National Lottery Community Fund senior manager to lead environmental charity

The Environmental Funders Network has appointed Nick Gardner, head of climate action at the National Lottery Community Fund, as its next executive director.

Gardner will take up the reins at the environmental philanthropy charity in late February.

He is the long-term successor to Florence Miller, who stepped down in September after 12 years with the charity to spend time with her family and to consider her next role.

Gardner will join EFN after five years at the NLCF, before which he was chief executive and co-founder of the community engagement platform ActionFunder.

Catherine Bryan, chair of EFN, said Gardner’s “extensive experience of working at both a community and corporate level and his understanding of the importance of collaboration to increase funding impact stood out for us”.

She said: “His leadership and board-level roles at ActionFunder and National Lottery Community Fund will enable him to further develop the work of EFN to make it even more relevant and impactful.”

Gardner said: “I’m hugely excited to be joining the amazing team at EFN and building on the legacy of Florence Miller’s inspirational leadership.

“As the central importance of protecting our planet becomes more apparent and urgent, so does the need to work together to achieve truly systemic change. 

“We have a great opportunity now to grow the number and range of organisations that see themselves as environmental funders, from individual donors to a wider range of trusts and foundations.”