Sue Davies

Sue Davies is the Director of the Bernard Sunley Foundation, the London-based family grant-making charity founded in 1960 by property and construction magnate Bernard Sunley (1910–1964). As Director she runs the Foundation day-to-day, leading a small team, reporting to a six-member Trustee board (chaired by Sunley's granddaughter Anabel Knight and comprising mostly family members), and sitting on its Finance Committee alongside the trustees and investment advisers. She has been an officer of the Foundation's corporate trustee company since 6 August 2018.

Her career has been built across the UK's cultural, broadcasting and grant-giving sectors. According to her professional profile, before Bernard Sunley she held roles at the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and the Illuminated River Foundation (the charity behind the River Thames bridge-lighting art commission), and earlier worked at Tate (Tate Modern) and the BBC. This blend of arts, public-facing institutions and grant-distribution experience maps closely to her current role stewarding a multi-million-pound annual grants programme.

Davies read English (B.A.) at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, from 1987 to 1990.

Under her direction the Foundation has continued a six-decade grant-giving tradition — by FY2024 it had awarded over £136 million in grants since 1960 — while keeping a deliberately lean operation (running expenses including staff costs were £373k, with governance costs of £49k, in FY2024). (Note: "Sue Davies OBE," the late founder of The Photographers' Gallery, is a different person and should not be conflated with this Sue Davies.)

• Philanthropic capital grants, not equity. The Foundation funds bricks-and-mortar and capital projects — buildings, refurbishments, facilities and equipment — that "deliver a real community focus or provide facilities to support those in need."
• Four funding categories: Community, Education, Health, and Social Welfare.
• Beneficiary focus: projects that "raise the quality of life and provide greater opportunities for the young, the elderly, the disabled and the disadvantaged."
• Grant sizing: small grants (£5,000 and under, the majority by number, decided monthly), medium grants (up to £20,000), and large grants (£25,000+, agreed at the three annual Trustees' meetings, usually after a site visit or a long relationship with the charity).
• What makes them say yes: an established charity (typically income under £10m — they prefer smaller organisations "where funding can have more of an impact"), a capital project costing at least £10,000, based in England or Wales. They are an unrestricted grant giver and do not require the charity to have already raised a set percentage of the target.
• What they avoid: charities with annual income over £10m; projects costing under £10,000; running/revenue costs rather than capital.