Our origins
On 1st March 1955, Sir Godfrey Mitchell, owner of the construction company George Wimpey Ltd, established a charitable trust by endowing it with a majority stake of shares in his firm. The new trust’s board was granted freedom to use its financial resources for any ‘charitable purpose’.
The trust was first run by Sir Godfrey’s daughters, Mary and Helen Mitchell (later Mary Graves and Helen Dunwell), with support from board members and staff. From the 1980s, Mary and Helen were succeeded at the trust by their own children, including long-standing Director Christopher Graves who retired in 2023, and Matt Dunwell who served as the previous Chair of the Board of Trustees until 2024.
Over the last year, Tudor’s board transitioned from a family-led structure to an independent group of trustees. Tudor's long-standing trustees recognised the deep inequities in our society and how change was needed at the board level to support Tudor's transformation going forward. During this transition, the outgoing trustees worked closely with incoming trustees, sharing their knowledge and experience before stepping down.
Today, Tudor’s endowment is valued at approximately £230 million, with assets responsibly managed across a diverse range of funds.
How our grant-making has evolved
In its first 20 years, the trust’s activities were shaped by the interests and expertise of its founder and first generation of trustees, with an initial focus on education and capital works, including the construction of university halls of residence.
Below you can read more about how Tudor's work has evolved through the decades.
1960s and 1970s
During the 1960s and 1970s the trust made large grants to build university halls of residence in London and then in Glasgow. The trust also made large grants to building projects in the care and hospice sector that evolved into a substantial programme of capital funding. At the same time, smaller grants were made to schools, youth clubs, village halls and homelessness projects.
1980s
During the 1980s, the trust continued making capital grants and small grants, along with increasing its mid-value and longer-term grants, often to fund core salary costs. It also expanded the geography of its grant-making to Northern Ireland.
1990s
By the 1990s, Tudor was positioning itself as a broad funder. The Guide to Major Trusts described Tudor as "an organisation giving effective help to those who need it most and may be least likely to get it". During this decade, the trust provided funding that would inform its future grant-making including: supporting the formation of CLINKS, which works with the voluntary sector within the criminal justice system; funding the building of the HMP Edinburgh prison family visitor centre in Scotland; and funding community-led housing projects.
In more recent years, Tudor has continued to provide capital grants while prioritising multi-year core funding for smaller, under-resourced organisations. The trust has also developed more targeted funding, focusing on specific issues and geographic areas. This approach has included supporting new organisations, marginalised groups, and social infrastructure.
Below are some representative examples of the work we have funded more recently.
Support for new organisations
Including organisations advocating for debt justice, working to improve the criminal justice system and empowering local communities to make change happen:
- In 2015, the trust funded the start of Men’s Sheds UK which encourage people to come together to make, repair and repurpose items in their local communities. Men's Sheds works towards about improving wellbeing, reducing loneliness and combatting social isolation. Today the charity has grown to over 1,130 sheds across the UK.
- In 1998, the trust also supported the formation of CLINKS, who support the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system through work in prisons and the community to help people turn their lives around. CLINKS started working with voluntary organisations in five London prisons and now supports over 1,700 organisations.
- Tudor funded Jubilee 2000 in 1996, which was set up to end unjust debt in developing countries and the poverty and inequality it perpetuates. Jubilee 2000 went on to launch the Debt Jubilee Campaign, which succeeded in debt cancellation for developing countries of $130 billion.
Support for marginalised communities
Including families of people in prison, destitute refugees and Gypsy and Roma communities:
- In 2016, Tudor funded NACCOM (the no accommodation network), who work to end destitution amongst people seeking asylum, refugees and other migrants with no access to public funds. NACCOM works with over 130 frontline organisations across the UK, to increase the level of accommodation provision and support.
- From 2009, the trust has funded over 40 organisations who offer support to the Gypsy and Roma Traveller communities. This has included funding Armagh Roma Traveller Support, who works to preserve, promote and develop Traveller culture and identity of Traveller and Roma communities in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
- Tudor has also funded the building and renovating of several family prison visitor centres in the UK, which have been recognised as critical for encouraging family ties that are proven to reduce reoffending rates. The first was the building of HMP Edinburgh family visitor centre in Scotland. In 2009, the trust also funded the building of the HMP Wormwood Scrubs FamilySpace. This is a safe hub which offers a broad range of support for children and families across London affected by the imprisonment of a close friend or family member. Several other prisons adopted this model, and the trust also funded the building of the Visitors Centre at HMP Featherstone in Wolverhampton in 1995.
History of building social assets
Including the funding of several community-led housing projects, to address the lack of affordable housing in the UK in general, and to support vulnerable individuals and marginalised communities in particular:
- In 2022, the trust funded Homebaked Community Land Trust in Liverpool to transform a terrace into quality homes and commercial spaces at genuinely affordable rent. They are a group of local residents who shape the place where they live and work in community ownership.
- From 2006, the trust funded Older Women’s Co-Housing (who are a group of women over fifty) to build the social housing part of the first senior co-housing community in High Barnet, London.
- In 1991, the trust funded Leeds Action to Create Homes (Latch). Latch refurbishes derelict and run-down houses in the Chapeltown, Harehills and Burley areas of Leeds. Once homes are fully modernised and furnished, Latch provides supported housing for people who are homeless or in need of housing and who are ready to make a positive change in their lives.
More recently, Tudor has also provided additional support in response to some of the acute and unforeseen challenges impacting communities. For example, following the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, Tudor worked in partnership with other funders to help direct urgent financial support to groups in immediate need. Then, in 2020-21, as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, Tudor responded swiftly by establishing emergency grants to support the voluntary sector through these unprecedented times.
Now in our 70th year, we are currently undertaking new research on the history and development of the trust to better understand how the evolving context of each decade has shaped our work.
In 2025, following a period of transformation, Tudor started to implement its new Change We Seek strategy, which you can read about here.
Open data
In September 2016 the Tudor Trust signed up to the 360Giving Initiative, which aims to help UK grant makers to publish their data openly online, to an agreed data standard. Publishing information about our grants in an open format on our own website, and through 360Giving, means that it can be shared and compared more easily.
Over time, the intention is that this information will help inform both grant makers and those looking for funding and will contribute to more effective grant-making.
Tudor grants data April 2013 to March 2022
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means that the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to The Tudor Trust. You can view a copy of the license here.