The Connect Fund team is getting bigger, and we are excited to welcome Alex Padilha into the Connect Fund team.

Alex is the new Programme Officer for the Connect Fund. She will provide administrative and operations support to the programme, and help to maximise the impact of the Fund’s work through supporting dissemination and sharing learnings. Alex will be the Connect Fund’s first point of contact and will be supporting our grant management process, so you might be hearing from her regarding an application submitted or when information is required to support grant assessments. She will also be responsible for managing communications from the Fund and about the projects we are supporting, so please get in touch with her if you have any exciting news or calls to action that you wish to share. Finally, Alex will focus on the development of the learning community, either by overseeing our Trello board or creating interesting events, such as workshops and webinars, so we ensure the impact created by the Fund is widely shared within the voluntary and social investment sectors.

Alex graduated in Business Management and has 8 years experience in the Charity sector, where she supported small to large charities in their fundraising efforts, across the health care and social welfare sector, in organisations such as Sue Ryder, FareShare and The Royal British Legion. Alex started her career in the Charity sector developing a business feasibility study for a social enterprise, and further developed her career in Fundraising, supporting Philanthropy teams with product development and further specialising in Trust Fundraising. She was also a trustee for Carers Lewisham for over 2 years, in which she had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the funding challenges faced by small voluntary organisations.

Alex says: “I feel privileged to work for a respected foundation such as The Barrow Cadbury Trust. I am particularly excited to be part of the Connect Fund, as it is a much needed programme to strengthen the social investment market and make more organisations aware of this source of funding. I am looking forward to work with and learn more about our grantees and their fantastic and inspirational projects”.

I hope you will join us in giving a big welcome to Alex!

P.S.: we will have another team member joining in May, watch this space for more team news!