New toolkit for exploring origins of wealth launched
The Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) has launched a toolkit to help UK charitable foundations explore the origins of their wealth and any connections with wealth accumulated from the historical transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans.
Many universities in the UK are at the forefront of research and discovery and with institutional programmes aiming to tackle racial injustice and inequalities. They are already actively investigating the origins of their funds received from early philanthropic donations. In particular, this is with a view to understanding whether historical income which contributed to the development of their institutions derived from transatlantic slavery and the labour of enslaved Africans. Some universities are members of a network of higher education institutions in the USA, Canada, Columbia, UK and Ireland all committed to research, acknowledgement, education, and atonement regarding institutional ties to the slave trade and the legacies of racism in their histories.
ACF’s toolkit is designed to be an introductory resource for UK charitable trusts and foundations interested in conducting or commissioning research work to understand more about the source of their wealth. Even for an institution with the research capabilities of a university, however, it provides a valuable reference point for the importance of this research, with practical guidance for boards to hold conversations, understand the relevance for their organisation and make decisions about the right path for them.
The toolkit also offers suggestions for how to communicate intentions internally and externally, and an overview of a range of measures organisations may wish to take to translate discovery into action.
Alongside acknowledging their - often complex - connections to historical slavery through publication of their research, actions being taken by higher education institutions in the UK include:
- Establishing dedicated research centres
- Academic collaborations with universities in the Caribbean and West Africa
- Renaming of buildings and removing visible links to benefactors who profited from the trafficking of enslaved Africans
- Increasing bursary and scholarship provision for black British students and students from Africa
In terms of reparative and restorative action, University of Glasgow was the first British university to set up a restorative justice scheme, pledging £20m to build a research centre in partnership with the University of the West Indies.
Where university endowments are discovered to have origins in wealth generated through enslaved labour, actions may include a review of investment portfolios and possible divestment from investments linked to industries or practices associated with harm. The ACF toolkit suggests that this divestment can include reallocating funds to impact investments benefiting affected communities.
The toolkit was developed collaboratively with a reference group of ACF members and non-member subject matter experts and VWV is proud to have been involved in this. It was commissioned with support from Barrow Cadbury Trust.
Further information about ACF’s work on this topic can be found on their website.