People Inspired By Purpose - Purposely Podcast

Pat Duffy and Alex Wilson joined Purposely Podcast to share their founder story The Giving Block has created a turnkey solution for cryptocurrency donations used by charities around the world. ‘Involved in a nonprofit and want to understand how it could boost your income... or just want to understand cryptocurrency more, this is the perfect episode for you to ’ Mark Longbottom Co founders Pat and Alex first met at University with their friendship developing thanks to their mutual interest in cryptocurrency. Alex was an early adopter while Pat was working in a commercial role for the Lupus Foundation and saw cryptocurrency as a potential earner for his charity. Pat and Alex eventually launched The Giving Block in 2018 after seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin being donated to the few nonprofits that were equipped to accept those donations. With the cryptocurrency bull market of 2017-2018, millions of people around the world made a fortune investing in and trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether. Because the American tax authority treats cyptocurrency as property, these investors had a huge tax incentive to donate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly to nonprofits. In short, if donated directly to a nonprofit, they would not be liable for capital gains tax and could write it off on their taxes (similar to a stock donation). The problem? Very few nonprofits knew how to accept cryptocurrency donations or were even thinking about this new pool of donors. So Pat and Alex set out to create the only nonprofit specific solution for accepting cryptocurrency donations, Now, donors have over 200 nonprofits to choose from and it's easier than ever to begin accepting cryptocurrency donations. Alex Wilson has a background in management consulting where he worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop strategies around emerging technologies like AI, IoT, blockchain and cryptocurrency. As he went down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole, he began investing in and advising early stage cryptocurrency startups. Pat Duffy began as a federal consultant for pharmaceutical companies, focused on collaboration with nonprofits. He then shifted to the nonprofit sector, focusing on executive leadership and fundraising. Merging his nonprofit experience and passion for Bitcoin trading. https://www.thegivingblock.com/

Jake Stika founder of Canadia nonprofit Next Gen Men joined Purposely Podcast to share his story. ‘I had a really shitty mental health experience in my early 20s and came to understand that it was a masculine script that was harming me and I have been on a unlearning and learning journey, sharing that with people.’ Jake a former athlete and self-confessed jock, struggled with his own mental health. This experience led to unsafe behaviour and a negative view of himself particularly in relation to his own masculinity. Eventually a period of self-reflection as well as therapy helped Jake to understand himself better and offered him more positive thoughts about what it means to be a man. This journey led him to a life of purpose and co founding the charity Next Gen Men focused on gender-based issues related to the social and emotional development of young men. It focuses on the health and well-being of men where boys and men ‘experience less pain and cause less harm’. ‘I've had an eclectic career. You know, I played Semi Pro basketball, until I was the ripe old age of 24. I then retired and came back to Canada and got a job in oil and gas as a business analyst, which, which was just awful. That is when I made the leap. Initially working as part of a start-up ecosystem leading business development and sales for several start-ups. That was part of the catalyst of Next Gen Men.' 'I had been fundraising for the men’s health charity Movember for five years, and they had a call for proposals out for new ideas to change the face of men's health in Canada. I fancied myself as an entrepreneur and here was an idea and a funding opportunity, so we pitched!  Together with a buddy of mine from University, who had lost his brother to suicide and who was working with at risk youth we pitched this idea and we got the funding, $150,000, to three knuckleheads who've never done anything like this before’ Their youth programs teach boys to question gender stereotypes and assumptions. Their work helps build emotional intelligence, giving youth the skills and resilience they need for healthy relationships and positive mental health. How to practice consent, how to be a good friend, how to live with confidence and empathy, their programs engage youth in the big conversations they need to have. Jake was named one of Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, as well as having earned recognition from Ashoka, the British Council, and the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. He has spoken at the United Nations as part of the Canadian Delegation, and participated in the UN Women Safe Cities Initiative Global Forum. He is also a proud advisor to the Calgary Immigrant Women's Association, Canadian Women & Sport, as well as the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter.

Steve Wickham joined Purposely to share his founder story with the London based Giving Department. Steve shares details on his ‘carpe diem’ moment, pressing go on his dream company and job despite the uncertainty caused by a global financial crisis and challenges presented by a young family. The ‘for purpose’ agency endures to this day successfully enabling for profit companies to support nonprofit ideals. Steve and his team delight in playing a role in a better society. Prior to this he spent 10 years in the charity sector. As a successful fundraiser Steve worked for a number of charities in senior roles including The Prince’s Trust. Steve shares his passion for the trusts work and details on his funding lunches with Lord Young. Steve is also passionate about helping people to enter the ‘Third Sector’ (nonprofit). These experiences have given Steve a deep understanding of how companies and private funders can best support charities, how effective relationships can be developed, where value can be delivered and how the right support can deliver genuine and long-lasting change. More: Steve founded The Giving Department in 2010 with the clear vision of providing expert independent resource to help companies and philanthropists deliver real social impact and achieve their greatest charitable ambitions. Over the subsequent years Steve has developed the business, working with an increasingly wide portfolio of clients from FTSE100 companies to corporate foundations and private HNW philanthropists. Passionate about the sector, Steve is often called to speak on charitable issues and on occasions provides bespoke mentoring to help individuals build capability and impact.

Emma Turner joined Purposely Podcast to share her story Described by others as the doyenne of philanthropy and an expert wealth therapist Emma shares her views on wealth, philanthropy, giving as well as the wider charity sector.  Emma also talks about her incredible career from Conde Nast and Vogue to corporate giving for a respected American finance company and philanthropy services for a leading UK bank. Emma talks about her own personal battles in her late 20s ‘In my late 20’s I flew pretty close to the sun and I got a little torched’ and how this led her to turning her life around and working for a charity helping people going through the same thing. Director of Philanthropy at Barclays Bank with 30 years experience in the field of Philanthropy, she has learnt a lot about giving from all sides of the room. She understands motivation; aspiration; inspiration and frustration in equal measure “every client teaches me something new, so every day is different. You will hear that she is most passionate about 'Smart Giving', mainly because she doesn’t see enough examples of it herself. Her Smart Giving recipe is something she try’s to pass on to clients to ensure they know what to look for when giving and that they ask the right questions in order to get the answers before they give. Emma also talks about her own very personal experience and approach to philanthropy and she is President of her own private family foundation in the USA.

Nina Rauch is founder of the Pink Week campaign and social impact coordinator for Lemonade https://www.lemonade.com/, an insuretech company When Nina Rauch was 16 she founded her own charity, Pink Week, to raise awareness of breast cancer among young people. It is a cause close to her heart. Her mother, Dina Rabinovitch, the former Guardian columnist, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just 10. As she got older she realised that young women were not being targeted by breast cancer charities, despite it being the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.  “There was silence on the topic at my all-girls’ school and at my university.” In the four years since its launch, the Pink Week campaign has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds  microdonations (some as small as £3). Nina’s belief that charities’ focus on older donors with greater financial resources has led to a growing generation gap in giving. Thirty years ago, people over 60 gave about a third of UK charity donations. But now more than half of all UK donations are from people over 60. “This gap shouldn’t exist. My generation – Gen Z – is on track to become the largest generation of consumers by 2020, with up to $4bn in spending power in the US alone. There needs to be a radical shift in what non-profit organisations see as their target audience. In 2017, Nina founded her second social enterprise, a refugee organization, and moved to Tel Aviv in July, where she runs Social Impact for Lemonade, an insuretech company.

Bryan de Lottinville, Executive Chairperson at Benevity, joined Purposely Podcast to share his founder story Benevity’s corporate purpose platform connects over 650 companies to 2 million causes in 208 countries and nations. Using 20 languages and 13 currencies they are making doing good around the globe fast, easy and cost-effective. Users of the platform can give to the causes that matter to them and then companies can add matching donations and other types of rewards. The software also facilitates grantmaking, volunteering and positive actions, and embeds social action into customer experiences. Bryan is a 'reformed lawyer' who re-evaluated his career when his daughter asked him what he did for a living. He wanted to make the world a better place and make his daughter proud. He was a self-confessed data geek who saw the need for technology to help global enterprises provide better social and business returns. He tells us how the initial iteration of the software was not quite right, and a drastic rethink was required. In fact those early lessons learnt from the start-up phase enabled Benevity to become a world leader in cloud-based software powering purpose-driven business. Impressively, they are doing this for hundreds of leading global brands including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Nike, SAP while facilitating more than $2 billion annually to good causes. Benevity recently reached unicorn status with a valuation of $1.1 billion, welcoming significant new investment from London-based venture capital firm Hg Capital who recently brought in world-leading impact and sustainability funds, The Rise Foundation and Generation Investment Management. Bryan took this opportunity to stand down as CEO and hand the day to day running of the organisation to Kelly Schmitt who was Benevity’s President and CFO.

Rosie Mead joined Purposely Podcast to share her founder story Rosie combined her interest in music and dementia to start a successful social enterprise focused on improving the lives of vulnerable people. She shares her founder story launching UK social enterprise Musica in 2010 and outlines the benefits of listening to and interacting with live music for people with dementia, their carers and their families. She also shares details on her passion for music through her clarinet play and performances as well as her recent discovery of vinyl records at the same time some of the worlds leading artists like Bowie, Coldplay, The Cure and the Eeels. We talk the wonder of playlists also, both for their dementia work and her own personal love for playlists. Rosie talks about the challenge of the pandemic and how that negatively effected both their finances as well as their mission to help people in care homes (the worst hit by the early outbreak of the corona virus). However, she also talks about pivoting their programmes online to help reach people and take their brilliance to an international audience. Rosie is also engaging people online sharing favourite music. Musica’s work is underpinned by extensive research and Rosie describes how she believes more and more care homes will embed music into care plans Rosie is an award winner and has been named a Woman of Inspiration in this year’s top 100 WISE (Women in Social Enterprise) list. WISE 2020, in partnership with NatWest, focussed this year on how these stars of the social enterprise world had adapted to COVID-19 and showed it “who’s boss”. https://musica-music.co.uk

Today we have a role reversal with Mark Longbottom being interviewed about his dual roles as CEO of Heart Kids New Zealand as well as founder and host of Purposely Podcast. The interviewer is the impressive Dhivya O'Connor (charity leader and podcaster) who is based in the UK. Show notes “Less about egos and logos and let’s think more about mission and (those) whose lives we are trying to help and change... People first, mission always.” Mark has 25 years of nonprofit experience both in the UK and New Zealand, leading fundraising, events, service delivery, community engagement, and commercial functions in well known charities such as The Prince's Trust, MS Society, Terrence Higgins Trust, Auckland City Mission, New Zealand Aids Foundation and the Auckland Foundation. Mark is currently Chief Executive of Heart Kids New Zealand, a charity providing lifelong care and support to children, young people and families impacted by childhood heart defects or CHDs. Previous to that, he was Head of the St. James's Place Charitable Foundation for over a decade. The Foundation is the seventh largest corporate foundation in the UK and is the charitable arm of St. James’s Place Wealth Management. Mark is also the Founder of the Purposely Podcast, interviewing inspirational people. Purposely was set up to amplify the stories of founders and leaders of nonprofits, charities, for-purpose businesses, as well as social entrepreneurs. Mark’s hope is that Purposely will inspire other people to make a positive and lasting difference to the lives of people living in our communities and those who need the help the most. https://heartkids.org.nz/ https://www.purposelypodcast.com/ Dhivya O’Connor is a charity leader, who has over 20 years' experience across the charity and commercial sectors. Most recently, Dhivya served as CEO of Children with Cancer UK. She is also a Trustee and Chair of the Development Board of the international development organisation, Book Aid International. Dhivya has deep knowledge of the charity sector, with expertise in fundraising and philanthropy. She has also volunteered with NGOs in India, South Africa and Cambodia. A passionate advocate for the work of charities, she launched The Charity CEO Podcast in August 2020, whilst on Maternity break with her second child. www.thecharityceo.com

Sir Graeme Dingle joins Purposely Podcast to share his founder story In this enlightening episode of Purposely you will hear his theory on family violence and how this has led to poor outcomes for children and young people in New Zealand. Sir Graeme is a renowned outdoor adventurer and mountaineer, He is also known for his writing. Sir Graeme and his wife Jo-Anne Wilkinson (Lady Dingle) formed the Graeme Dingle Foundation which was set-up to improve outcomes for young people. They both pledged to positively impact on New Zealand’s negative youth statistics using the power of self efficacy to help make a positive and lasting difference. This episode explores their founder story with their foundation as well as his own evolution from an unsure and weak child to a confident and celebrated adventurer, businessman, leader, part-time builder and life time teacher and mentor. Sir Graeme also shares a wonderful story about getting things wrong with the late David Lange and his dear friend Sir Edmund Hilary. He also provides insights into Sir Ed’s personality.

Sonia Thursby ONZM joins Purposely Podcast to share her story and why she is motivated to support people with disabilities. "at a very early age, I saw the prejudice, the bullying, and the meanness against someone who was different where she was just my friend Cat. We would hang out, swap beads, play with dolls, but to others she was something to be stared at… I didn't think that was okay.. and that was all the motivation I needed to get into PHAB which in those days was physically handicapped, able bodied. she was the physically disabled one and I was the able bodied one. So yeah, for me, it's about justice." Sonia Thursby has worked in the Youth and Disability sector in New Zealand for over 25 years, with extensive prior experience in the UK. As a trusted ally to the sector, she has been able to put the voice of youth with disabilities at the forefront of every board she has been a part of, including PHO, Health Boards and Council Advisory Groups. Thanks to these vast connections within the sector, and across the public and government sectors, she has been able to provide a safe space for youth with disabilities to come together and co-create opportunities for themselves and their peers. You will hear how she identifies as both a kiwi and a Brit and how she wishes she could pick up all her family in the UK and transport them back to her home in Auckland. You will also hear about the innovation she is leading in the disability sector and how service solutions are being co designed between the agency she runs, Government and those who need the help and support.