Our Leadership Team

 
 

This is a 100% volunteer organisation and we are so grateful to the team who make it possible for us to grant 100% of member donations to the selected charities each year.

 
 

Lani Martin
Trustee & Co-Founder

 
 

Aniela Shuckburgh
Membership Lead

Sabine Chatin
Trustee, Grants & Finance Lead

Saloni Thakrar
Grants & Impact

Staci Arnovitz
Grants & Impact

 

Lilly Ladjevardi
Impactship Program Co-Lead

Kate Fanning
Impactship Program Co-Lead

Isabelle Bourrette
Impact Student Program Co-Lead

Benedicte de Nonneville
Impact Student Program Co-Lead

 

Jasmine Awad
Case Study Author

Emma Ackerman
Advisor

Alphonsine Kabagabo
Advisor

Carmen González Barreda
Advisor

 

Erica Wax, TRUSTEE & Co-Founder

Erica’s experience spans politics, the private sector and non-profit organizations. She has a life-long passion for providing skills and opportunities to young people so that they can realise their potential, and also for helping to empower women and girls. While in Global Debt Markets at Merrill Lynch, Erica co-founded and ran a charity in NYC called Girls Career Workshop, Ltd. She has worked on a number of political campaigns in the U.S. - from Mayoral to Presidential. Erica was a very active Governor at Ark Elvin Academy in Wembley from 2015 to 2021. She is also a Trustee of The Sutton Trust, UK Board Member of Room to Read and on the Harvard Kennedy School Global Policy Council.


Lani has extensive experience in finance, including 12 years in investment banking with Merrill Lynch and Banc of America Securities, 4 years with PwC, and more recently, as an active private equity investor and advisor. Lani has had a consistent commitment to charities that support children’s health and education globally. Lani is a Co-Chair at Seeds of Peace UK and serves on the Global Leadership Council of Seeds of Peace. She is also a member of the Ivey Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business, a founding member and on the committee for Ivey Women Investing in Leadership (IWIL), and on the Western University UK Advisory Board. 


Lani and Erica co-founded ILC driven by a shared belief that all women and girls should have the opportunity to thrive. They lead the organisation day-to-day, setting strategy, managing partnerships and new initiatives, participating in the grants process, and working closely with Leads across membership, events, finance, grants, and impact.


 

Aniela has worked in the not-for-profit sector in the UK and US for over 25 years, primarily in the youth and education sector. Her experience has focussed on high-level strategic fundraising for organisations including the Harvard Business School, City Year UK and The University of Cambridge, where she was part of the senior management team responsible for delivering the University's £1 billion 800th Anniversary Campaign. Aniela is Chair of Magic Breakfast, Chair of Buttle UK (a grant-making organisation supporting children and young people living in poverty and crisis), serves on the Board of British Youth Music Theatre and regularly volunteers for Little Village Camden.

Aniela is a founding member of ILC and joined the leadership team in 2020. Aniela is responsible for overseeing membership communications and managing individual member status as well as safeguarding member information.  



Elisabeth Ayvazian, Grants Lead

Elisabeth Ayvazian is a social finance professional with over 20 years’ experience supporting mission-driven organisations at the intersection of impact and finance. She has worked on both sides of the funding table - both as a funder, carrying out due diligence on not-for-profits and social enterprises, and alongside organisations themselves, helping them become investment-ready and better positioned to achieve their missions. 

Elisabeth is a founding member of ILC, where she led the development of the Collective’s theory of change, impact framework and grant-making processes. As Grants Lead, she works closely with a team of volunteer grant assessors to support thoughtful, evidence-led funding decisions that benefit marginalised women and girls in London.



Michele Campbell, Events Lead

Michele brings over 15 years’ experience in senior roles across events and hospitality in the UK and Canada, working with renowned brands including Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and the Marriott Group. Michele holds a degree in Art History and has recently launched a company called URS+LINLEY which partners with established British painters to manage exhibitions and related projects. In addition, she has collaborated with leading fashion brands to coordinate events focused on sustainability, ethical sourcing and responsible production. Michele is passionate about bringing people together and creating environments that spark meaningful conversations and connections. 

A founding member of Impact London Collective, Michele joined the leadership team in 2020 and leads on all event planning and logistics, ensuring the smooth delivery of ILC’s key moments throughout the year. 



Sabine has a broad range of experience in Finance, starting with 15 years in Capital Markets as a Fixed income trader, three years involved in the financing of renewable energy projects, and the past five years on venture investing for a Family Office. Since the Grenfell fire in 2017, Sabine has been dedicating her spare time helping her London community through her work with the fundraising team at Rugby Portobello Trust Charity. 

Sabine is a founding member of ILC and a member of the leadership team since 2020. Sabine is an integral part of the grants team supporting with financial due diligence, is responsible for budgeting and finance of the organisation and overall governance as a Trustee. 



Saloni is committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of young people. Saloni is Co-Chair of Seeds of Peace UK, part of a global organisation supporting young people to lead across difference and conflict, and Co-Founder of LMK (Let Me Know), which equips young people to build healthy, respectful relationships. Saloni currently serves as a Trustee of Brook Young People, supporting young people’s sexual health and wellbeing, and as Development Advisor at Magic Breakfast. Her previous public roles include Chair of Healthwatch Camden and Co-Chair of the Camden Patient and Public Engagement Group.

Saloni is a founding member of ILC and joined its leadership team in 2024, contributing to charity due diligence and grantee engagement. She brings extensive experience in health and social care, safeguarding, and charity governance, with an interest in trauma-informed approaches.



Staci brings a strong background in business strategy, finance, and operations, having held leadership roles within large global organisations, including nearly a decade at American Express. She has since worked as an independent consultant in both the private and non-profit sectors, and currently manages an international medical start-up, which she helped launch in 2024. She has served on the board of the GeoSentinel Foundation, a global health initiative aimed at preventing the spread of infectious disease, and is active in several other charities through hands-on work and advisory roles.

Staci is a founding member of ILC and has been on the leadership team since 2020. She is committed to supporting charities focused on women and girls and has been instrumental in charity due diligence and grantee engagement since the early years of ILC.

 

Impactship Programme Co-Leads

Lilly has experience in a diverse range of fields, from curating world music, building and running a talent studio for a fast growing new media start up and launching a UK based youth leadership program for an international charity. Lilly also created the YouTube ‘haulternatives’ campaign in 2016 promoting alternatives to fast fashion. More recently Lilly founded a small creative design studio while simultaneously taking a degree in Process Oriented Psychotherapy.


Kate has a diverse professional background spanning the arts, academia, and the social justice sector, including work with the international NGOs supporting human rights, peacebuilding, and environmental grassroots initiatives. Her experience focuses on outreach, engagement, education, youth leadership, and organisational development, contributing to advocacy, public participation, and social impart initiatives addressing global justice and social issues. 

 

Impact Student Programme (powered by Big Give) Co-Leads 

Isabelle began a career in finance in Paris before moving to London. Isabelle shares her time between her family, consulting and her pro bono work. She is passionate about trends and technologies transforming society. Isabelle has been doing advisory work in EdTech (education and technology). She has worked pro bono at the Prince’s Trust and currently with Medecins du Monde UK. 

Benedicte began her career in corporate finance before co-creating a private club in London focused on art, current affairs, business and luxury. She is a strong believer in education and has been for 5 years on the board of the literacy charity Room to Read and is an ambassador for The Royal Academy of Arts School.

 
 

Team Members

 
 

Grants Team 2026

Valerie Besancon

Valerie has extensive experience in corporate finance advisory roles in a variety of institutions, from Goldman Sachs to the multilateral development bank EBRD, and more recently a boutique M&A advisory firm specialised in information services and B2B media. She is also a trustee of the music education charity Apollo Music Projects. A keen pianist, she volunteers and supports young talented musicians in the London Firebird Orchestra.


Andrea Dantas, Member Engagement

Bio to follow.



Bio to follow.



Alphonsine is a freelance consultant, a trustee, and an experienced charity leader with more than 20 years of international experience working on women’s rights, refugee protection, youth empowerment, and grassroots mobilisation. She previously served as Director of Women for Refugee Women, where she led the organisation through a period of strategic change and strengthened its advocacy to end the detention and destitution of women seeking asylum. Earlier in her career, Alphonsine held senior roles with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, supporting youth leadership and peacebuilding programmes across Africa. She is passionate about gender equality and amplifying the voices of women with lived experience.  


Olivia Gillan

Olivia has spent most of her career in strategy consulting, notably at PwC where she was a Partner specialising in the retail/leisure/consumer sectors. She is now focused on the not-for-profit sector. Olivia is the Chair of two charities - London based baby bank group Little Village, and Rosa, the UK-wide funder of women and girls organisations. She was previously Deputy Chair of Switchback, a Trustee of the Mark Anthony Trust and an interview coach at Smart Works. Olivia also serves as a Magistrate in the adult criminal court in London.

Jasmine Awad is the CEO of Unseen Tours, a social enterprise that trains people with lived experience of homelessness to become walking tour guides across London. A social impact strategist at heart, Jasmine brings a blend of rigorous thinking and creative instinct to her work. Her career spans non-profits, philanthropy, and purpose-driven business, including her time as an Advisor at I.G. Advisors, where she worked with organisations globally on fundraising strategy, theory of change, and impact measurement. Rooted in a multicultural and multilingual background, Jasmine is drawn to work that connects global ideas with local action, and to the spaces where inclusion, creativity, and community intersect. She is particularly passionate about shifting power and reshaping the narratives that determine whose voices get heard.

As a member of the Impact London Collective, she brings that same lens to the collective's mission: backing the organisations and leaders too often overlooked by traditional philanthropy.

Carmen is the CEO of the WONDER Foundation, an international charity that works with grassroots partners across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America to support women and girls to move out of poverty through education, mentoring, and access to dignified work. Under her leadership, WONDER has expanded programmes that combine vocational training, mentoring, and employability support to help women build sustainable livelihoods.

Earlier in her career, Carmen worked in youth development and community initiatives in London. While at HAVCO, she advised, trained and supported  over 500charities on fundraising, financial management, governance, and evaluation, helping organisations strengthen their operations and collectively raise more than £20 million for the voluntary sector in the London Borough of Haringey.

Carmen has long been involved with the Baytree Centre in London. She was part of the early work that helped establish the organisation and has remained involved for over 35 years as a volunteer and collaborator supporting programmes for women and girls. She is a frequent speaker on mentoring, leadership, and women’s economic empowerment.

 

Leadership Team Alumni

Vanessa Boz

Vanessa’s professional background is a mix of business and creative roles, ranging from the finance industry, covering emerging and European markets, to fashion and travel. She launched, and subsequently sold, a company organising trade shows in NY and London. Vanessa developed a digital platform to connect travellers with non-profit organisations and social enterprises doing good on the ground, called The Generous Traveler, and writes a blog - BozAround. 

Liz Forgash

Liz’s professional background includes various roles in Human Resources in both the financial and charity sectors. Most recently, Liz was Head of Volunteer Development for Mental Health Innovations, a London non-profit tasked with creating digital solutions to help address the growing mental health crisis. Liz was involved in the recent launch of the UK crisis text line, Shout. Liz has been an active volunteer, including with the Crisis Text Line, Anna Freud Centre, Impetus and the American School in London’s Community Service group.

Zipporah Kissi

Zipporah has over 15 years of experience across the education, careers and youth charity sector. She has played an instrumental part in empowering young people to recognise their leadership capabilities via community engagement and driven innovative change to support long-term sustainability while creating environments that have solid foundations in their teams, skills and overall vision. Zipporah is currently completing her MBA with the intent of taking on a leadership role in the values-driven charity sector.

Strategic Advisor
Stephanie Mills

With a post-graduate degree in not-for-profit management, Stephanie served not-for-profit organisations in various roles ranging from public relations to board member. Her strong organisational and project management skills compliment her ongoing interests in community, climate change and social entrepreneurship. Stephanie is passionate about exploring the power of the individual to engage impactful investment as a catalyst for change. She is a member of the Environmental Funders Network and granting partner of Groundwork London’s Our Space Awards. She has been a member of Impact London Collective since 2023. 

Joanna Riley 

Joanna began her career in consulting in New York and then joined Goldman Sachs, where she worked in the Securities Division in New York and London. She was most recently the Interim Executive Director for Facing History and Ourselves UK, for which she is now on the UK Advisory Board. Joanna also served on the UK Advisory Board for Room to Read for the last three years. 

Fancy Sinantha

Fancy is an experienced senior leader with a broad range of skills and experience spanning policy, research and practice in the UK and USA. She is currently an Advisor (previously Director of Development/Board Director) at TSIP, Founder/Director of a social impact start-up called The Dot & The Line, Angel Investor/Board Observer at PropElle Network, a Board Director/Governor at The Portal Trust. Fancy is interested in how social innovation, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and social investment (combined with continuous learning and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles) might facilitate positive social change; especially in education, health, and migration/refugee related areas.


EFROT WEISS

Efrot has coached and advised senior executives and their teams in navigating cultural differences for more than 15 years. In Tokyo, she facilitated board retreats for non-profit organisations focused on mental health, education and community volunteering. She also launched and ran a speaker series designed to help women thrive through life's challenges and opportunities. She began her career as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers working in their London, Tokyo and NYC offices. She has also been involved in cultural groups where she organises events. 

 

PAST GRANTS TEAM MEMBERS

Isabelle Bourrette

See Impact Student Programme Co-Leads above for bio.

Diane Feeney

Diane Feeney is currently working with 9kitchens, a new catering social enterprise based in Northwest London employing and upskilling migrant women in the food industry. She is also co-chair of the Board of Equality Now, a global NGO that works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world. Diane was the founder and owner of a small social enterprise when she was based in San Jose, Costa Rica, that manufactured and sold healthy snacks and employed low-income women. Diane Feeney was also a Director of the French American Charitable Trust (FACT) a family charitable Trust that sunset in 2012 after distributing $59 million in grants over 18 years. She currently lives in London with her husband and two of her children.

Louisiana Lush

Louisiana brings 30 years experience working in international development and global health. She has a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and held senior roles at the UK Department for International Development. She has consulted widely for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation and the Global Fund, advising Boards/leadership teams on strategic impact and performance. She sits on the Boards of the Gladstone Library and Families for Children - two UK-based charities.

Helene Soulanges

Helene began her career in Moscow and is an experienced leader in the financial services sector specialising in emerging payments. She has always committed time to support organisations focused on development in Africa and in the UK. Her curiosity to understand grass root issues has driven her to favour operational roles in the field, in contact with the beneficiaries.  

Diana Swartz

Diana has advised non-profit organizations and international charities for more than 20 years and has a background in anthropology, education and law. She started her career as a tax lawyer with a multinational firm, working in New York and London. Diana counsels charities on governance questions and international issues, focusing on educational and cultural institutions and humanitarian relief organisations in the UK, US and elsewhere. Since 2010 Diana has served as the Director of Governance for The Liger Charitable Foundation.

 
 

You can find out more about our mission, vision and model for collective philanthropy here.