The National Lottery Community Fund appoints new England Committee members ahead of new strategy launch

The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, has today announced the appointment of three new England Committee members. Halima Khan, Kamran Rashid and Karin Woodley have been appointed until 1st April, 2027 and will now work together with existing members in deciding how National Lottery funding should be awarded to create impact for communities in England.

The move comes ahead of The National Lottery Community Fund unveiling its new strategy to 2030 (Wednesday 7th June) where it will lay out how it intends to invest in UK communities going forward.

England Committee members will play a key role in ensuring the funder delivers against its strategic ambitions and continued commitment to ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of its decision-making.

Halima Khan has worked as a policymaker in national, regional and local government and at Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation for social good. Previously Halima was Executive Director for Communities and Skills at the Greater London Authority, where she was responsible for adult skills, social policy, civil society, children and young people, and public health during the Covid-19 pandemic. She has also worked as Deputy Director at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office, providing policy advice to No.10 and Cabinet Office ministers on a range of domestic policy issues.

Kamran Rashid is founder and CEO of Impact Hub Bradford CIC, a locally rooted, globally connected social innovation hub and co-working space. Impact Hub successfully led a partnership to secure a £6.6 million social investment fund for Bradford District, which Kamran now chairs.

Kamran has over twenty years’ sector experience and prior to setting up his own social enterprise, he worked for Unltd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Common Purpose Graduate and is trained in both the Art of Hosting and unconscious bias and intersectionality.

Karin Woodley CBE is Chief Executive of Cambridge House, a London-based charity tackling poverty, social inequity and injustice. Karin has over 35 years’ leadership experience in social action charities specialising in the development of social policy and practice, diversity and inclusion and the delivery of community empowerment services.

Awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours for services to social justice, and the Lifetime Achiever Award at the 2016 Excellence in Diversity Awards, Karin is currently Chair of the Race Equality Foundation, a trustee of the Felix Project, a non-executive director and audit and risk committee member of the Ministry of Justice’s Office of the Public Guardian, and a core member of the Better Way Network.

The funder is also delighted to have reappointed Ray Coyle, who first joined the Committee in April 2019.

Ray is an executive director of Oxford Hub, a community charity, and was previously CEO of Auticon, a social enterprise and IT consultancy employing autistic adults as consultants. Prior to joining Auticon, he was a legal director at Osborne Clarke, where he specialised in impact investing and social enterprise.

Ray chairs the Small Charity Advisory Panel at the NCVO, is a director of the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Partnership and is a founding trustee of TREEZ, an environmental charity operating in Malawi. Ray has been recognised by the Social Entrepreneur Index as one of the top ten social entrepreneurs in the UK.

John Mothersole, England Chair at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “We are delighted to welcome Karin, Kamran and Halima and grateful for Ray’s continued interest and support. Their expertise in social policy, working with and for communities, and equity, diversity and inclusion is invaluable to our work and never more so as we bring our new strategy and commitment to communities to life.”

The National Lottery Community Fund’s England Committee is responsible for strategy, policy, planning and management of funding programmes in England. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed over 10,600 grants totaling more than £421 million in England.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk