Cracking Charity Chat

Guest host, Fidelis Navas chats with Barrie Hodge, Head of Fundraising and Communications at St Basils, a youth homelessness charity based in the West Midlands. They chat about transitioning from a career as a commercial radio producer to a fundraising and communications leader; the importance of empathy, especially considering the impact of the coronavirus these past 12 months; and the pros and cons of PowerPoint in your fundraising and comms activities - resulting in an avoid where possible perspective from Barrie.

A chat with Paul Streets, CEO of Lloyds Bank Foundation, recorded July 2020. Paul shares his leadership journey, including the influence of working in the family's greengrocers in his teens, and as a social worker early in his career. Paul talks about some inspirational people who have influenced his work; Lloyds Bank Foundation's response to the crisis and its new Covid Recovery Fund; the new leadership style emerging with particular reference to infrastructure organisations and our sector's collective ability to influence Government.

A chat with Wayne Murray, Director of Strategy at the agency Audience. We cover organisational and funding strategy post Covid-19. We talk about the impact of Covid-19, the fundraising model being broken, who's nailed their FR and comms during the crisis, and the good bits that have come out of the crisis that we should keep.

Chat with Nathan Sparling, CEO of HIV Scotland. We discuss a lot! Being a small charity CEO, being under 30, punching above your weight as an organisation, imposter syndrome, turning around an organisation on the brink of closure, and the value of being a drag artist on charity leadership skills.

A chat with Ross McCulloch from Third Sector Lab - the guy that knows what we need to know about digital. We chat digital transformation (what even is it?), digital culture, Digital Trustees and Digital Leaders (the latter through SCVO), the role of infrastructure organisations in supporting charities to get better at and scale up digital transformation. Ross gets ranty about on-line forms, I talk myself into a hole of nonsense and there's an unplanned critique of funding. Enjoy!

A chat with Matthew Sherrington, charity strategy and communications expert. We chat about his journey from starting as a volunteer with Oxfam in 1989 and going on to support and lead various Oxfam teams across the world in the nineties. We also cover his experience of turning around Greenpeace USA in the noughties, aliging strategy, comms, fundraising and campaigning, mobilising people to come together and take action in the real world, and representation of the people we support. And a bit of medieval horror.

In this chat with Sarah Hill, CEO of the Yorkshire charity IDAS - Independent Domestic Abuse Service - we cover: the commissioning environment and how IDAS has responded by changing its model of working (how and where), collaboration with others, the growth of the charity from a few hundred thousand turnover and a handful of staff to a £4m turnover and 120 staff today, and Sarah's leadership journey. We also chat about Prince Andrew and why only cats need meat. And Sarah refuses to sing. Enjoy!

A fun chat with Simon Scriver, fundraising consultant, trainer and speaker. We cover some top tips for small (in fact all) charity fundraising; fundraising being about relationships - not just asking - and how to develop relationship fundraising across your organisation; corporate partnerships; why mimicking the big charities isn't the way to go; and somewhat controversially, conference refreshments. Inexplicably, Anneka Rice gets a mention too.

A chat with the lovely Kathryn Holloway, Head of Individual Giving and Supporter Care at Friends of the Earth. We chat all things direct marketing: recruitment, the welcome journey, digital, talking to supporters, internal comms and basic communication being at the heart of it all! Should you get Instagram? What was the heating section in BHS like? Why is GDPR actually a good thing? Grab your earphones and find out.

A chat with Louise Firth, Director of Fundraising at Refuge and a Member of the Institute of Fundraising's Expert Panel on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. We chat about the Refuge, fundraising for 'difficult' causes and their new fundraising strategy, and the IoF's Change Collective strategy - drivers, initial activities in the strategy, affinity networks, being a role model and what you can do to support the Change Collective Movement.

Demystifying social investment with Nick Temple, CEO of Social Investment Business (SIB). We chat about how social investment has changed, the support that SIB provides (financial and non-financial), impact measurement, the power dynamic between investor and investee, diversity in the sector and his inspirational person - Nicholas Albury (social action legend). Enjoy!

A chat with James Jopling, Executive Director at Samaritans Scotland - who is soon to be Direct at ProjectScotland. We talk about his career to date, direct marketing in the olden days, the opportunities and challenges of working in a cross-border charity, being a charity chameleon (and in particular the mental health implications of this), mergers and where to get Fry's orange creams.

Anj is Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, Chair of Freedom Studios (a theatre organisation in Bradford) and Governor of Leeds Arts University. We chat about the brilliant tactics that Freedom Studios has employed to engage more diverse audiences with theatre; Afusat Saliu's asylum case and the Change.org campaign;  equality, diversity and inclusion - specifically lived experience, White Men, and 'passing'; Whataboutery, dealing with the trolls and emotional correctness. Hope you enjoy listening!

A chat with Vicki Dawson, Founder and CEO of The Children's Sleep Charity - and Chair of Voluntary Action Doncaster, which she is in the process of setting up! A bust lady with an amazing vision and real skills around bringing the right people and skills together to make things happen. We chat about her journey as a founder and leader of a charity, the work of The Children's Sleep Charity and the value of infrastructure organisations. Enjoy!

Jennifer McCanna is a leadership coach working with charity clients including CAF and Action Aid, as well as the private sector. We discuss: what is leadership coaching?, women in leadership, finding your red hat, the three components of trust in leadership - and a heads-up about or upcoming session at IoF Yorkshire in May 2019.

A chat with Karl Wilding, Director of Policy and Volunteering at NCVO, chatting about some of the challenges that the voluntary sector as a whole faces, in particular, trust, diversity and grant funding. There are a few resources mentioned and nods to people you should follow too.

A lovely chat with CEO of Teenage Cancer Trust, Kate Collins. We cover strategy, collaboration, music and celebs, and high profile stories. We don't explicitly discuss organisational culture, but this comes out really strongly.

In this episode I'm chatting with Mandy Johnson, Founder of Great Charity Speakers List and former CEO of Small Charities Coalition. We discuss small but vital charities. We cover the challenges and opportunities they face, funding composition, infrastructure and where they can go for (brilliant and cheap) support as well as what they could do now to thrive in the future. We recorded in a pub, so it's a bit noisy. Maybe get a beer and pretend you're there too. Enjoy!

Exploring leadership with Paul Amadi, Chief Supporter Officer at British Red Cross. We cover the key components of leadership, situational leadership, building capacity for appeals, what we can learn from fundraising overseas and a whole lot more!

A chat with Tracey Pritchard, Director of Engagement at Prostate Cancer UK, about how they're taking an audience-centred approach, and using insight to be more effective in engaging people - both service users and supporters.

This podcast episode explores innovation in relation to income diversification. Kevin Waudby - Founder of Good Innovation - and I explore some of the barriers and enablers to innovation, the role of leadership and the value of insight, particularly 'small data'.

Episode 2 of Cracking Charity Chat. I chat with Joe Jenkins, Director of Supporter Impact and Income at The Children's Society about supporter relationships in the new world. With increased media and political scrutiny, lower (but still high!) public trust, and a new regulatory environment, how should we engaging with supporters to help them play the fullest role in tackling some of societies biggest issues?

The first of a new podcast - Cracking Charity Chat - hosted by Beth Crackles. This episode explores community fundraising with Marie Peacock, Head of Income Development at the Yorkshire-wide children's cancer charity, Candlelighters. Topics include: strategic approach, supporter journeys, identifying and nurturing a talented team, and what it's like to be a community fundraiser. We leave you with some top tips to apply in your own organisation.