NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

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. She has led on various projects, including Amplified, a grant and structured support programme helping cultural and creative organisations to use digital ideas to generate social impact; Nesta’s involvement in the RSC’s Audience of the Future project; a Creative Immersive Mental Health fellowship programme with StoryFutures looking at the role of creatives in engaging users; and Alternarratives, a prize designed to reignite interest in reading for pleasure among young people. 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.