Our funds and investment approach

Our commitment to addressing Power, Culture and Inclusion requires us to ask more searching questions about how we align our investment practice with our vision, mission, values and strategy.

LEF was established in 2012 with the proceeds of the sale of The College of Law, a charity and private higher education institution, to the private equity firm Montagu. Private equity funds are difficult to trace and we cannot confidently say that these were ethically sourced. Like other philanthropic institutions we are grappling with how to move forward with greater transparency, accountability, and alignment with our values. 

We currently hold investment assets of around £280 million. We recognise that our resources stem from our position within the financial system and, as a social justice foundation, this awareness has shaped our investment approach. In our early years, we followed a conventional strategy focused on maximising returns. Over time, however, it became clear that this approach was not aligned with our mission and the values of our grant partners.

In 2021 we appointed new investment managers who have a commitment to ethical business principles. Through our work with them, we have learned that this is not the end of our responsibility but the beginning of a new approach seeking to align our investment strategy with our mission.

Our board approved this Investing for Social Justice programme in December 2023, with the end goal that all our resources, not just our grants, work towards achieving our social justice purpose. 

As of early 2026, we have been focusing on two main areas: 

• Strategic investment and engagement: driving higher ethical standards in the companies we invest in through robust company assessments, engagement and voting, as well as divesting in companies with consistently poor practice.
   
• Regulation and policy: working in partnership with other organisations to help shape an environment that promotes stronger social standards in the corporate world. We have pursued this through investor networks working to improve employment rights and tackle modern slavery in supply chains. 

Since our Investing for Social Justice programme began, we have observed growing debate about the effectiveness of Environmental, Social, and Governance approaches and stewardship. Alongside a rapidly shifting corporate and regulatory landscape, the traditional models of values-based investing we’ve been exploring have their limits in driving meaningful change in the financial system. 

In response to this, we want to explore how our approach to investing might better meet these challenges. Following an open selection process, in February 2026 we appointed Emilie Goodall, Bonnie Chiu and The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) as investment consultants, to bring an external perspective to help us test options and assumptions in this changing context, helping us move our ambitions and aspirations forward. This work will inform future decisions by our Board and Investment Committee. 

Emilie, Bonnie and TIIP bring expertise across philanthropy, stewardship, equity and inclusion, and systems-level investing. We’re working with them and our board to explore social justice investment options that align with our strategy and Power, Culture and Inclusion approach, while safeguarding our long-term financial sustainability. Any changes will be subject to board decision-making, and we look forward to sharing updates on the next steps of this work.