Third Sector Podcast

Lucinda and Alina are joined by Courtney Scott, head of policy and research at the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, and James Goodman, director of partnerships at the Local Trust.Courtney and James make the case for why all third sector leaders need to be active participants in debates on food availability and affordability, regardless of their specific organisational focus.James describes how food insecurity and food poverty are indicative of wider insecurity and poverty issues that community organisations are seeking to alleviate. Food, he argues, is a good place to start to strengthen communities and enable them to become better partners to third sector organisations.Courtney stresses the importance of charities’ lived experience to help influence food policy, and draws on a new FFCC report on how funders and communities can work together on longer term food security solutions.Charity Changed My Life features the story of Phoebe, who attributes getting back on her feet following the breakdown of her relationship to the advice and support she received from Gingerbread, a charity that supports single parents.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 Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, to talk about the need for voluntary sector leaders to contribute to debates on issues beyond the bounds of their specific cause areas.Craig explains how the Charity Reform Group is working to shine a spotlight on the wider contribution charities can make to society and give their leaders the confidence to engage in public policy conversations.He also gives his views on direct action movements for environmental causes such as Extinction Rebellion.Lucinda visits the Chelsea Flower Show to speak to some of the charities and designers behind the gardens funded by Project Giving Back, namely the Royal Entomological Society, the Teapot Trust, Fauna and Flora International and Horatio’s Garden, which was awarded best in show.The Third Sector Fundraising Summit is taking place from 6 to 7 June and will feature a live recording of the Third Sector Podcast. Click here for registration details.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 Russ are joined by Neil Heslop, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, to discuss how voluntary organisations can maximise their Gift Aid earnings.Neil describes the need to digitise a process that was first introduced in the 1990s, to make it quicker and easier for donors to boost their charitable gifts by 25 per cent and raise a potential £2bn per year. He calls on voluntary organisations to put time and effort into understanding the process, and to participate in an ongoing government consultation on the future of the scheme.Also in the episode, Russ and Lucinda discuss Third Sector’s reporting on the departure of Care4Calais’ boss. They consider the role of business publications in covering a story that has also attracted the attention of the mainstream media.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 Alina are joined by the diversity, equity and inclusion specialist Natalia-Nana Lester-Bush and Rick Dodds, creative partner at the advertising agency Don’t Panic London. They talk about the need for nuance in the depiction of service users in advertising campaigns by voluntary organisations working in the UK and overseas.They discuss examples of effective and impactful campaigns such as Tearfund’s recent appeal video shot in Burundi, which contradicts and ridicules a more traditional narrative of development support to poor communities abroad, employing comedy to create a more interesting and authentic story.Rick and Natalia-Nana provide guidance on how charities can avoid “context flattening” in their storytelling, such as by ensuring a diversity of perspectives in the creative process, whilst conveying meaningful messages to audiences that inspire action.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, Alina and Russ mark the Coronation by examining the royal patronage system and possible changes during the reign of King Charles III, with his vision of a slimmed down monarchy. They discuss the various roles of a royal patron, from generating publicity and exposure to removing stigma associated with sensitive charitable causes, and providing public endorsement of recipient charities’ achievements.Alina cites data collected by the voluntary sector consultancy nfpResearch on the popularity of various royal patrons and their influence on donor patterns, as well as a 2020 study by Giving Evidence on the impact of royal patronages on their partner charities.Lucinda provides information on the application process for charities seeking a royal patronage, which contains a heavy emphasis on aligning charitable cause areas with royals’ personal interests. And Russ explores the impact on charities when their royal patrons experience a decline in popularity.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 Russ are joined by Sarah Denselow, principal for effective philanthropy at the think tank New Philanthropy Capital, and Yvonne Field, chief executive of the Ubele Initiative, to learn about the need to adapt grant-making processes to better serve minority-led voluntary organisations.Yvonne explains why there is a need to overhaul the system to address the disadvantage of small, black and racially minoritised communities. She outlines how funding opportunities such as Propel and the Phoenix Way are seeking to shift the power dynamic in grant-making and stimulate long-term change.Sarah provides a preview of an upcoming NPC guide on how DEI considerations can be embedded within grant-making cycles. She emphasises the need to change perceptions of risk, away from the risk of money wasted to the risk of impact missed if the right charities fail to receive funding.Also in the episode, Russ gives some background to his report on the merits of charities sponsoring football clubs, following the recent collaboration between the NSPCC and Derby County.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 takes a look behind the scenes of Comic Relief’s grant-making team with Poonam D’Cruze, head of the charity’s poverty and injustice programme.Poonam explains the various functions of her team and provides tips for organisations seeking grants from Comic Relief to strengthen their applications.She describes her motivations for entering the funding space after years of working for small charities, driven by a desire to influence the funding landscape and create an ecosystem more responsive to the needs of the communities it supports.She outlines Comic Relief’s use of experts by experience to inform the grant-making process, and the charity’s commitment to interrogate what is asked of funding applicants, in order to shift some of the onus and burden of applying to the grant-maker.Later in the episode, news editor Steven Downes sheds light on the funding crisis facing hospices.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 Russ are joined by Jonathan Chevallier, chief executive of Charity Digital, and Angus Gregory, chief executive of Biomni, to talk about how the arrival of low-cost natural language AI tools has opened up opportunities for the voluntary sector.Jonathan outlines how ChatGPT could enable charities to deliver services more quickly and cheaply, from improving fundraising campaigns to content generation and information dissemination. He cites examples of charities which are already using AI solutions, including the Brain Tumour Charity, Unicef and Age UK.Angus explains how Biomni’s CharityBot uses language models to access information and carry out repetitive tasks, freeing up human resources for more complex work. He describes how conversational interactions enabled by AI tools help to increase accessibility of charities’ services, enabling them to identify users’ needs through their early engagement with online resources and refine their offering accordingly.Also in the episode, Russ gives his assessment of the Charity Commission’s leadership as chair Orlando Fraser completes his first year in post.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 Russ are joined by Sarah Hughes, chief executive of Mind, to discuss her plans for the charity, her views on the need to reform the voluntary sector and the state of mental health in charities.Sarah calls for bravery among third sector leaders in confronting notions of the role and place of charities in society. She identifies the heightened emotional relationship between charity staff and the causes they are fighting for, raising the risk of mental distress, and suggests ways of supporting mental health in the sector. She also discusses some of the challenges facing Mind, including the need to further the charity’s commitment to tackling racism.Also in the episode, Russ and Lucinda talk about the difficulties facing social care charities, following a warning by Leonard Cheshire about the severe financial challenges jeopardising its future.And Lucinda decamps to Third Sector’s C-Suite Summit to speak to some of the speakers and attendees at the event examining the future of 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 Andy are joined by Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of the Royal Voluntary Service, and Matt Hyde, chief executive of The Scouts, to talk about the Big Help Out initiative, which aims to generate excitement about the possibilities of volunteering.Matt highlights the need for innovation in charities’ volunteer recruitment efforts, such as using digital channels to attract volunteers from untapped social groups and communities.Catherine suggests ways in which the sector can maintain the momentum generated by the pandemic for micro community-based volunteering. She stresses that volunteering opportunities need to be mutually beneficial to volunteers, the organisations they serve and their service users.Charity Changed My Life features the story of Meera Wiggett, whose family took comfort in the support provided by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity when her daughter Maia was seriously ill as a newborn baby.Do you have stories of people like Meera and Maia 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.