Esther has spent over 15 years working in the not for profit, social enterprise and business sectors, running award-winning campaigns, supporting enterprise and building teams. She founded the Social Change Agency in 2013 with a desire to combine organising, technology, comms and social enterprise to create a leading non sector-specific agency to improve movement building across the world.

Esther is a 2011 Clore Social Fellow, 2012 Winston Churchill Fellow and 2013 SSE Fellow and was recently placed in the top Women in Social Enterprise. She is a Trustee of the House of St Barnabas.

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Sapna is the Director of Operation for The Social Change Agency and The Social Change Nest. She provides support on all things operations, from finance, process and systems improvements, policy, HR, supporting product development and business development.

She has 9 years’ experience in operations and managing projects. She has previously managed research projects, including looking at a top down approach to advocacy of the Freedom of Religion or Belief across the Commonwealth. She has also managed project activity in Human Resources and Organisational Development. She has supported the delivery of leadership programmes, with a focus on supporting early career academics, senior leaders and programmes supporting the career development for women in science and leadership development for BAME staff.

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Claire has 15+ years of peacebuilding experience and specialises in intercultural conflict transformation with a regional focus in the Asia/Pacific region. They have worked on migrant and diasporic organising, documenting the stories of international women peacemakers, interfaith dialogue, community mediation, and design justice. Claire holds an MA in Peace Studies and an undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. They are restored through sea swimming, cooking, hiking and writing.

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Rachel is an experienced campaigner with a commitment to social justice and equality. As part of various grassroots and community groups she has campaigned on issues including austerity, reproductive justice, renter’s rights and menstrual equity.

She holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of East Anglia and is a great believer in the power of language storytelling in campaigning and movement building, having used her own lived experience to inform campaigns as well as empowering and supporting others to to do the same.

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Aggie is a consultant with the Social Change Agency with a background in value driven facilitation and movement building. Prior to this work she was part of the secretariat for the International Falcons Movement – Socialist Educational International where she coordinated thematic networks and led project work focusing on capacity building across the movement of movements. Aggie has delivered on a range of topics including climate justice, inclusive sex education, conflict transformation, peacebuilding and intersectional organising. 

Aggie is passionate about youth participation and empowerment and is the Chair of the Woodcraft Folk, a national youth charity that focuses on cooperation and education for social change.

Julia is a Communications Consultant at The Social Change Agency, where she advises a number of UK-based charities on their communications strategies, and leads our work delivering the UK Aid Match programme, a 5-year, £150 million programme run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Prior to joining the team, Julia worked as part of the International Development team at Portland Communications, where she worked with a number of nonprofits working on issues such as global health, climate change and youth rights in the digital age.

Julia has a passion for storytelling for social impact. She has strong interests in filmmaking and creative writing, and is currently studying for a Diploma in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford.

James is deeply fascinated and driven by the art of community building, from the micro of individual wellbeing to the macro of community cohesion. James has been exploring qualities that make individuals and communities truly thrive. Through his Find Enlight project (a multi-disciplinary platform) he has produced a series of community events, a handful of publications, and continues to build a community of interdisciplinary collaborators.

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Julz role as a community organiser stemmed from her natural skills in engaging and caring for others within her own community which fired up a passion to empower and support others, particularly those who are deemed vulnerable and may not be aware (for various reasons) of their options, rights and entitlements.

She has worked in customer related roles for many years and has developed a love and interest for talking with, listening to and helping others.

As a Community Organiser Lindon’s role is to build relationships with grassroots community groups in Lambeth and Southwark in order to provide them with ad hoc support, as well as identifying community leaders who would benefit from more in-depth leadership development.

He has been a Community Leader for the last 15 years and has further background in Psychotherapy, Teaching and Coaching.

Lindon is also the CEO of a CIC which provides health and wellness support and initiatives to all members of the Southwark community helping to improve their mental health, wellness and quality of life.  

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Eda is the Programme Manager for The Social Change Nest. She has over five years’ work experience across various nonprofits, ranging from grassroots microfinance programmes in Mexico to international projects aimed at testing alternative and more trust-based approaches to grantmaking.

She holds a BA in languages (French, German and Spanish) and an MSc in Development Finance. She is particularly committed to testing innovative solutions to social issues and ensuring a collaborative and community-led approach in everything she does.

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Grace is the Partnerships Manager for The Social Change Nest. Grace has had a diverse range of experiences within the third sector. From designing a new strategy to support young creatives to break into the sector, to running a befriending service for adults with a learning disability, finding better solutions has always been a key passion. She is currently completing an MSt in Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge alongside her work here. Her personal interests are that of mental health, LGBTQ+ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement, with a particular interest in intersectionality.

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Becca is the Project Manager for The Social Change Nest and has over seven year’s experience in community engagement throughout a variety of volunteer projects with organisations including the British Red Cross and the International Citizen Service. She is a liaison for Anthropy UK; a national event combining senior influencers and grassroot organisations to share ideas on how to shape our collective future. 

Becca has an MA degree with honours in Social Anthropology and a postgraduate diploma in Social Innovation Management which she completed in Brazil whilst simultaneously working with young women in a juvenile centre on a trauma-informed care programme. She was the coordinator for a youth-focused education Foundation in the UK before completing a Masters of Laws in Transitional Justice and Conflict. Becca is currently interested in social justice, gender equality, conflict resolution and peace-building.

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Saoirse is the Programme Assistant for The Social Change Nest. She joined The Social Change Nest after 6 years of working in customer service and hospitality roles. She holds a BA in Liberal Arts with a focus on politics and sociology, and an MSc in Human Rights and Politics. She is interested in sustainable, localised economic methods, such as Community Wealth Building. This interest was ignited when she volunteered for PPR (a Belfast-based human rights organisation).

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Shaurya has experience in operations and business development for startups and non-profit organisations. Her interests lie in advocating for accessible mental health support, gender equality and sustainable development.

She is also the founding director of a non-profit in India that works for the welfare of Veterans and their families. Prior to her role with the SCA, Shaurya completed her MSc in Development Economics from the University of Sussex and a BA in Economics, History and Literature from the University of Mumbai.

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Claire has 18 years experience in finance and business improvement consultancy in the public, private and charities sectors, in the UK and overseas. She looks after our finances and has played a key part in developing our financial processes as we have grown.

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Andy is our in house digital marketing specialist, ensuring that those ready to make change happen know where to come.

Before joining The Social Change Agency, Andy spent seven years working with changemakers across the globe. During this time he helped to transform a small charity into a countrywide social business accelerator, promoted a worldwide festival for progressive economics and rebranded a business centre into a hub for the community.

When not marketing, you’ll likely find Andy running, cycling or attempting to inline skate.

Anni is a philanthropist and Web Science practitioner. She is Director of Intersticia, a UK Charity which focuses on identifying, supporting and encouraging emerging 21st Century Leaders. A key component of this is to harness interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the interactions of technology, culture and society.

For the past two decades, Anni has been working with Boards, Senior Leadership and Management Teams to help them become more Digitally Savvy. In 2017 she created Brave Conversations which brings conversations around Web Science and the Social Machine to the general public of all ages, stages and from all walks of life.

In addition to creating Intersticia Anni has had various roles in the Arts (working with the Sydney Opera House, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Australian Opera), Government (as a Ministerial Advisor and Member of numerous Government Boards), and the corporate sector (leading research into emerging Web technologies for Fuji Xerox Australia).

Peter has over 25 years’ experience in finance and management consultancy.

He has worked with a variety of organisations including Theatrical Producers (presenting The
Reduced Shakespeare Company, Graham Norton’s one-man show, and plays by Mark Ravenhill and Nick Hornby), International Trading companies (equipment provision to the international petrochemical industry), a property management company, as well as firms of Solicitors and Chartered and Certified Accountants.

He currently divides his time between The Social Change Agency sitting as a non-executive director, a Wealth Management company, and a charity promoting development and equality of the Palestinian minority in Israel through the advancement of education and the preservation of culture.

Dimitri is an IT consultant specialising in data infrastructure simplification. His background is in management consulting and he has led several large scale software implementations for major financial services companies.

Dimitri has a keen interest in financial transparency to make sustainable communities and he setup the OpenCollective UK branch to help these communities. He is also a board member of OpenCollective Europe.

Dimitri joined The Social Change Nest as a Non-Executive Director when OpenCollective UK and The Social Change Nest merged. He brings his IT expertise and his knowledge and relationships with OpenCollective to help Nest and it’s communities grow.

Sally-Anne is a qualified accountant with over 25 years’ experience gained in a Global Financial Services Organisation who has consistently sought and achieved improvement in people, processes and performance. She is a strategic thinker who uses thorough operational understanding to provide excellent outcomes in deadline orientated environments. She is an experienced Non Executive Director, Trustee and Governor.

Chris has spent more than ten years working to support the local voluntary sector, raising millions in funding for capacity building and match fund programmes. Recognised across the sector as an expert on online fundraising for small charities, Chris regularly contributes at sector events and policy discussions. In his spare time, he volunteers with a number of local charities and runs an amateur football team.

Chris has around 30 years’ business experience fairly evenly split between the private and third sectors. For the last 12 years, he has run Zing, an independent foundation that supports early-stage organisations whose outcomes are focused on young people realising their potential. Zing provides seed funding, connections and digital technology guidance. Chris was also part of the founding team of Yoti, a B Corp whose focus is on digital identity as a force for good.

Jess has spent more than a decade learning how to encourage, set up, grow and finance social organisations – from charities to social enterprises, to campaign organisations to socially-driven businesses.

She is interested in ideas that disrupt and reform whole systems. By encouraging social innovations in this field, she believes we can create real change and tackle and prevent severe and multiple disadvantages.

Jonathan is the founder of Hubbub, Associate Partner at More Partnership, a technologist and a fundraising geek. He believes passionately in the power of digital technology to do good. He is a Winston Churchill Fellow, a new dad, will shortly be a school Governor, and plays table football for Great Britain.

Marjorie Isabelle is a fertility rights activist and social justice campaigner. She has campaigned successfully on many issues around the right to have a family, especially those impacted by medical conditions, access to fertility services and ensuring the Government reforms the way IVF clinics treat and market to women of colour. She also is operational lead for cancer charities advocating for innovative treatments to be accessible to all patients in the UK.