Warner Music/Blavatnik Social Justice Fund Names 17 Grantees in First 2026 Docket, Investing Nearly $6 Million
The Warner Music Group / Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund has named its first slate of 2026 grantees — 17 organisations sharing almost $6 million across the United States and the United Kingdom. The announcement was made on Thursday, August 27, with six new grantees joining eleven returning partners. Music Business Worldwide
The fund, launched in 2020 as a $100 million commitment, has now committed more than $52 million to organisations focused on criminal justice reform, education, and arts and culture. It was established in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and has scaled steadily: by mid-2022, the fund had committed over $23 million across four tranches of grants.
New music-focused grantees in the 2026 round cover a wide stretch of the pipeline — from early training to professional development. Atlanta Music Project provides tuition-free music training and college and career preparation to students in under-resourced Atlanta neighbourhoods. The Brooklyn Youth Sports Club's VOICES programme (Vibrations Of Inner-City Excellence and Success) helps Black and Latino youth write, perform, and engineer music. Classical Pride, a festival for LGBTQAI+ composers and musicians in classical music, and Generator, a music development organisation for artists and creative professionals across the North of England, round out the new music additions.
Returning music-focused grantees include Black Lives in Music, which campaigns for equity for Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse musicians in the UK; Girls Make Beats, which teaches music technology to girls aged 5 to 17; The Hip Hop Museum, which preserves and celebrates hip hop culture and history; and the Jazz Power Initiative, which offers free and low-cost opportunities for youth ages 6 to 18 to immerse themselves in classic jazz repertoire through voice, piano, dance, and acting.
Beyond music, the 2026 docket extends into criminal justice and civic engagement. Freedom Reads, a new grantee, will see the fund support the creation and maintenance of 75 new prison libraries across the United States over the next five years — libraries installed directly in the centre of prison cellblocks. The Global Black Economic Forum, another new grantee, pursues economic freedom for Black and marginalised communities through leadership development, policy advocacy, and litigation, and will receive fund support for voter education among people in the criminal legal system.
Other returning grantees include The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the U.S. justice system; Civil Rights Corps, which litigates against unlawful jailing; and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, which marks five decades of work in arts, culture, and education. The wider slate also includes African Leadership Academy, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, StopWatch, and JULIAN.
Len Blavatnik, whose family foundation co-funds the initiative, said of the grantees: "We are honored to help talented people from all backgrounds turn potential into achievement." Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl said: "Music has the power to help drive real societal change."
The fund held its first annual grantee convening in June 2022, bringing together 27 grantee partners with board members — a practice that has continued as the fund's roster and commitments have grown.
