Webinar: Racial Justice and the Decolonisation of Philanthropy

This webinar provides an opportunity for funders and climate justice champions to listen to and ask questions to Global Majority (predominantly) experts in the racial justice field to clarify some of the best practices needed to make racial justice a reality and racial injustice a thing of the past. Our panellists will discuss what needs to shift in philanthropy to apply a racial justice lens to the grantmaking endeavours of trusts and foundations, investment strategies and the internal operations and governance of charitable funding organisations. Without shifting power and resources to communities of colour and changemakers of colour particularly in the Global South, will not be able to achieve wholesale transformational change.

Join the Climate Justice-Just Transition Donor Collaborative on July 1st at 14.00 PM GMT by Zoom to explore how this webinar can seed an improvement to the diversity and inclusion of international climate philanthropy. Participants will leave the webinar with a better understanding of how to enforce short and long-term challenges relating to grantmaking and investment processes and decisions? How to support POC-led organisations, recruit more diverse & inclusive teams, and adopt more human-centred approaches?

The aim for this webinar is to reach a wide pool of donors in the climate philanthropy field to listen to and ask questions to Global Majority (predominantly) experts in the racial justice field. A space to gain exposure to new approaches and perspectives, spark new insights and build momentum for the Collaborative’s ongoing commitment to share educational and learning opportunities. We will make a recording of the webinar available for those who are not able to attend.

Speakers:

Derek Bardowell

Writer, CEO of Ten Years’ Time and a Knowledge Equity Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He is the author of No Win Race, a Sunday Times and Financial Times Book of the Year in 2019, and forthcoming book Giving Back, which reimagines philanthropy through a reparatory lens. Between 2009 and 2019, Derek was responsible for managing portfolios that distributed £150 million to good causes in 34 countries. He hosts the Just Cause podcast, exploring the intersection of race, culture and philanthropy, and he is a Thirty Percy Foundation and Mission 44 trustee.

Stephanie Brobbey

Stephanie practised as a private wealth lawyer for a decade. She gained an outstanding reputation in the private wealth industry and was named one of eprivateclient’s Top 35 Under 35 in 2020 and 2018. Shortly before leaving private practice, Stephanie was ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Chambers & Partners High Net Worth Guide 2021. In September 2021, Stephanie launched Good Ancestor Movement, a social purpose business which exists to disrupt the mainstream wealth advisory industry by challenging traditional ideas about the economy, excessive wealth accumulation and tax minimisation.

Jenny Oppenheimer

Based in London, Jenny grew up in Trinidad and, during her time in philanthropy, has been networking, nudging and advocating for changes to the mindsets, processes, practices and structures that influence philanthropic decision making. Jenny’s role at the Lankelly Chase Foundation is about connecting and working in partnership with changemakers, organisations, networks and other movement actors to analyse and disrupt oppressive systems. Jenny is one of the co-founders of Future Foundations UK, a network of minoritised racial groups working in UK philanthropy. She sits on the European Steering Group for the Edge Funders Alliance and is a trustee of Global Dialogue.

Ali Torabi

Ali joined Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in 2021 and co-leads the Trust's human rights, racial and migrant justice programme. Ali has previously worked as the Brexit Lead for the Trades Union Congress (TUC). He has a decade of experience as a campaign and policy strategist in Whitehall with the Cabinet Office, with tech startup Look After My Bills, and with campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. Ali grew up in a political family in Iran and came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 2005.

Marai Larasi

Prof. Marai Larasi is a Black, African-Caribbean-British feminist advocate, community organiser and consultant who has worked in social justice for over twenty-seven years. Till May 2019 she was the Executive Director of Imkaan (UK), and she also been Co- Chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (UK). In her current practice she works across a number of spheres / sectors, providing strategic, policy, practice and training support around decoloniality, intersectionality, racial justice and ending violence against women and girls among other areas. She is also a member of Project Tallawah, an emerging Black Feminist collective who are reimagining and building a resourcing and community initiative in the UK. Recognition for her work has included being named as one of 100 Great Black Britons (2020), being voted one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy (2019) and one of the 100 Most Influential LGBT people of the year on the World Pride Power List (2013).