Fran Sanderson has been at Nesta for five years and has overseen the development of Arts & Culture Finance, which manages over £30m of impact capital on behalf of eight funders, including Nesta. She has led on various projects including Nesta’s involvement in the RSC’s Dream project, for the Industrial Strategy’s Audience of the Future programme Amplified, a grant and structured support programme helping cultural and creative organisations to use digital ideas to generate social impact, a Creative Immersive Mental Health fellowship programme with StoryFutures looking at the role of creatives in engaging usersand Alternarratives, a prize designed to bring the short story form into the 21st century with the aim of reigniting interest in reading for pleasure among young people.

In early 2021, to coincide with the UN Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fran spearheaded the launch of Creativity, Culture & Capital, a collaborative advocacy platform with international partners Upstart Co-Lab and Fundacion Compromiso, showcasing the power of arts and creativity to effect positive social change across the globe, and the innovative ways people are structuring finance to achieve this.

Fran started her career as a fund manager at JPMorgan, before spending some time travelling in a campervan and living off grid in southern Portugal with her young family. She started working in impact investment at the birth of Big Society Capital in 2012, and has a lifelong passion for the arts.