Maria Dumitrescu-Gherman is Head of Development & People at the Centre for Homelessness Impact, where she leads fundraising strategy and organisational development to support the organisation’s mission to end homelessness through evidence and systems change. She works closely with the senior leadership team to grow and diversify income across government, trusts and foundations, corporates, and major donors, while strengthening internal systems and ways of working.

Maria is currently focused on securing funding for programmes that test and scale evidence-based interventions, as well as building strategic partnerships across research, policy, and practice. She has played a key role in developing CHI’s flagship programmes and funding pipeline, including major government partnerships.

She is particularly motivated by aligning funding with impact, ensuring resources are directed towards what works. You can explore some of this work through CHI’s Test and Learn programme.

‍Before joining CHI, Maria held fundraising roles at Queen Mary University of London and Smile Train, leading multi-stream income growth across the UK and internationally.