After 60 years, Lankelly Chase has announced today that it plans to redistribute all its assets and close within a five-year timeframe. The decision was made acknowledging the roots of their capital in colonialism, as well as a recognition that the traditional philanthropy model is unable to meet the gravity of the global crises we face today, the foundation said in a statement.

‘We urgently need to dismantle the current philanthropy model so money can flow freely to those doing the life-affirming social justice work for the global majority and future generations’, said Lankelly Chase.

According to the foundation, they are taking this drastic action because they can no longer deny the contradictions of who controls the money vs. who holds the vision and does the work; where the money is invested vs what the proceeds are spent on; and the concept of charity vs the pursuit of justice.

A five-year process

Over the next five years, Lankelly Chase will engage with communities to ensure the redistribution of its assets – roughly £130 million – is done with ‘care and responsibility and allows space for alternative ways of living, knowing and being in the world to shape the transition’.

Lankelly Chase has been careful to note that this decision is not a spend out, but rather a redistribution. Spending out, meaning spending your capital faster than you replenish it, has many merits the foundation said, ‘but it is fundamentally an accelerated version of the same institutional model.’ Instead, the foundation sees this redistribution as an opportunity to break up its own institution so that capital can be owned and controlled by others, who can decide how to spend it.

Getting to this decision

For Lankelly Chase, the journey to this decision has been shaped and guided by the work of many social justice leaders.

‘We have been innovating and changing over the last decade to try and shift power, and this has brought us to the point of acknowledging that philanthropic institutions are structured in ways that inevitably repeat the harms and patterns of colonial capitalism that we urgently need to interrupt and stop,’ the foundation said.

The decision was made by the board of trustees, following years of learning from the work, and after the foundation found itself struggling to align its organisation form, position, and strategy with its mission. Lankelly Chase made significant changes to its board membership in 2020, bringing on a number of individuals with a ‘track record of integrating and activating their learned, lived, and practice experience to tackle systems of injustice and oppression’ CEO Julian Corner said at the time.

The foundation describes this decision as both a natural progression and a sudden change.

‘LC has been building towards this for some time through its action inquiries, place work and investment approaches. However, there has been a lot of “stuckness” in our work in recent years, owing largely to the contradictions outlined above, and this decision is definitely a way of disrupting our model in order to take the necessary next step,’ it said.

Is there a plan for the foundation’s funds?

While no specific details have been shared yet, Lankelly Chase has said it plans to redistribute its capital to communities that are subject to oppression and who wish to hold capital in ways that liberate, transform and heal.

‘We will make choices in deep dialogue with those communities over the next two to three years. There is no route map or formula for doing this,’ said the foundation.

Lankelly Chase has indicated that throughout this process, it wants to be in dialogue with as many people as possible inside and outside of the sector to explore how they are responding to the crisis of capitalism and philanthropy’s entanglement in it. And it hopes that their decision can galvanise further action that aligns wealth, capital, and social justice work.

Elika Roohi is Digital Editor at Alliance.