Rachael Takens-Milne will join the Foundation in June as Head of Programme Support. Rachael is currently Grants Manager at Trust for London and brings a considerable experience of the foundation sector and of work on the critical role of law in people’s lives. At Trust for London, she led on the Trust’s Safeguarding Children’s Rights special initiative, the Strategic Legal Fund for Vulnerable Young Migrants and its Modern Day Slavery initiative. She also managed the London’s Poverty Profile website and a research programme on the impact of the recession and austerity on poverty and inequality, in partnership with the London School of Economics. Previous experience includes posts at the Charity Commission, Citizenship Foundation and Lloyds TSB Foundation. She is a member of the Ariadne Funders Network Advisory Board and a trustee of Women for Refugee Women.

Head of Programme Support is a new post at the Foundation, designed to boost the senior capacity in the organisation to select and manage grants, to support funded organisations and to capture learning from our grant-making. Rachael will particularly provide additional senior capacity to expand the Foundation’s thematic approach, to identify and support the wider take up of successful approaches and to develop the Foundation’s next five year strategy.