Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts joined by Bekki Wilkins, special events manager at the Willow Foundation, and Sam Dimond, director of the event production company Spotlight Sound. Bekki recounts the challenges of organising events such as the Willow Ball and the London Football Awards in the face of inflated costs and lower corporate ticket sales. …

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Robyn Mountain Wade, director of income generation at Martin House Children’s Hospice, to find out how the charity recruited major donors for the first time to meet a £21.9m fundraising target. Robyn explains how Martin House engaged local philanthropists by inviting them to events co-hosted by their am…

Senior reporters Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Berenice Levenez, director of strategy, technology and transformation at Girlguiding, and Liz Gadd, environmental lead at the think tank NPC. Berenice describes how feedback from members that Girlguiding should be doing more to address the environmental crisis prompted the charity to deve…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Rebecca Linford, senior legal adviser, and Mark Ellis, head of communications, at the whistleblowing support charity Protect. Rebecca describes Protect’s role in the development of a storyline about whistleblowing for the BBC medical drama Casualty. She outlines the scripting process and stresses the need to be clear…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by James Dunbar, chief executive of the poverty reduction charity New Start Highland. James describes how the charity was able to move from being a predominantly grant-receiving organisation to generating three-quarters of its income through trading and contracts. He explains how he identified income-generating opportun…

Lucinda and Emily reflect on a recent visit to the RNLI headquarters in Poole, Dorset, where Lucinda met the charity’s outgoing chief executive, Mark Dowie. Mark identifies the principal challenges of his five-year tenure as having been the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and small boats crossing the Channel. He explains how his corpor…

In a session recorded at the Third Sector Conference, Lucinda and Emily are joined by Rhodri Davies, director of Why Philanthropy Matters, to reflect on some of the themes covered in Third Sector’s recent podcast documentary, The End of Charity. These include the rise of influencer philanthropists, such as the YouTube megastar MrBeast, and their po…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by David Welch, chief executive of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance, to consider how charities can effectively build trust with their staff, service users and donors. David describes the role trust played in enabling KSS to raise almost double its £1m fundraising target during a six-week emergency campaign. He …

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Liz Cooke, chief executive of The Hive Avon, and Kevin Barker-Lee, a people partner at Lloyds Banking Group and chair of the charity. Liz outlines the broad range of skilled volunteer support provided to The Hive, from fundraising planning to an annual visit from a florist. She notes that the most valuable skilled sup…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Denise Hayward, chief executive of Volunteer Now, which supports and promotes volunteering across Northern Ireland, and Margaret Starkie, partnership and communications manager at Volunteer Scotland. In a conversation recorded before the general election announcement, they discuss the trajectory for volunteering in th…

Lucinda and Andy discuss the road ahead for charities following Wednesday’s general election announcement. Later in the episode, Lucinda and Emily are joined by the strategy specialist Sharath Jeevan and Hannah Stevens, chief executive of Elect Her. They discuss the importance of inflection moments in planning an organisation’s strategic direction.…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Paul Streets, chief executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, to reflect on more than a decade of working with small charities as he prepares to step down. Paul celebrates the resilience of small charities, likening them to cockroaches for their ability to endure challenging environments, and sug…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Fola Komolafe, chief executive of World Vision UK, to discuss the charity’s role in a wider drive to integrate African philanthropists into the established global charitable landscape. Fola also provides her views on the merits of child sponsorship and the growing recognition of the importance of faith-based charitie…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Mary Rose Gunn, founder and chief executive of the small charity funder The Fore, to discuss the challenging funding environment facing small charities. They start by listening to an account by Jane Evans, chief executive of West Norfolk Carers, about the growing difficulty of securing enough funding to keep the char…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Holly Penalver, founder of Indigo Volunteers and volunteer development manager at ShelterBox, and Karolina Praskova, a volunteer at the education charity Climate Ed. Holly provides pointers for effectively managing the volunteer recruitment stage and stresses the importance of an induction to motivate new volunteers …

In November 2023, the finance officer of West Norfolk Carers came to a devastating realisation: after more than a year of rejected funding applications, the charity wouldn’t be able to stay afloat for longer than four months. Several months earlier, the Lankelly Chase Foundation, a grantmaker tackling severe social disadvantage and extreme marginal…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Matt Corbishley, deputy chief executive of Ashgate Hospice, to discuss the charity’s use of new tech solutions in its operations and service delivery. Matt explains why Ashgate Hospice encourages staff to experiment with new forms of IT and artificial intelligence, and outlines the benefits of a digital apprenticeship…

When The Times newspaper’s chief reporter Sean O’Neill broke the story that senior Oxfam aid workers had committed sexual abuse while working in the disaster zone of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, it sent shockwaves around the charity sector and wider society. O’Neill reflects on his memories of uncovering the scandal, while experts including Chilande …

Lucinda and Emily are joined by the author and mental health consultant Dimple Dhabalia. Dimple warns of the dangers facing organisations that focus on their charitable mission at the expense of staff wellbeing. She notes the sense of guilt often felt by humanitarian workers suffering the effects of workplace trauma. She provides pointers for how o…

In May 2018, three climate activists called time on lukewarm campaigning over the climate crisis. They wanted a different and radical approach. The plan: mass civil disobedience. The name: Extinction Rebellion. And the first major act of the movement? Stage an occupation – of the Greenpeace offices in London. Why is it that charities are so often p…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Philippa Cornish, head of client experience at the Charities Aid Foundation. They discuss the implications of CAF’s report into individual giving, which found a smaller pool of donors giving more led to a total uplift in 2023 in spite of the median monthly figure remaining stagnant at £20 since 2017. Philippa provides…

Why donate to a charity if you can just help out a fellow human yourself – or buy a piece of premium fashion that promises to generate a similar result? In episode three of The End of Charity, Lucinda Rouse explores two very different alternatives to the charity model: mutual aid theory, and the rise of buzzy “for good” business. The activist and f…

Lucinda and Emily Burt are joined by Dhivya O’Connor, chief executive of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Dhivya provides insight into her previous experiences as an interim chief executive, describing the pros and cons of holding a short-term leadership role, and stresses the importance of cultivating a healthy organisational culture from th…

Meet Jimmy Donaldson, perhaps better known as MrBeast – the 25-year-old YouTuber who some say is on the verge of sparking a revolution in online philanthropy. With more than 236 million YouTube subscribers and an estimated net worth of $500m, MrBeast has turned his focus from filling houses with Lego bricks to curing blind people and building wells…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by the fundraising historian Marina Jones to track the development of the fundraising profession and perceptions of charity fundraisers through the ages. Marina, who is leading a history project for the think tank Rogare, traces the roots of fundraising back to the time of Moses. She draws parallels between contemporary …

Last year the UK food bank network the Trussell Trust distributed almost 3 million emergency food parcels, 1 million of which were for children, up from 50,000 a decade ago. How has the UK landed in such a severe hunger crisis – and can food banks ever be the solution? In episode one of The End of Charity, journalist Lucinda Rouse hears from the Tr…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by the digital specialist Zoe Amar and Karen Marter, head of technology strategy at the British Heart Foundation. Zoe outlines key developments in the AI space over the past year and how charities are reacting to them, including the use of virtual assistants in working life. She stresses the need for a sector-level resp…

In a world where need is spiralling out of control and new, radical forces are shaping the landscape for doing good, can charity be the answer to the world’s social and environmental problems? Lucinda Rouse presents The End of Charity, a new podcast series from the makers of Third Sector. Guided by some of the leading voices of the philanthropy wor…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, to reflect on the voluntary sector’s female-dominated workforce and the challenges facing women on their path to senior leadership positions. Charmaine stresses her conviction that charities need to be representative of the communities they exist t…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Anaish Yilma-Parmar, head of legacies at the British Red Cross, and Lucinda Frostick, director at Remember a Charity. Lucinda (Frostick) provides an overview of the legacy market, worth more than £4bn annually, and expectations for further growth in spite of current economic challenges and a probate backlog. Anaish d…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Liz Tait, fundraising director at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, to discuss progress with the charity’s biggest and most ambitious fundraising appeal to date. Liz describes the planning process, including the use of campaign peaks to structure and maintain momentum during the multi-year appeal. She p…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Suzy Edington, fundraising consultant at JustGiving, and Ellie Putt, senior participant experience manager at the Alzheimer’s Society. Suzy outlines the changes in fundraising behaviour on the JustGiving platform since the Covid-19 pandemic, with greater volumes of smaller donations and rising levels of regular givin…

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 dr…

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 messa…

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 burnou…

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 i…

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…

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 opport…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

Lucinda and Rory are joined by Wajid Akhter, founder of Charity Week, a student and volunteer-led campaign of Islamic Relief, and Harry Twohig, communities officer at the Brilliant Club, to discuss how charities can tap into students’ inclination to support societal causes. Wajid outlines the aims of Charity Week, which he established in 2000, and …

From the team at Third Sector comes The Diff – a new podcast that spotlights the work of small charities and not-for-profits. In the final episode of its pilot series, The Diff visits the Synergy Theatre Project to hear about its work with prisoners and ex-prisoners. Guests explain how working with prisoners, ex-prisoners, young offenders and young…

From the team at Third Sector comes The Diff – a new podcast that spotlights the work of small charities and not-for-profits. In the second episode of our pilot mini-series, airing 13-17 November, host Rhianna Dhillon learns how the first-aid charity StreetDoctors empowers young people to become part of the solution to knife crime. Volunteer and me…

From the team at Third Sector comes The Diff – a new podcast that spotlights the work of small charities and not-for-profits. In the first episode of our pilot mini-series, airing 13-17 November, we ask: what causes a knife crime epidemic – and what would it take to end one? Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, and Nathaniel Pe…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Katy Saunders, director at Social Finance, and Mark Jarman-Howe, chief executive of St Helena Hospice, to discuss how charities can make effective use of social investment mechanisms. Katy explains how the social investment market works and describes its growth over the past decade, presenting opportunities to chariti…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Rebecca Gray, chief executive of Maudsley Charity, a grant-maker for mental health projects. Rebecca describes how the recruitment of a new board in 2018 helped the charity to change its approach to funding across thematic, strategic programme areas with input from stakeholders to help influence the charity’s directi…

Lucinda takes a look behind the scenes at Barnardo’s as she shadows a day in the life of Becky Rice, the charity’s senior policy adviser for mental health and wellbeing. Becky outlines the different aspects of her job: from conducting research to responding to government announcements and speaking to children, young people, practitioners and parent…

Lucinda and Rory are joined by Sophie Tebbetts, head of programmes at the food poverty charity FoodCycle, to learn about the different techniques used to attract and retain the charity’s 15,000 volunteers. Sophie explains how FoodCycle’s roots in universities have informed its volunteer strategy and enabled it to maintain a healthy roster of volunt…