Reflections on our strategy and first set of grants

Written by Raji Hunjan, CEO

It’s important to take a moment to celebrate all the positive messages of support from so many of you as well as all the new connections that we are making at The Tudor Trust. It keeps us strong and makes us more determined.
 
The world around us is rapidly changing, so now more than ever, philanthropy needs to be bold. We cannot wish for a return to the world as it was yesterday, we must respond to the challenges of now in a way that moves us towards a world that is more just and equitable.
 
I wanted to pick up on a headline that Tudor has moved to invitation only. It is important to reinforce our intention when we decided to make our first grants through a closed application process, and why we will continue with this approach, at least in 2025.
 
In line with our change we seek, we want to understand what it takes to move away from models of grant-making that pit organisations against each other through competition. We know that an open application process would produce far more applicants than we could fund or even responsibly process, which would be unfair, reinforce trauma and undermine our commitment to disrupting the usual power dynamics.
 
Instead we want to understand what it takes to build an ecosystem where equity is baked into how we achieve social change. How does that ecosystem benefit organisations and communities more broadly – if not directly from our funding, then from the infrastructure built and the learning that is generated. In line with an emergent approach, we will shift our grant-making processes as we understand more. We do not know yet what our long-term models of funding look like.
 
Despite misleading newspaper headlines suggesting otherwise, previous custodians of Tudor told us to be brave and so that’s what we will be. Our starting point is a focus on racial justice that resists the usual divisive narrative, to be much more inclusive. Let us try. We will be open and share as we learn, so that together we can start building new systems where everyone thrives and there is enough for us all.

Our short video is the story we want to tell.