Third Sector Podcast

Lucinda and Andy are joined by the organisational psychologist and author Dr Susan Hetrick to discuss the drivers of and barriers to workplace toxicity.Susan identifies unreasonable performance pressures as a key trigger for organisational toxicity. She explains the terms 'normalisation of deviance' and 'cognitive dissonance', which are the key drivers of a toxic working environment.She stresses the importance of training to equip charity managers with the necessary skills to foster an open and trusting workplace culture and the need for leaders to live and reflect their organisation’s values.Also in the episode, Andy gives his take on the findings of the latest Good Merger Index, which suggests voluntary organisations weathered the Covid-19 pandemic better than anticipated.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Hatty Evans, head of brand and marketing at Magic Breakfast, and Georgie Howlett, managing director of Stand Agency, to discuss the importance of language in appealing to donors and service users.Hatty explains how Magic Breakfast, which works to end morning hunger in schools, takes different approaches in its messaging to teachers, parents and donors, emphasising food insecurity, child poverty and academic attainment, respectively.She stresses the importance of centring the experience of children and families in storytelling and avoiding portrayals of shame, which, although often striking a chord with donors, are isolating and disempowering for parents.Georgie explains how the incorrect use of language can create unwanted siloes between a charity’s donors and service users, missing opportunities to deepen engagement and build supportive communities. She describes how the use of simple, humanising and equalising language has opened up access to mental health services in recent years by removing the stigma around mental illness.Charity Changed My Life features the story of a service user of One in Four, a charity that provides counselling support to survivors of child sexual abuse, violence and trauma.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.Read the transcript.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 and Andy dissect a recent speech delivered by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to charity bosses, in which he pledged to reset the relationship between the government and the voluntary sector should his party win the next general election. Senior news reporter Emily Harle joins Lucinda to explore some of the causes and solutions to burnout affecting charity social media teams.They hear from Paulina Stachnik, head of communications at Women for Women International, about how the charity prepares for a crisis situation on social media. Paulina describes the need to balance thoughtfulness with timeliness when responding to negativity and explains how Women for Women International is using ChatGPT to help identify and respond to trends in online interactions with the charity.Later in the episode, Lucinda and Andy are joined by Shivani Menon, senior researcher at the think tank Onward, to discuss the findings of a new report on the state of philanthropy in the UK. Shivani elaborates on the recommendations contained in the report to stimulate giving by the country’s highest earners, including streamlining the Gift Aid system and incorporating philanthropic considerations into financial advice packages.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Ashling Cashmore, head of impact and advisory at the Charities Aid Foundation, and Mandy Rollins, chief executive of Disability Solutions West Midlands.Ashling explains the six characteristics of a resilient charity, as described in a framework formulated by CAF to guide charities on a strengthening journey. These include effective leadership, financial and operational fitness, and a clearly articulated and understood sense of charitable purpose and impact.She stresses the importance of ring-fenced funding for long-term investment into organisational sustainability and calls for other funders to support resilience initiatives.Mandy describes how financial and technical support from CAF through its resilience programme has helped DSWM to bounce back from a turbulent few years. She identifies the charity’s biggest challenge as being the disconnect between its management team and board of trustees, and blurred lines between strategic and operational responsibility. Charity Changed My Life features the story of Kevin Massiah, who, thanks to a trip organised by the Willow Foundation, was able to take some much-needed respite from the everyday reality of living with Behçet's disease, a rare condition that causes inflammation of the blood vessels. Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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 and Emily are joined by Tom MacInnes, chief analyst at Citizens Advice, to discuss how the charity is using its unique position to improve understanding of the cost-of-living crisis.Tom explains how his team used client enquiry data to identify rising energy and private rental costs as two of the most significant drivers. He highlights the growing trend of clients approaching Citizens Advice with more than one problem and explains how the charity is using its service data to strengthen its advocacy work.Also in the episode, news editor Andy Ricketts reports on how squeezed local authority budgets are placing pressure on voluntary organisations, particularly those providing arts services.Buy your ticket for the Third Sector Tech Summit here. Submit your early bird entry to the Business Charity Awards by 18 January here.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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 and Emily are joined by Jane Ide, chief executive of Acevo, and Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, to discuss some of the themes and challenges facing the voluntary sector in 2024.These include the upcoming general election and its implications for the sector; the growing trend of charity closures; and opportunities for collaboration, both within the voluntary sector and with other entities driving social change. Sue puts forward her conviction that the coming year represents a powerful moment of reset for charities as they become confident agents of reform, while Jane describes her frustration with the lack of progress in tackling racism and inequality in the sector.Also in the episode, news editor Andy Ricketts provides insight into the findings of Third Sector’s recent Charity Pay Study, which identifies the highest-paid charity leaders. And Charity Changed My Life features the story of a resident of an almshouse apartment provided by the St John’s Foundation in Bath.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda, Andy and Emily discuss the leading stories and trends from the voluntary sector in 2023.Lucinda delivers an against-the-clock round-up of the year’s charity news before the three discuss their selected top stories. These include the closure announcements by Children England and Lankelly Chase - for very different reasons - and the success of the Big Help Out volunteering initiative.They share their nominations for the year’s strangest stories, namely the ongoing Captain Tom Foundation saga; tweets from the British Trust for Ornithology falling foul of Twitter; and the logistical nightmare facing the small charity that receives funding from 35 different sources.Finally, they reflect on some recurring trends in the sector’s news over the course of the year, from the appetite for and reception to campaigning by charities to the rise in instances of strike action and thoughts on flexible working measures.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Ian Joseph, managing director of Trustees Unlimited, to talk about what charities need to think about when creating an effective board. Ian describes the key qualities of a good trustee, from having an emotional connection to a charity’s cause to humility, courage and conscientiousness. He provides pointers on how to find the right trustee, starting with a charity’s personal links before casting the net wider, and stresses the need to formulate both a business and a moral case for board diversity to avoid tokenism.Also in the episode, senior news reporter Emily Harle shares some clips from her recent interview with James Needham, chief executive of Help for Heroes, in which they discussed cross-charity collaborations and the rising importance of legacy giving for the veterans charity. Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Miriam Turner, co-executive director of Friends of the Earth, and Victoria Benson, chief executive of the single-parent support charity Gingerbread, to discuss their respective organisations’ move to a four-day working week.Miriam explains how the change is helping to strengthen the environmental justice movement by enabling a more diverse staff body to further the charity’s cause effectively and authentically.She provides insight into the necessary preparations and adjustments, from streamlining meeting culture to ensuring effective cross-team collaboration.Victoria describes how Gingerbread, which is in the early stages of a six-month trial of a four-day week, prepared for the change with the help of a staff working group to balance employee wellbeing and sustained productivity.They also identify some of the challenges of reducing working days, including meeting congestion on core collaboration days and problems faced by some staff in adapting to new ways of working.Also in the episode, Andy and Lucinda discuss the implications of the Autumn Statement for the voluntary sector.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Julie Bentley, chief executive of Samaritans, to find out how the charity has rebuilt its volunteer base after it shrank by 30 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic.Julie describes how Samaritans’ more flexible volunteering packages aim to attract volunteers from all corners of society. She provides her views on the campaigning climate for charities, and the need for more consistent core funding to help the sector overcome the present financial challenges.She also stresses the need for a more joined-up and compassionate social care system to identify and assist people with overlapping needs, from financial to mental health support.Charity Changed My Life features the story of Duaa Falah, executive director for the Iraqi grassroots organisation Mercy Path for Women’s Affairs. Duaa explains how her involvement with Mercy Path and its sister organisation, Mercy Hands, has enabled her to become a force for good in her community.Also in the episode, Emily provides some background to Third Sector’s new podcast series, The Diff. You can submit your feedback on the first three episodes by recording a voicenote here.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email lucinda.rouse@haymarket.com for further information.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.Read the transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.