James Banks

James Banks is CEO of London Funders. Since joining the team in 2017 he has grown the reach and impact of the charity, enabling members from across the public, private and philanthropic sectors to work collaboratively to achieve positive change. Through covid-19 he led our work to bring over 400 funders together to sign the “We Stand With The Sector” pledges to support community action, and enabled the London Community Response collaboration. He was recognised by Charity Times for his leadership through covid-19 as one of the sector’s 20 “Pandemic Pioneers”, and was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2022 for his services to charitable funding in London.

Why I’m involved 

Collaboration Circle responds to calls from civil society and funders who want to see a more equitable funding system, and who want to work alongside each other to test new ideas and solutions. The new space provided by the Collaboration Circle will enable funders to put their money together more easily, take more risk, and crucially work with civil society to make decisions at every stage of the process. This is an ambitious new step and we’re hugely excited about its potential for bringing more collaborations to life.