Major UK charity pauses grants, moves to fire board over ‘Whiteness’

A major charity organization in the UK has paused all charity-giving while it focuses on replacing its “White and privileged” board of trustees.

The Tudor Trust boasts assets of £288 million ($363.5 million) and grants approximately £20 million ($25.2 million) per year to various causes.

But those causes will have to look for help elsewhere while the charity recruits new board members who sport darker skin. Some of the trustees they will replace are descendants of Sir Godfrey Mitchell, who founded the trust in 1955. Matt Dunwell, Mitchell’s grandson, is the current chairman.

Tudor Trust Interim Director Raji Hunjan, who is overseeing the shake-up, is searching for Dunwell’s replacement. But the new chairman, who will receive £18,000 ($22,745) per year and work five days a month, should exhibit other qualities besides an abundance of melanin. The chairman designate must demonstrate a “strong personal commitment to justice, diversity, equity and inclusion,” as well as “expertise in anti-racism.” They must also show a “deep understanding of social and racial justice, and experience of applying this to systemic change.”

“We recognise that we live in a society that is shaped by white privilege and racism,” the organization said in a statement. “We also acknowledge that being a family Trust has given rise to a trustee board that is almost entirely white and privileged. While the profile of the staff of the trust is more diverse, we recognise that, throughout the organisation, most of us do not have experience of what it means to be discriminated against because of our colour.”

The trust has been complaining about its color since November 2020, when the organization first acknowledged its “White and privileged” board amid the Black Lives Matter protests. 

In April, Christopher Graves stepped down after 38 years as the trust’s director. He was replaced by Hunjan who is working with Cadence Partners, a Marxist firm “specializing” in recruiting “minority ethnic, disability, gender, LGBTQ+,” to help install the new regime.

Grants were paused in April last year and are not expected to resume until next year, reports The Telegraph.