Third Sector Podcast

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Vic Harper, chief executive of the food redistribution charity The Bread and Butter Thing.Vic describes how the charity has taken a holistic approach to the way it supports communities by working alongside other charities and local authorities at its food distribution hubs. She outlines the process of identifying suitable community partners and explains why a one-size-fits-all approach to communication with such a diverse assortment of stakeholders will never work.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Leicia Feare, associate director of communications and campaigns at the youth empowerment charity Mission 44.Leicia talks about the charity’s first campaign, Nothing Happens in Isolation, which aims to promote inclusion in schools. She describes how Mission 44 convened partners to formulate a list of recommendations that the charity’s founder, the motor racing driver Sir Lewis Hamilton, presented to the Prime Minister.She outlines the measures taken by the charity to incorporate the views and priorities of young people who have experienced exclusion from school and explains how it has avoided tokenism in the process.She reflects on the value of having a popular figurehead at the top of the organisation while acknowledging the difficulty of developing a stand-alone profile for Mission 44 when media interest is invariably focused on its central personality.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here.Subscribe to the Third Sector Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Ruth Hollis, chief executive of the Olympic legacy charity Spirit of 2012.Ruth reflects on the responsibility of being a funder approaching close-out as Spirit of 2012 prepares to wind up in early 2026.She acknowledges the difficulties for charities seeking to ensure the sustainability of their programmes in the absence of long-term funding and suggests ways in which grantmakers can work together to reduce the occurrence of funding cliff-edges.She stresses the importance of built-in time for reflection during the course of a programme and explains how Spirit of 2012 is taking a different approach to its final report.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts share their thoughts on the announcement this week that Dame Julia Unwin has been named the preferred candidate to be the new chair of the Charity Commission.Andy explains the role of the chair, suggests how Unwin might be different to her predecessors and provides a summary of reactions from sector leaders to the prospect of her appointment.An excellent choice’ – sector leaders react to Charity Commission chair announcement.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse, Emily Harle, Emily Burt and Dami Adewale reflect on some of the top sector stories from the past month.Emily Burt gives her thoughts on the state of the sector in 2025 following her recent return from maternity leave.Lucinda shares snippets from an interview with Peter Sparkes, chief executive of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, in which they discuss a new five-year plan that aims to improve engagement with the charity’s fundraising and volunteering communities.Dami explores conflicting narratives on the health of volunteering more broadly and the key motivators for people signing up to volunteer roles.And Emily Harle reflects on what the recent closure of Manchester Pride says about how charities communicate financial difficulty.Listen back to Janet Thorne on the Third Sector Podcast: Cultivating a more flexible volunteering offer.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle discuss snippets from a recent interview Emily conducted with Andy Fletcher, chief executive of Muscular Dystrophy UK.As Andy enters his second year in post, they reflect on his ambitions to almost double the charity’s income by 2035, raise awareness for the organisation among people living with muscle-wasting and weakening conditions and cultivate a sharper strategic focus.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts  are joined by Laura Kerby, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK. Laura outlines the due diligence conducted by the charity to try to alleviate concerns about its partnership with the gambling company Paddy Power, which has allowed it to deliver live-saving interventions to men at risk of prostate cancer.She describes the complexities of engaging with political parties such as Reform UK, whose policies are often at odds with the charity’s priorities but who nonetheless need to be factored into its influencing work.She explains how Prostate Cancer UK is working to keep prostate cancer in the spotlight, through bold and ambitious programming, working with celebrity ambassadors and clearly demonstrating its impact.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by the civil society consultant Alex Evans to talk about the role of freelancers in the charity workforce.They discuss the findings of a survey by the freelancer platform Blume, from the pros of flexibility and autonomy reported by self-employed workers, to feelings of uncertainty and the fact that more than a fifth of respondents began freelancing as a result of redundancy.Alex shares his perspective on the push and pull factors that lead charity professionals to leave full-time employment, including his view that some people are forced to take on uncertainty because of structural inequalities, including the gender pay gap. They also hear from Georgie Moseley, chief executive of the cancer charity Help Harry Help Others, about why her organisation has opted to contract a majority of its workers on a freelance basis.Read Alex’s blog, Barely Civil Society.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse, Andy Ricketts, Emily Harle and Dami Adewale reflect on some recent voluntary sector news.Emily shares snippets from an interview with Breast Cancer Now’s chief executive Claire Rowney, in which she articulates her vision to shift the organisation from a medium to a large charity mindset, accompanied by a £40m annual revenue uplift.Dami asks what the move by several charities to distance themselves from the Duchess of York in the light of Jeffrey Epstein-related revelations says about royal patronages.And Lucinda talks about some of the different ways that charities are approaching enterprise in a bid to diversify their income streams and utilise their assets in new ways.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Helen McShane, director of research, innovation and systems change at Young Lives vs Cancer.Helen explains how Young Lives vs Cancer came to launch an innovation lab, with the aim of using its assets as a trusted charity brand to support the development of early stage business ventures that align with its mission of supporting children and young people with cancer.She describes the challenges associated with carving out time and space to work on long-term innovative solutions as a charity supporting the immediate and urgent needs of people in crisis.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.