Make An Impact Podcast

Send us Fan Mail There are six million dads in the UK and when Dan Flanagan's  own father passed away he re-evaluated his own life. "It can be lonely to be a dad but men don't like to talk about that." The consequences are profound and tragic. Isolation, loneliness, mental ill-health. For some men, suicide – horrifyingly, 96 men under 45 are lost to suicide each week in the UK....

Send us Fan Mail Finance and credit play a big part in our lives. Removing or preventing access to them is hugely disruptive, as today's guest explains. Without fit-for-purpose finance on fair terms, businesses and social enterprises can't grow, create jobs or deliver vital frontline services, and millions of households are prey for loan sharks. Community development finance institutions...

Send us Fan Mail We have never faced such scrutiny of our bodies, or been under as much pressure to conform to a narrow definition of 'beauty.' Ldn Dares Drama Company supports people with low confidence, self-esteem and body image issues through performing arts. The social enterprise works with commissioners in mental health. It helps people develop and understand their self worth, buil...

Send us Fan Mail When serial technology entrepreneur Bashir Khairy had a lightening bolt realisation of the cumulative effects of our shopping habits, he overhauled his lifestyle. But there was a problem.  Bashir and his family couldn't find enough sustainable products in one place. "There were fundamental questions about how we vote with our money," he says, and directed his focus...

Send us Fan Mail Karis Gill was already a serial entrepreneur when she discovered social enterprise. She figured gifts are a wonderful way to introduce people to what she, like Heidi, believes is the future of business. Social Stories Club, a social enterprise Karis co-founded, offers gifts (wonderful products which make a difference) accompanied by engaging, powerful stories. Karis describes how...

Send us Fan Mail Does your work create social change and are you an extraordinary business leader? If so, you could apply for the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize , which offers a £10,000 cash award to up to four winners for their personal and professional development alongside expert mentoring support. It's an exciting opportunity to accelerate your impact and today's guest Nicole Helw...

Send us Fan Mail Tippa Naphtali doesn't only use enterprise for business, but also to address political and social issues and make society better. He's been a community activist for over four decades, working in Birmingham, London and internationally.  Entrepreneurial since the playground he's supported, developed and led a huge range of community development and social justice proj...

Send us Fan Mail Dave  Linton is the first ever guest to be invited onto the Make an Impact podcast for a follow-up interview. He launched Madlug in 2015 as he was heartbroken to learn that most children in care transport their worldly belongings in bin bags. Madlug’s 'Buy one, give one' approach addresses this. But what’s happened since Dave was last on the show ? Masses, it turns out,...

Send us Fan Mail "This is a model that can be taken anywhere in the world." Chris Roberts is the co-founder of North Wales Dragons, a social enterprise and community football team which raises money  for charities all over the UK and beyond.  The idea was kicked off with a football match with a ten-nil defeat, but lots of money raised – and it snowballed from there, as Chris explains. He...

Send us Fan Mail There are three key things ethical businesses must do when it comes to their marketing, according to Jane Shaw. Listen on to find out. Conscious customers can be incredibly vocal, so if an ethical business can build a community which loves and believes in their product or service it can be a huge asset. Jane describes the practical steps ethical businesses can take; how she helps...

Send us Fan Mail Marianne Moore launched Justice Studio in 2011 after becoming jaded with the values deficit in traditional management consulting. She  wanted to run a business  she'd like to work in: a consultancy where  people's purpose and interests are inflamed rather than dampened down. Justice Studio has worked on projects addressing social, gender, child, criminal and climate just...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine not having to explain to people your mission to balance impact and profit. It's powerful and energising to work with people who get what you're doing and why . Sara Osterholzer co-founded the Good Business Club, an alternative business network fostering "collaboration connection and confidence for small, good business owners and freelancers who want to make...

Send us Fan Mail Saif Bhoja is founder of Huriah Hemp CIC, a youth-led organisation selling hemp and organic cotton products to businesses and consumers. It uses the sales to drive its social mission, empowering young people's creativity and self-esteem. Social action helps young people position themselves in the world  and identify their purpose and the path they want to take, says Saif. Whe...

Send us Fan Mail Marcella Tarable is the co founder of Food for Thought, an initiative which invites people from agencies to donate their skills to help a social enterprise or charity, in exchange for a nice lunch. Marcella says she wanted to found ways to "redeem her soul" – her background is in advertising – and do something purposeful. But it was hard to find initiatives to support so...

Send us Fan Mail Video is like a match which starts the fire to cook a meal, says Ravinol Chambers. He's worked with numerous social enterprises, social investors and partners such as TedX London,  making stories which cross boundaries since 2009. Ravinol's debut documentary Road to Vrindavan is a feature film examining the impact and importance of education for girls in India and what w...

Send us Fan Mail Amy Eleftheriades has worked with children, young people and vulnerable adults in social care, health and education for over twenty years. A qualified teacher, Amy founded and runs Alpha Inclusion and Communication, which works with neurodivergent young people and adults. Amy describes how her business, a social enterprise, develops individuals' essential skills. Alpha suppor...

Send us Fan Mail Tiny changes in how you use technology can make a profound impact on your carbon footprint. By thinking about the entire life cycle of a product, from raw materials to what happens when it really can't serve its original purpose, social and purpose-driven entrepreneurs can re-evaluate what tools they use and when to replace them. In this episode, Heidi covers proactive and re...

Send us Fan Mail Cath Harris runs One World Women, a social enterprise connecting experienced business women with ambitious female entrepreneurs from developing countries. Cath experienced burnout after growing her first business which she sold in 2016. On a holiday to the Gambia she met Ida Cham, an ' extraordinary woman' who runs her own cooking school and makes micro-loans to help wom...

Send us Fan Mail Embedding social impact into your supply chain is much wider than just 'buying from social enterprises.'  It's possible to unlock enormous and complementary social, environmental and economic impacts  through social procurement and Heidi describes how, with examples, in this episode. We go into depth about what to think about, how to start, and how to measure suppli...

Send us Fan Mail Tina Chen is the founder and chief tea officer at HumaniTea which sells ready-to-drink cold tea latte drinks made with natural and ethically-sourced ingredients. HumaniTea is a social enterprise and commits 5% of profits to support wellbeing and sustainability initiatives. Tina was originally inspired by the Taiwanese bubble tea concept and the British tea drinking culture while s...

Send us Fan Mail We've run through the five stages of the LEAN social impact approach in earlier episodes. Three themes are common to every stage: being impact-led, communication, and embedding impact. A social enterprise with an impact-led strategy is led by the impact it wants to create. This means being your purpose, rather than having a purpose. Why bother? Many organisations get bogged d...

Send us Fan Mail There's a lot of anger about asking questions or fear of being 'cancelled' nowadays. Yet how are you going to educate an 11 or 15 year old about their human rights if they can't or don't ask searching questions? Sandy AbdelRahman is the co-founder of Skaped, a platform which encourages young people to engage with their human rights through the creative art...

Send us Fan Mail Stage five of the LEAN social impact approach is LEARN. Heidi explains how this is when your organisation makes improvements, based on data, to maximise your impact. Heidi uses another real-life example, this time a community hub. Segmenting and being more specific about their "wellbeing" outcomes improved their impact and gave them more detailed evidence, more precise d...

Send us Fan Mail Genia Mineeva is a former journalist who moved from covering politics and international affairs to communicating impact and campaigning. She went on to launch BEEN London after getting angry about waste which doesn’t get recycled. In this episode Genia talks about creating fantastic and high quality handbags entirely from waste; the circular economy; her biggest challenges and ach...

Send us Fan Mail The fourth stage of the LEAN social impact approach is 'Analyse.' Heidi explains how effective analysis enabled a housing association with range of projects to capture better data, understand more about what worked best, and make changes to improve their impacts. The five stages of Heidi's LEAN social impact approach are Define, Plan, Measure, Analyse and Learn, and...