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…

Lucinda and Emily introduce The Diff: a new podcast from Third Sector, currently in its pilot stage, which champions the work of small charities, grassroots organisations and social enterprises working on the front line. The episode features snippets of conversations between The Diff’s host, Rhianna Dhillon, and five guests. These consist of Meg Do…

Lucinda and Rory are joined by the talent director Paul Cullen to discuss how charities can form fruitful partnerships with celebrities. Paul provides his take on the move by numerous charities to distance themselves from Russell Brand in the wake of the multiple sexual abuse allegations made against the comedian. The talent director suggests diffe…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Duncan Shrubsole, director of policy, communications and research at the Lloyds Bank Foundation, and Elizabeth Jiménez-Yáñez, policy and communications manager at the Latin American Women's Rights Service (Lawrs), to talk about charities’ influencing work. Duncan highlights the importance of enabling grassroots organi…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by James Cusack, chief executive of Autistica, to debunk some common misconceptions about neurodivergence and neurodiversity. James, who is autistic, describes his own professional journey and his conviction that workplaces are enriched by colleagues who think in different ways. He suggests basic workplace adjustments t…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by the fundraising consultant Lynda Harwood-Compton to discuss successful partnerships between charities and corporate entities. Lynda, who was the head of philanthropy and partnerships at the Brain Tumour Charity until August, describes a general shift in mentality by corporates to be more strategic in identifying char…

Lucinda and Rory are joined by the charity coach Steve Allman to discuss how voluntary sector leaders can be better supported in their increasingly demanding roles. Steve describes some of the common issues clients bring to him and highlights the critical role of boards in cultivating a positive organisational culture which promotes professional de…

Lucinda and Rory are joined by Judith Moran, director of Quaker Social Action, and Jehangir Malik, policy and engagement director at Mercy Mission UK, to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing faith-based charities. Judith stresses the importance of Quaker values as a guiding principle to Quaker Social Action, forming a precious part of he…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Carol Botten, chief executive of the north east voluntary sector network Vonne, and Jack Chellman, chief project officer at the Global Returns Project, to understand how voluntary organisations can measure the impact of their climate work. Carol acknowledges the difficulties of measuring any form of impact and stress…

Lucinda travels to London Zoo to meet the Zoological Society of London’s head of procurement, Sara Muller. Sara gives the low-down on the ins and outs of her role and describes her motivations for working in procurement, including a special interest in promoting sustainability in the sector. She provides tips for anyone interested in joining the pr…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Leann Cross, director of the childcare support charity Home-Start Greenwich, to explore how inflationary pressures are impacting low-earning charity employees. Leann discusses multi-year term public funding cycles, which are designed to improve long-term organisational sustainability but have negatively affected Home…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Natasha Ratter, environmental sector lead at the Environmental Funders Network, and Rachel Heydecker, senior policy and engagement officer at the Association of Charitable Foundations. Rachel explains how the ACF’s Funder Commitment on Climate Change is encouraging funders working across a wide range of cause areas t…

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Graeme Marsh, head of the McCarthy Stone Foundation, to explore the evolving relationship between voluntary organisations and their corporate partners. Graeme explains the growth in corporate foundations over the past three years as companies move away from traditional philanthropic giving and seek a greater level of…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Janet Thorne, chief executive of Reach Volunteering, to hear how the charity has stepped up its efforts to fight climate change. Janet describes the steps taken to incorporate environmental considerations into Reach’s mission and why a “greening” of the charity’s operations wasn’t considered worthwhile. She flags the …

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Jabeer Butt, chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation, to learn about how the climate crisis is disproportionately affecting already disadvantaged groups in the UK. The discussion opens with a clip from a previous episode with the Wildlife Trusts' chief executive Craig Bennett, describing the interlinked nature…

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Nick Daniel, marketing director at Dogs Trust, and Denholm Scotford, sector head for technology, media, telecoms and entertainment at the market research agency Harris Interactive. Den breaks down the different aspects of a successful brand measured in Third Sector’s recently released Charity Brand Index, from public …

Lucinda and Andy are joined by Cathy Pharoah, visiting professor of charity funding at Bayes Business School. Cathy provides tips on the right way for voluntary organisations to approach potential major donors, stressing the importance of building networks and emphasising shared local links. She also suggests ways in which charities can offer somet…