Ayo Roach is Senior Vice President of Grant Programs at Comic Relief US (CRUS). In this role, she oversees a $30 million high-impact grants portfolio spanning 40 countries. CRUS harnesses the power of entertainment and engagement to drive positive change on the critical issues identified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. CRUS is dedicated to supporting the well-being of children, young people, and the people and systems that support them, in historically underserved or marginalized communities across the USA and globally by investing in four fundamental areas: ​safe​ty, ​health,​ ​educated,​ and empowered​. These four pillars are reinforced through an inclusive strategy that emphasizes a focus on gender and racial equity, building resilience, and centering populations most impacted by poverty. Our work is rooted in our Theory of Change, which aims to break cycles of intergenerational poverty and move children and young people out of poverty. We invest in solutions that are inclusive of systemic, multigenerational and participatory approaches and promote long-term sustainable change. CRUS’ tentpole campaign, Red Nose Day, has raised more than $350 million since 2015, supporting programs that have positively impacted over 30 million children in the US and in over 38 countries. Ayo started her career in philanthropy with the David Rockefeller Family Office and worked closely with three generations of the family as a program officer and senior philanthropic advisor for ten years. In 2017, she launched her company GROW Philanthropies, a donor advisory and consulting firm where she advised foundations and nonprofits on philanthropy and impact strategies, corporate and foundation engagement, and board and leadership development and was focused on developing solutions via a diversity/equity/inclusion lens.Ayo is a trustee at the New York Women’s Foundation, the largest public women’s foundation in the US and serves on the executive committee as treasurer. She is trustee and treasurer at Moore Impact, the exempt entity under Moore Philanthropy, a Black-owned, women of color-led philanthropic advisory firm. She serves on the Advisory Board of Sankofa.org, an organization founded by Harry Belafonte and Gina Belafonte that is focused on issues related to injustice.