Third Sector

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Louise Harris, chief operating officer of the homelessness charity Crisis, to learn about successful and meaningful approaches to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the voluntary sector.Louise outlines the importance for organisations working in the social justice space to treat DEI as a strategic issue as well as a people one, with accountability mechanisms included in monitoring frameworks to keep track of progress.She stresses the need for leaders to take time and create space to reflect and learn about DEI issues and acknowledge them as a collective organisational challenge, rather than rushing to find a solution single-handedly.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.

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Claire Gauci, public safety campaigns and programme manager at the Canal and River Trust, and Emily Rayner, senior consultant at the behaviour change and communications agency Claremont.Claire describes how a video intended to educate teenagers about water safety fell flat, prompting the charity to adopt a co-design approach involving a youth group in Wigan.She explains how the process led to a realisation that social media was not an effective way to reach the target audience for its water safety campaign, with young people expressing a preference for an interactive classroom environment.Emily outlines the principles of co-design and some common methods used in successfully co-designed campaigns. She suggests some cost-effective ways to embark on co-design in the absence of generous budgets.Also in the episode, Dami recounts his two days in court as the judicial review opened into the Charity Commission’s inquiry into Kids Company. You can find guidance about co-designing campaigns from Claremont 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.

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Okela Douglas-Norgrove, chief executive of Sister System, which supports young women and girls who have been affected by the care system.Okela outlines how Sister System has grown since its formation in 2018 in partnership with 17 care leavers. She describes some of the challenges of co-creating the charity’s strategy with its service users, including additional time and resource demands. She provides insight into navigating the often-complicated power dynamics between charity staff and beneficiaries, and suggests ways in which funders can better support projects that place a heavy emphasis on co-creation.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.

Acting editor Andy Ricketts and senior reporter Emily Harle are joined by Emma Guise, director of marketing and communications at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.Emma talks through the reasons behind the charity’s first rebrand since 2017, what it was hoping to achieve and how it will measure its success. She discusses how the charity worked to update its brand for a new digital era and reveals her top tips for charities of all sizes about to embark on a rebrand of their own. 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.Subscribe to the Third Sector Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Keith Wilson, director of income and engagement at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.Keith explains how depressed fundraising revenues during the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a major restructure that saw corporate, community and individual fundraising roles merged into supporter engagement officers.He describes how removing income targets and scaling back one-off, transactional donations, such as merchandise sales and the charity’s lottery, has stimulated a culture of engagement that has increased regular giving.He outlines the practicalities of this approach in the face of a £3.6m capital appeal to build a new air base, with external targets retained for supporters and the public.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.

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Mark Greer, managing director at the Charities Aid Foundation, and Charlotte Prothero, external affairs manager at Pro Bono Economics.Mark outlines the growing importance of major donor revenue to the voluntary sector and sets out the cause areas favoured by high-net-worth individuals.He stresses the need for charities to develop long-term relationships with major donors and to treat them as individuals, rather than a homogenous income subset.Charlotte describes the gap between the low tendency of wealth advisers to raise the possibility of philanthropic giving with their clients and the demand, particularly among younger philanthropists, to receive advice about making charitable gifts.Read CAF’s recent High Value Giving report 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.

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Sohail Hanif, chief executive of the National Zakat Foundation, and Taqwa Sadiq, presenter and producer of the BBC audio series Sacred Money.Taqwa explains how an individual’s choice of destination for their annual zakat donation can be influenced by the emotions surrounding their sense of belonging and home.Sohail describes the role of the National Zakat Foundation in collecting and distributing zakat among communities in the UK, with donations rising in response to increasing levels of domestic poverty.He suggests opportunities for collaboration with non-Muslim charities and stresses the need to encourage grassroots community support initiatives.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.

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Elliot Trevithick, principal consultant for charities evaluation and learning at the think tank NPC, and Annie Hinton, senior programme design manager at the youth support charity Right to Succeed.Elliot explains how being one step removed from a charity’s service users can present difficulties when it comes to evaluating programmes that work to change the systems surrounding social problems, rather than directly addressing their symptoms.He stresses the importance of a theory of change as a foundation to measure systemic changes during the course of a programme’s life.Annie outlines the challenges of evaluating Right to Succeed’s programmes, which support communities to give their children and young people the best possible start in life. She describes some of the tools used to monitor the charity’s work, including a shared measurement framework and a bespoke theory of change for each programme.They share their thoughts on how funders can best support systems change programmes.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.

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, to discuss the charity’s function as a membership platform for a particularly financially strained section of the voluntary sector.Toby explains how a reset in member relationships has led to hospices alerting Hospice UK to financial and staffing challenges at an earlier stage than previously, enabling his organisation to co-ordinate helpful media coverage at opportune moments.He identifies workforce challenges as being as significant as funding challenges, and gives his verdict on the Labour government’s interactions with the voluntary sector.Also in the episode, Lucinda and Andy hear from Richard Litchfield, chief executive of Eastside People, about new research into charities’ approach to environmental, social, governance strategy.Richard speaks of the importance of ESG in reinforcing public trust for charities, as well as measuring social and environmental credentials for corporate partners in the face of tightening ESG regulations on businesses. 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.