, heads an organisation that maintains a strong Quaker heritage. All of the organisation's trustees are directly related to the original Quaker founders. The organisation has a couple of defining characteristics, she says: "We're not afraid to support groups working slightly off the mainstream and possibly engaged in quite risky activities. And we often look for good inspirational leadership."
These values are not necessarily unique to Quakerism. As a Sikh, Stubbs has found a strong crossover between Sikh and Quaker values of equality and social justice. But the drive to "search out the underlying causes of weakness or evil", as Rowntree put it, has left its own distinctive mark on the sector.
