Sunder Katwala, the Indian-origin director of the independent UK think tank British Future, has been appointed to the board of the National Lottery Community Fund, one of the country's most significant public funding bodies for community projects. The UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed the appointment, with Katwala's four-year term running from August 5, 2026 to August 4, 2030.
Katwala joins the Fund's board alongside Michelle Mitchell OBE, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, in a pair of appointments made through a competitive recruitment process overseen by the department. Both new board members took up their roles this month, succeeding outgoing members Peter Stewart LVO and Stuart Hobley, who stepped down after reaching the end of their own four-year terms.
Katwala has led British Future for 15 years, building the organisation into a prominent independent, non-partisan voice on questions of national identity, immigration and social integration in the UK. The think tank's stated mission is to understand public attitudes and inform debate on issues that can often become polarised, working to build consensus around immigration and integration policy that functions for the whole of British society rather than any single constituency. Katwala, the 52-year-old author of 'How to Be a Patriot', has also served since May 2026 as a commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and sits on the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion.
His career prior to founding British Future spanned publishing, journalism and policy research, including leading the Fabian Society between 2003 and 2011, working as a journalist for The Observer, directing research at the Foreign Policy Centre, and serving as a commissioning editor at Macmillan. That trajectory — moving between grassroots policy advocacy, journalism and formal public appointments — reflects the kind of cross-sector experience the Fund's leadership said it was seeking in its latest board recruitment round.
The National Lottery Community Fund's board carries substantial responsibility: overseeing the strategy, governance and performance of an organisation that awarded more than 13,000 grants worth over £790 million across the UK in the 2024-25 financial year alone. Over the past decade, the Fund has distributed £4.6 billion through 118,000 grants, funded entirely through National Lottery ticket sales — a level of reach the Fund describes as equivalent to roughly 40 grants in every postcode district across the country.
Dame Julia Cleverdon, chair of the Fund's board, welcomed the new appointments by noting that both Katwala and Mitchell would bring strategic and particularly relevant skills to the organisation's task of investing in communities, bringing people together, building healthier lives and shaping sustainable, thriving places. Board members of the National Lottery Community Fund are remunerated at a standard rate of £7,848 per year, in line with the government's Governance Code on Public Appointments.
Katwala's appointment lands at a moment when questions of identity, immigration and community cohesion — the precise territory British Future has spent fifteen years researching — remain prominent in UK public debate. His new board role gives him a direct hand in decisions about which community-led projects receive Lottery funding across the country, extending his influence from research and commentary into the practical machinery of public grant-making.
For the UK's Indian diaspora, Katwala's appointment adds to a broader pattern of Indian-origin figures taking up senior public appointments across Britain's charitable, regulatory and civic institutions — roles that, while receiving less attention than high-profile business or political appointments, shape the everyday distribution of public resources to communities across the country. As the National Lottery Community Fund continues to implement its 'It Starts with Community' strategy, informed by consultation with 18,000 people across the UK, Katwala's board tenure through 2030 positions him to influence how that strategy translates into funding decisions over the coming years.
