ALEX PADILHA
Trustee
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Alex has been working in the charity sector for over 13 years, across a variety of roles. Her focus has been on grantmaking for the last five of those years. She is currently Grants and Impact Manager for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity, where she is responsible for developing a new grants strategy and designing grant management processes for a portfolio of over £4million in grants annually, across research, innovation, patient experience and staff support. Prior to this, she worked at The Barrow Cadbury Trust, on both the Migration Programme, where she supported the delivery of £5million emergency funding during the pandemic, and the Connect Fund, which has been set up to make social investment better meet the needs of charities and social enterprises.
On the fundraising side of the sector, Alex has eight years experience and worked in a variety of roles and charities, including the The Royal British Legion, where she generated £1.6m in income from Trusts and Foundations. Other roles include FareShare, where she was responsible for managing six-figure grants from major funders such as Comic Relief and the Scottish Government; and Sue Ryder, where she provided support between the Operations and the High Value Giving teams, identifying services for funding opportunities and vice-versa.
Her start in the sector in the UK was at a London grassroots charity, Carers Lewisham, where she developed and implemented the organisation’s first fundraising strategy. After leaving the organisation she was invited to return as a trustee to serve on the board.
Alex is Brazilian and her interest in the third sector started at university in Brazil, while she was part of the Junior Enterprise movement, where she supported the set up of non-profit organisations. She is passionate about the sector, including making it more efficient in demonstrating its impact, and more representative of the diverse population it serves. She is fluent in Italian as well as Portuguese, and enjoys going to the theatre and travelling in her spare time.
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