This statement comes from Lankelly Chase, a major UK charitable foundation, who earlier this month announced that they would be redistributing their assets of £130 million and closing within a five year timeframe.

Lankelly Chase give around £13m in grants a year to hundred of charities operating in areas such as social, racial and climate justice, and was the 79th biggest charitable foundation in the UK in 2021 (according to the Association of Charitable Foundation).

"It is understood Lankelly Chase’s trustee board had become increasingly unable to reconcile its charitable mission to tackle racism, injustice and inequality with its position as a major investor in global capital markets it considers to be rooted in racial and colonial exploitation."

The foundation explain that these times - with the interlocking social, climate and economic global crises we are experiencing - demand bold action from us all in charitable organisations.

"We believe that the case for profound change is now impossible to ignore, and each of us must find our answer."

Does this announcement indicate the start of a change to reimagine the funding landscape?

Although rare in the UK, the kind of radical re-imagining of charitable funding announced is more common in the US where, experts say, “decolonising the endowment” is a much more active debate in philanthropic and community circles.

So what is the solution? For Lankelly Chase, it means giving away assets to organisations doing "life-affirming social justice work” in communities across the UK. They announced that £8 million will be given to the Baobab Foundation, a funding body created in 2021 by black funders to grow resources for under-resourced grassroots UK Black and African community organisations.

Chief Executive of Lankelly Chase, Julian Corner, said the decision will "create a space for a more honest debate in philanthropy about our relevance, and ambitious conversations about whether we [as foundations] are set up right".

Read their announcement and news coverage for more details.