Sufina Ahmad MBE

Reporting to: The Chair and the Board of Trustees

Lead a small team of staff and Trustees to distribute circa £5.7m. of grants and social investments in the arts, social action and environment annually. Responsible for: making great grants; the management of our circa £145m. endowment; ensuring we have effective governance, team and organisational processes and practices; and ensuring we are well-known and well-understood externally.

Reporting to: Head of Corporate Strategy and Performance, Chief Executive and Senior Directors
• Led on the development and delivery of ambitious corporate strategies, relating to society, the economy and digital and physical environments – including Social Mobility, Digital Skills and Climate Action.
• Designed and implemented organisation-wide systems that for the first time ensured effective oversight of all 42 corporate strategies; directly supporting strategies on: Culture… Show more

Reporting to: Head of Corporate Strategy and Performance, Chief Executive and Senior Directors
• Led on the development and delivery of ambitious corporate strategies, relating to society, the economy and digital and physical environments – including Social Mobility, Digital Skills and Climate Action.
• Designed and implemented organisation-wide systems that for the first time ensured effective oversight of all 42 corporate strategies; directly supporting strategies on: Culture, Housing, Homelessness, Volunteering, Responsible Business, Philanthropy, Education and Skills, Employability and Transport.
• Designed and established a corporate performance framework for the whole organisation for use in business plans, strategies and activities.
• Recruited and embedded a very high-performing corporate strategy team; line managing three Corporate Strategy Officers, a Responsible Business Strategy Officer and a Digital Skills Strategy Officer.
• Ensured that strategies were well-formulated, aligned to the Corporate Plan, had the necessary resourcing and funding and opportunities for joined up working internally and externally were fully realised.
• Steered the design and delivery of the City of London Corporation's Corporate Plan for 2018-23 – including planning and managing ongoing and effective internal and external engagement and consultation. Show less

Reporting to: Director and Chief Grants Officer.
• Developed City Bridge Trust’s (now City Bridge Foundation) five-year charitable funding strategy for c.£100m, Bridging Divides, focussed on tackling poverty, inequality and disadvantage.
• The review was research-based, outward-facing and highly collaborative – involving over 800 key stakeholders from across multiple sectors in face-to-face meetings. Thousands more were engaged through online surveys and social media.… Show more

Reporting to: Director and Chief Grants Officer.
• Developed City Bridge Trust’s (now City Bridge Foundation) five-year charitable funding strategy for c.£100m, Bridging Divides, focussed on tackling poverty, inequality and disadvantage.
• The review was research-based, outward-facing and highly collaborative – involving over 800 key stakeholders from across multiple sectors in face-to-face meetings. Thousands more were engaged through online surveys and social media.
• Achieved meaningful engagement with staff and elected officials linked to City Bridge Trust’s (now City Bridge Foundation) trustee, the City of London Corporation, including through the City Corporation’s extensive Governance structures – supported by my being a member of the Senior Management Team.
• Successfully commissioned and then published five research and evaluation pieces to inform the strategy.
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Reporting to: Senior Head of Funding and Senior Head of Development
• As Head of Policy and Learning for the London and South East Local Team, comprising 14 staff, I improved the internal and external reputation of the team, by setting clearer priorities and implementing effective team processes.
• Designed and influenced the distribution of over £150m of Lottery funding – through programmes such as Building Better Opportunities (for which I fundraised £50m of ESF funding from three… Show more

Reporting to: Senior Head of Funding and Senior Head of Development
• As Head of Policy and Learning for the London and South East Local Team, comprising 14 staff, I improved the internal and external reputation of the team, by setting clearer priorities and implementing effective team processes.
• Designed and influenced the distribution of over £150m of Lottery funding – through programmes such as Building Better Opportunities (for which I fundraised £50m of ESF funding from three different LEPs), the Local Sustainability Fund, Women and Girls Initiative (WGI), Communities Can and Reaching Communities.
• Organisational policy lead for carers, WGI, the Living Wage Foundation Friendly Funder scheme and the Fund’s work, including its European Social Funds work, in London, Hertfordshire, Essex and the South East. Set up and chaired county-wide funder forums in Essex and Hertfordshire, bringing together local and national public, private and independent charitable funders in these areas.
• Became experienced in working with MPs, national Government and informing and contributing to research projects on place-based funding, sector support in London and the funding ecology.
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Reporting to: Senior Area Manager
• Led on the planning and delivery of two multi-million and multi-year supported living and outreach learning disability contracts, each involving 60 staff and local authority teams and services.
• Each contract met and exceeded CQC standards and achieved ‘Level A’ with Supporting People.
• Proven ability to turnaround failing and struggling services in six-weeks, so that they are inspection ready.
• Managed teams of 30 TUPE and non-TUPE Outward… Show more

Reporting to: Senior Area Manager
• Led on the planning and delivery of two multi-million and multi-year supported living and outreach learning disability contracts, each involving 60 staff and local authority teams and services.
• Each contract met and exceeded CQC standards and achieved ‘Level A’ with Supporting People.
• Proven ability to turnaround failing and struggling services in six-weeks, so that they are inspection ready.
• Managed teams of 30 TUPE and non-TUPE Outward staff and supported teams through restructuring and performance issues.
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Reporting to: Chief Executive and Head of Services.
• Set up 60 tenancies and services at the London Borough of Haringey’s first extra-care sheltered housing scheme – Trees – in partnership with the local authority’s adult social care and commissioning teams.

• As a Senior Development Worker, I set up bespoke and person-centred support services for people with learning disabilities and associated conditions.
• Dealt with new referrals, and ensured that all support services had the correct funding, authorisation, paperwork and staffing.
• Supported with compiling and completing successful Tender Bids for new service contracts.
• Key lead in developing the organisation’s marketing and recruitment strategy.