Liz Reilly was previously Director of Philanthropy and Donor Relations at the University of Edinburgh; joining the team in January 2015. Liz moved from Seattle, where she was Director of Development for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, a healthcare provider (with strong advocacy and educational programmes) serving patients in 30 clinics across three states. While there, Liz received the national Planned Parenthood Fundraiser of the Year Award. Liz has also been a campaign director, a fundraising consultant, and a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching at a secondary school in Malawi.

A bit unusually, Liz developed a passion for fundraising as a consultant. By working with and learning from a wide variety of nonprofits, Liz saw how fundraising not only enables acceleration and innovation in mission delivery through philanthropic revenue but also provides organisations with insights from their broad donor communities which can make them more impactful. Fundraisers have important roles both communicating out (representing their institution) and communicating in (representing donors and other stakeholders); this virtuous cycle creates more vibrant and relevant organisations. Relatedly, Liz believes strongly in both the role philanthropy can play in advancing social justice and the importance of maintaining a critical eye on philanthropy and how it can sometimes actually reinforce social inequities. An avid and omnivorous reader, Liz loves trading book recommendations and engaging in heated debates on this and many other topics.

Liz's own giving tends to focus on expanding access to education; this has also been a theme in some of her volunteering, including her current roles as Philanthropic Advisor to the Cowrie Scholarships Foundation and as board member on UNICEF UK's Scotland Advisory board. Having benefited from the support of many female mentors over the years, Liz is also a big believer in women lifting up other women and is always up for a coffee, virtual or otherwise.