Francesca Cignola

Francesca joined Nesta in August 2010. Since then, she has been involved in our work on co-production, including the People Powered Health programme and new forms of exchange and giving. Currently Francesca is working on the Innovation in Giving Fund, including managing a number of the investments from the first round of the Fund and helping to design round two.

Francesca’s background is in public services and socio-economic development in the UK and internationally. Before joining Nesta she managed NCVO’s 2000-member network on third sector commissioning and public service delivery. Before that she worked with the World Food Programme in Ghana supporting women's groups' income generating activities and explored developing links between school feeding programmes and the local produce markets.

She has also worked on community engagement, regeneration and voluntary sector partnerships in the London Borough of Bromley and she was involved in cross-European projects on social finance, education, sustainable transport and local economic development.

Francesca has an MSc in international development from the London School of Economics and a first class degree in International Political Science from the University of Trieste. She is also a trustee of Hope for Children, an international development charity.