Reimagining investment for justice and community

Photo taken at Tudor's grant partner 'Link up' event in October 2025 (courtesy of Marni V Photography)

Written by Raji Hunjan, CEO

Imagine philanthropy with a justice-led relationship between grant-making and capital management. What would it take to have an open dialogue about the competing values and who holds power in these distinct and different spaces?
 
Closing the gap between grant-making and investments

When Tudor first began its transformation, my leadership stemmed from an experience of grant-making for the purpose of building power and advancing racial justice. I gave little thought to how this same experience could support investment and endowment planning. Over the last two years, the experiences of our grant partners have helped me to understand my position differently. 

Today, there is a shared commitment between all Tudor staff and trustees to hold learning at the centre of our work. Together, we understand the extent to which the social justice end of civil society is crying out for wealth creation opportunities. Our partners tell us it is near impossible for grant funding alone to achieve transformational change for communities on the ground.

This raises a question that is as simple as it is complex:

What if all our capital  worked in service of our mission, not just the parts we give away in grants or in programme delivery?

It is a question that requires in equal measure, a commitment to good governance, and a willingness to act collectively with imagination. It needs fresh conversations and a shared language between those who lead with the logic of finance and those who believe in community self-determination.

Advancing racial justice for everyone

Tudor has a bold mission to advance racial justice by resourcing power in communities. This is a vision of a just world where everyone thrives. This means rejecting a scarcity mindset and starting from a belief that there is enough for everyone. Racial justice then becomes deep systemic change. It challenges the multiple ways in which systems harm, polarise and divide communities. It brings a more hopeful future into our line of sight.

Through our investments, we experience how global markets are cyclical and endowments recover after a crash; yet our grant-making shows that the same pattern isn’t true for people and communities. When economies fail, basic need goes up, worsened by political responses such as austerity, and communities never recover. We do not accept that people on the ground should bear the greatest burden for economic, climate, social and political events that are not of their making. This compels us to move towards a more hopeful future where communities are thriving in right relationship between people and planet.

Investments and systems change

Tudor is considering the application of its systems thinking approach to its investment strategies for deeper alignment with our grant-making. Our endowment is primarily ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) screened, with added pots in impact investment. This is a responsible approach, designed over time and with care, but we know it is not yet enough for the kind of justice we seek. As impatient as I am personally, Tudor understands that if we lurch too quickly in different directions, we could end up negatively risking our mission.

The work is in the thinking, challenging our own assumptions, and taking considered risks on behalf of communities, setting aside our personal preferences or sense of preservation. It is not just about the short-term impact, but about how a stewardship rooted in justice could create change for those who come long after us.

Introducing a provocation piece

It is with this mind that I am sharing this provocation piece written by Amir Rizwan and commissioned by Tudor. Its purpose is to challenge us to sit with the discomfort and contradictions that come with an endowment in a racial justice context. It invites us to engage with the limitations of existing impact-led opportunities when applied to systemic change. Whilst Tudor is not yet ready to give a clear position on its longer-term investment strategy, sharing this publication is an invitation to others who are engaged in similar conversations.
 
Tudor does not profess to having the answers. But we must start by asking the right questions. When our mission is racial justice, what will it take for all our capital to be in service of building power so that reimagined wealth, resilience, and healing are central to meeting community need?

Communities before money

We must build relationships with our wider communities with open hearts and minds – and seek answers beyond those who already have a seat at the table. If there is anything that feels certain to me, it is that the answers are in the collective efforts of those who are willing to come on the journey, putting community and justice first.