[ PEOPLE ]
Our team
We are a small team by design. We work closely with every partner, and you’ll know the people behind the funding by name. Here’s who we are.
Marie Paglinghi
Director
Marie Paglinghi is Director of NILO Foundation, where she leads a distinctive approach to grantmaking. In practice, that means accompanying charities over the long term with patient funding and strategic support, keeping partners’ expertise and autonomy at the centre.
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Her career began on the trading floor of a global bank, before she changed course to study international politics and move into the impact sector. Over the past decade she has focused on philanthropy, most notably as Programmes Director at Founders Pledge, where she led global education programmes bringing tech entrepreneurs together with impact experts and charity leaders around evidence-based giving.
She believes philanthropy can take on structural problems —including the power imbalances within philanthropy itself— when it works collaboratively, thinks in systems, and acts with courage and care.
She holds a Master’s in Global Diplomacy and International Studies from SOAS, University of London, and a Master’s in Applied Mathematics and Finance from Paris Dauphine University.
Vittorio Sandri
Programme Manager
Vittorio Sandri is the Programme Officer at NILO Foundation. He works with the Foundation’s partners in social and emotional learning and the wellbeing economy, supporting grant-making, shared learning and the slower work of building the field around them.
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Prior to joining NILO Foundation, Vittorio worked across philanthropy, wellbeing and community-led change. He led wellbeing work at a UK foundation, accompanying partners through due diligence, strategic reflection, learning and organisational development.
At his current role in NILO Foundation, he is particularly interested in how philanthropy can back trust-based partnerships, new thinking in wellbeing and education, and fairer social and environmental transitions.
He holds a PhD in Philosophy from University College London, where he was also a research fellow at Arista, an interdisciplinary institute that brings the humanities together with health, technology, design and institutional leadership.
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Where we are heading
Governance
Meet the trustees and chairman who govern NILO and steward our long-term vision.
How we work
How we choose and fund our partners through trust-driven, multi-year support.
Contact
We do not hold open calls, but we are always eager to hear about systems change initiatives.