Third Sector

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, to discuss his views on the need for charities to understand the economic context of the issues they work to address. Danny explains why a failure to engage with economic issues has contributed to charities often being treated as an afterthought in government-led discussions about eco...

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Tamsyn Hanrahan, director of partnerships and philanthropy at Save the Children UK, and Beth Knight, social sustainability director at Lloyds Banking Group and chair of Save the Children UK’s corporate advisory board. Tamsyn explains why Save the Children UK decided a corporate advisory board would be of benefit to the charity, and how it went about for...

Andy Ricketts and Dami Adewale are joined by Kate Lee, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society. Kate provides insight into the brand work recently undertaken by the charity, with a focus on raising awareness of dementia as well as the charity’s own profile. She explains how taking a more controversial approach to public messaging, including the charity’s recent ‘Long Goodbye’ advertising c...

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, and Wanda Wyporska, chief executive of Safe Passage International, to discuss some of the issues facing the voluntary sector in 2025. These include ways of engaging with local and national government, addressing the chief executive churn, and effectively balancing learned and lived experience to deliver on chari...

Lucinda Rouse, Andy Ricketts and Emily Harle dissect the leading stories from the voluntary sector in 2024. Lucinda delivers a speedy round-up of the year’s charity news before the three discuss their selected top stories.  These include the closure of the British Youth Council and the National Citizen Service , the finding that charities are subsidising government service contracts by £2.4bn...

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, to discuss the charity’s approach to fundraising, supporter engagement and advocacy. Michelle provides insight into the charity’s ongoing data and digital transformation programme: a major investment that aims to personalise supporter engagement and raise the systems surrounding it to the same l...

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Kirsty MacDonald, deputy principal for advancement at the Royal Academy of Music, to discuss the charity’s ongoing campaign to raise £100m. Kirsty describes how the academy saw annual fundraising revenues grow from £1.5m to £18m in less than a decade, after investing in necessary systems and infrastructure including research, data and due diligence func...

Lucinda Rouse is joined by Paul Watkins, fundraising director at Leeds Hospitals Charity, to reflect on the charity’s delivery of a £6.8m appeal for a new motor neurone disease care centre.   Paul describes the integral role of the late England rugby league player Rob Burrow, who was diagnosed with MND in 2019 and died earlier this year, in mobilising a community of some 17,000 individua...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Fozia Irfan, director of impact and influence at BBC Children in Need, to reflect on the challenges facing charities and grantmakers in the present funding climate. Fozia describes the role of funders such as Children in Need to convene networks spread across the UK and create communities of practice to provide more holistic and structural solutions to i...

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Zahra Hedges, chief executive of the youth empowerment charity Winning Scotland, and Helen Rafferty, senior programme manager at the education charity Shine. Zahra explains how a theory of change has helped Winning Scotland to identify and prioritise its most fruitful activities and reassure its board and donors. She provides insight into how the chari...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Jack Boardman, head of development at the telemarketing agency Angel, and Phoebe Cooper, marketing manager in the RSPCA’s donor development team. Jack describes the power of a telephone conversation in building rapport with new and potential supporters. He explains the fusion between digital lead generation and telephone conversion in response to changing...

Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale are joined by Nadia Alomar, chief executive of Clore Social Leadership, and Beki Osborne, chief executive of Sexual Assault & Abuse Support Service, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes. Nadia describes the changes she has witnessed in voluntary sector leadership in recent years, from the effects of resource scarcity to an increased emphasis on inclusivity, wellbeing an...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the RSPCA, to reflect on his six years at the charity before he moves on to the top job at the NSPCC. Chris likens the reality of navigating the RSPCA’s significant public profile to operating in a goldfish bowl. He stresses the importance of stimulating engagement with the charity’s extensive branch network to instigate...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Jayne Taylor and Matt Jones, chief executive and chair of the Elephant Group, a charity that helps state-educated students access top universities. Matt, who founded the Elephant Group in 2018, describes how his role has evolved since the arrival of Jayne as the charity’s first chief executive in 2022. This has included moving away from lower level operat...

Lucinda Rouse shadows Charlotte Holmes, head of philanthropy at Leukaemia UK, to experience the day-to-day realities of a job in major donor fundraising. Charlotte outlines the range of approaches used to identify connections and nurture relationships with existing and potential donors, from individuals to trusts and foundations and corporate partners.  She describes her career path, starting...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Manny Amadi, chief executive of C&E Advisory, to discuss the company’s latest Corporate-Non-Profit Partnerships Barometer . Manny talks about how the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which affects how companies report on their social and environmental impact, will have an impact on new corporate partnerships. He flags the gap between comp...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Alicia Nagar, head of people, wellbeing and equity at Mental Health First Aid England, and Samantha Stapley, chief operations and people officer at Trussell. Alicia describes the complex mental health challenges faced by people working in the voluntary sector. She outlines the need for a holistic approach to organisational support, with Mental Health Firs...

Lucinda Rouse travels to the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon, to meet the charity’s senior statistician, Stuart Norris, and find out about his pathway to a career in data science. Stuart describes how he combined a background in ecology with his long-standing interest in computers to find his niche in the voluntary sector. He explains how his team combines open source data with internal inform...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Ndidi Okezie, chief executive of UK Youth, to discuss the need for the voluntary sector to overcome its siloed approach to solving systemic problems. Ndidi explains how UK Youth is pushing for a more integrated approach to delivering youth services through a new initiative called the Joined Up Institute.  She shares her views on the role funders can...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Collette Philip, founder of the anti-racist brand agency Brand by Me, to discuss the findings of its recent audit of anti-racism work by the top 30 charities listed in Third Sector’s Charity Brand Index . Collette explains why adopting a non-racist organisational approach and focusing primarily on diversity and the representation of racialised communities...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Gemma Peters, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, to discuss the charity’s ‘year of transformation’. Gemma explains how its new strategy will enable Macmillan to better meet the needs of people living with cancer and describes the challenges of managing the accompanying organisational turbulence. She shares her views on the responsibility of larg...

Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Clare Mills, deputy chief executive of the Charity Finance Group, and Mike Conroy, director of commercial finance at the banking trade association UK Finance. They start by listening to an account of contrasting experiences with two high street banks by Cat Ross, chief executive of Baby Basics and volunteer director of Rwanda Child. Clare describes recen...

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Nathan Coyle, senior peace tech adviser at the Austrian Centre for Peace and author of the book Open Data for Everybody: Using Open Data for Social Good . Nathan explains how open data can be used by the voluntary sector to support work in areas including campaigning and influencing, completing grant applications and demonstrating charities’ expertise...

Andy Ricketts and Dami Adewale are joined by Abi Long, executive team manager, and Yusuf Ciftci, head of refugee involvement at the Refugee Council. Abi presents the findings of research conducted by the Refugee Council into barriers encountered by refugees navigating the UK job market. She describes the intersectionality of challenges facing people with different types of lived experience, from h...

Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are 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. She suggests ways of reducing costs thro...