Who Is Involved

The development of the fund has been enabled through a collaboration between many people and organisations.

The fund has been co-designed by a range of individual citizens and campaigners, people representing community organisations, funders as well as those representing local and national government. This means that we have had the voices and experiences of a diverse range of people included in the process from the beginning.

The project was led by a seconded project lead working alongside a freelance team of facilitators and consultants between 2022 - 2024. The organisations supporting the secondment and hosting of the project play a key role. Around 100 people have contributed their resources – time and money - towards this development phase.

In 2024 the project moved to a new host organisation and a small team was established to lead the fund into its operational phase from 2025 onwards.

Read below for more information about the project team as well as the learning groups, hosting and secondment partners.

Project Team

  • Leah Black

    CO-HEAD OF REGENERATIVE FUTURES FUND

    Leah kicked off the development of Regenerative Futures Fund in 2022 whilst seconded to EVOC from her role as Chief Executive at WHALE Arts. In 2024 Leah moved into the team at Foundation Scotland and into the role of Co-Head of Regenerative Futures Fund alongside Aala Ross.

    Leah lives in Edinburgh by the sea, cycles her bike everywhere and spends most of her weekends cheering on her two boys playing in their football teams.

    She trained in design and has worked in a range of roles as a jeweller, leading arts and community arts organisations, in funding and in coaching and mentoring roles.

    More about Leah on LinkedIn

    Contact Leah: leah@foundationscotland.org.uk

  • Aala Ross

    CO-HEAD OF REGENERATIVE FUTURES FUND

    Aala has built a career that spans the third sector, starting in government and moving through the think-tank and corporate social responsibility worlds, before ultimately landing in philanthropy. With a passion for supporting communities, she has worked in multiple African countries co-building grassroots initiatives, focusing on sustainable development and empowerment of marginalised groups. Most recently, she was in New York, where she oversaw a portfolio dedicated to developing the next generation of African scholars through the lens of decolonisation.

    Aala is deeply committed to supporting and uplifting grassroots social change and finds purpose in working at the intersection of community-driven initiatives and education for empowerment.

    In her free time, she is either chasing her toddler around the Meadows or cooking her way through a complex cookbook.

    Contact Aala: aala@foundationscotland.org.uk

  • Andy Hyde

    PARTICIPTATION LEAD

    Andy has worked with communities around Scotland and beyond to explore how their participation in decision making and service design can be more meaningful and inclusive. He launched Go Upstream in 2017 to provide new opportunities for disabled people, primarily people with dementia, to influence the design of transport and mobility services.

    Andy has created spaces for local people to work with healthcare staff, artists, policy makers, designers, public health practitioners, transport engineers, coders, comic creators and more. 

    He lives on a hill with great views of Edinburgh, which makes cycling home more of a challenge.

    Contact Andy: andy@foundationscotland.org.uk

Governance Eco-System (from December 2024 onwards)

Find out more about our governance eco-system here

Oversight and Enabling Board

This group includes reperseantives from each of the organisations contributing to and collaborating on the first stage of the pooled fund. The group will evolve one more funding partners join and the Decision Making Panel is recruited:

  • The Robertson Trust

  • Foundation Scotland

  • Turn2us Edinburgh Trust

  • The National Lottery Community Fund

  • City of Edinburgh Council

  • Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

Early Decision Group

This is a short-life group brought together between December 2024 and April 2025 to support early decisions before the Decision Making Panel is recruited. The group:

  • Carmen Simon - End Poverty Edinburgh

  • Caroline Cawley - End Poverty Edinburgh

  • Mhairi Reid - William Grant Foundation

  • Khadija Coll - One Community Scotland

  • Satwat Rehman - One Parent Families Scotland and Just Transition Commission

  • Pheona Matovu - Radiant and Brighter

  • Liz Gadd - Freelance

  • Jovan Rao Rydder - Freelance

Project Team (2022 - 2024)

  • Leah Black

    PROJECT LEAD

    Leah led the development of Regenerative Futures Fund between 2022 - 2024 whilst seconded to EVOC from her role as Chief Executive at Whale Arts. More about Leah.

  • Suzy Glass

    FREELANCE

    Suzy convened the Funders Community of Practice as well helping across other areas of the development phase. More about Suzy.

  • Mhairi Reid

    FREELANCE

    Mhairi worked closely with End Poverty Edinburgh members group, as well helping across other areas of the development phase. More about Mhairi.

  • Shasta Ali

    FREELANCE

    Shasta started working with the Organisation Learning Group and then moved to co-leading the collective imagination programme with Jennifer Williams. More about Shasta.

  • Talat Yaqoob

    FREELANCE

    Talat worked with our Organisation Learning Group as well helping across other areas of the development phase. More about Talat.

  • Jennifer Williams

    FREELANCE

    Jennifer co-led with Shasta H Ali our collective imagination programme More about Jennifer.

  • Louise Mousseau

    FREELANCE

    Louise worked with the team and the co-design groups on theory of change, fund design and supported the development of the operational plan. More about Louise.

  • Steff Bell

    FREELANCE

    Steff advised and supported on hosting and governance. More about Steff.

  • Charlotte Young

    FREELANCE

    Charlotte supported with connections between the fund and key public sector partners and on monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks. More about Charlotte.

  • Viana Maya

    FREELANCE

    Viana supported the team with developing and implementing an equitable recruitment process for the Co-Head role. More about Viana

Learning and Design Groups (2022 - 2024)

Organisation Learning Group

We worked with representative from the following community organisations representing a range of people, areas and themes across Edinburgh:

  • The Welcoming

  • NKS

  • Canongate Youth

  • Passion4Fusion

  • Fresh Start

  • LGBT Health & Wellbeing

  • Lauriston Farm

  • Feniks

  • SEAG

  • Edinburgh Tool Library

  • All Together Edinburgh

  • Project Esperanza

End Poverty Edinburgh Members

We worked with representatives from End Poverty Edinburgh.

End Poverty Edinburgh is a group of independent citizens aiming to raise awareness of poverty in Edinburgh, influence decision-making, and hold the city to account. The group includes people with a diverse range of experiences including people with lived experience of living in poverty and citizens who care about poverty across the city. There are around 12 members who share a common goal that in order to make change, citizens must be involved and listened to from the outset.

The group were formed as part of the Poverty Commission - read more here.

The group are supported by Poverty Alliance - read more here.

Funders Community of Practice

We worked with a group of funders who financially supported the development phase, as well as local and national government representatives, who all got on board with learning together, from the following organisations:

  • The Robertson Trust

  • Foundation Scotland

  • Turn2us Edinburgh Trust

  • William Grant Foundation

  • Corra Foundation

  • The National Lottery Community Fund

  • Scottish Government

  • City of Edinburgh Council

  • Capital City Partnership

We have also worked with the following organisations at later stages who have supported the development phase outwith the Funders Community of Practice:

  • Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

  • Creative Informatics @ The University of Edinburgh

Hosting & Secondment Support (2022 - 2024)

EVOC

EVOC (Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council) has been the development phase host between between 2022 - 2024, hosting the secondment with operational and network building support. EVOC supports, develops and promotes the interests and work of voluntary and community organisations across the city. Find out more about EVOC here. And visit the Regenerative Futures Fund project page on the EVOC website here.

WHALE Arts

WHALE Arts team and Board have supported the development phase by seconding its Chief Executive to EVOC between 2022 - 2024. WHALE Arts is a community arts organisation based in Wester Hailes in South West Edinburgh. Read more about WHALE Arts here

Foundation Scotland

Foundation Scotland will act as the host for the implementation phase of the fund from July 2024 onwards. Foundation Scotland are Scotland’s community foundation working with communities and donors across Scotland. Read more about Foundation Scotland here.