The practice of learning

At Tudor, we are ecosystem building through a racial justice lens to allocate resources and build power in communities. As we work towards the vision of the world as it should be, we are committed to understanding the conditions that make this possible and in strengthening them. This underpins our learning approach.

What enables us as a team to work iteratively, hold complexity and embrace emergence is how we collectively understand our commitment to being a learning organisation. As part of this, we want to share how dialogue, imagining, and uncertainty have been central to our learning approach. We share this as an invitation to others who are engaged in similar practice.

Being in dialogue with others

As a smaller team, being in dialogue with partners across our ecosystem, fractional leads, and with practitioners, ensures we continually build upon and iterate our practice of how we allocate resources, drawing on varied perspectives and insights.

Dialogue is a key aspect of how we learn from and with each other – whereas working in isolation can uphold the current system through perpetuating knowledge scarcity and competition. At Tudor our Change We Seek Framework is grounded in collective actions and how they create the conditions for a just future.

In her recent article, The most radical thing philanthropy can do is listen, Tudor’s Deputy CEO Dilys Winterkorn explained how listening deeply, intentionally, and continuously to the people leading change has enabled crucial adaptations to our grant-making. Through the practice of listening, we deepen our understanding of what it means to show up meaningfully in conversations and of who and what we are accountable to.

“Because in a world that so often rewards speed, certainty, and control, choosing to pause, to listen, and to learn is an act of courage”
- Dilys Winterkorn, Deputy CEO

Our internal practice continues to be shaped by those influencing the field. The offerings of Amahra Spence have deepened our personal and collective reflections around how we nurture organisational life, and honour the worlds we long for.

Being open to what becomes possible through interdependence and being in constant conversation have driven some of our greatest shifts. We continue to build on this through our growing partner ecosystem.

Imagining possibilities

Systems thinking requires imagination to envision new ways of living and thriving, outside of the constraints of the current system. We work with our learning questions in reflective cycles, practiced through our behaviours, to allow us to explore new ways of thinking. 

• How will we know when communities are interconnected and operating from a position of strength and power owning their ability to thrive? 
• How will we know when Tudor is operating in a way that centres racial justice in our systems thinking? 
• How will we know when we are absorbing risk on behalf of the field building new systems? 
• What becomes possible when healing and rest is centred?
•  What does it take to create an ecosystem where multiple forms of resources and money flow to meet the ambitions of communities? 
• What does it take to deepen relationships between racialised communities and those they are forming alliances with? 
• How will we know when we are enabling good endings and renewal?

“Imagining possibilities enables us to hold complexity and to work in an emergent way, course-correcting as we learn and understand more. Our learning questions offer us an abundant framework, that help us see new possibilities beyond today.”

Leaning into uncertainty

Traditional philanthropy relies on feasibility studies, risk assessments, and predictable returns before acting. In other words, it waits for certainty, and as a team we have seen the impact of that demand on communities’ visions and capacity. To work in service of a just future, as a funder, we are reframing these conventions towards new ways of allocating resources.

Leaning into this uncertainty has been a turning point for us as a racial justice funder. We now see uncertainty as an intrinsic part of shifting systems as it enables us to continuously learn, stay curious, and act earlier when we see potential for long-term impact.  As our CEO Raji Hunjan reflects, ‘Action matters more than a perfect vision’.

Learning as an action

Our commitment to how we shape Tudor’s future is held by us all, and as part of our organisational transformation, we recognised the need for a dedicated Learning and Knowledge role to consolidate our learning, embed practice and tell our story more effectively in a knowledge-sharing effort.  

In their recent reflection piece, Holly Anderson-Whittaker, our Learning and Knowledge Lead, shared how Tudor has worked together to surface ecosystem thinking through our relationships, experiences and collective memory, as well as the active engagement continual learning asks of us.

At Tudor, learning as an action is central to how we shape our culture, grant-making and investments. The practices that underpin this approach will continue to evolve as our learning and understanding deepens.

To build the world as it should be, we will continue to reflect on and share our learnings and adaptations. The world is in motion, and so is Tudor.