In August 2021, the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years, toppling the then democratic government in a matter of days. Adela Raz, was serving as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., after having been the country’s first female Permanent Representative to the U.N. She suddenly found herself representing a government that no longer existed. Adela refused to recognise the Taliban’s authority and became an outspoken critic of their oppression of women and girls. As Afg...
May 05, 2025•56 min
In the nonprofit world, we often celebrate beginnings—new initiatives, fresh funding, and ambitious strategies. But what happens when a charity needs to close its doors? Does closure mean failure, or can it be part of a responsible, strategic decision? In this conversation, Kathy Evans of Children England and Rosie Ferguson from House of St Barnabas explore the realities of charity closure: the challenges, the tough choices, and the lessons learned. We discuss how to ensure impact outlasts an or...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 2 min
“Gender equality is a choice… working for greater gender equality is not a zero sum game, where you’re taking something from one group and giving it to another - it’s helping to level the playing field for everyone.” Special guest, Eliza Reid, is a bestselling writer, public speaker, gender equality advocate, entrepreneur and former First Lady of Iceland. Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankings for 15 years, as the country with the smallest gender gap. In her first...
Jan 06, 2025•38 min•Season 6Ep. 51
"Empowerment is the ability to make choices... and... having economic tools, economic resources is a way of providing the means for those choices." The world has come a long way since 1974 when women in America could not have their own bank account or checking account without their husband’s signature. The 1st United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975 and the subsequent creation of Women’s World Banking in 1979, have played a massive part in enabling women today to achieve financial indep...
Jul 01, 2024•48 min
With an audacious goal to lift 20m people in Africa out of extreme poverty by 2030, Dianne Calvi, President and CEO of Village Enterprise, joins us to share how they plan to make this happen. Centred around their core value of ‘Ubuntu’, a South African term, which means ‘humanity’ or ‘I am because we are’, Village Enterprise seeks to transform lives through entrepreneurship, innovation and collective action. By partnering with other nonprofits, governments, agencies, and private sector companies...
May 06, 2024•58 min
“There is a problem! Business has a problem, the world has a problem, because we are just not utilising the talents, the ambitions, the drive of half the world’s population (the female half)... Economic gender justice is essential both for women’s freedom and equality, but also for the development of the world.” We are honoured to have on the podcast, Cherie Blair CBE KC! As the Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Cherie has been a relentless advocate for women's rights, particular...
Mar 04, 2024•56 min
Trigger warning: This episode explores and talks about miscarriage, stillbirth and baby loss. Baby loss and miscarriage is something that many parents face and yet it is still something that is not openly talked about in today’s society. In this very special episode, I speak with Karen Burgess, Founder & CEO of the charity Petals, that provides counselling support to families affected by baby loss. Karen and I are joined by Alice. Alice shares with us the story of her daughter, Vera, and the...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr
“The humanity that connects us is stronger than what has been created to divide us”. Nisha Anand is the CEO of Dream.Org , a nonprofit organization that brings people together across racial, social and partisan lines to solve society’s toughest problems. A born change-maker, Nisha was arrested in 1998 while handing out pro-democracy leaflets in the military dictatorship of Myanmar and was sentenced to five years in jail. Her arrest put her on the international stage and changed her thinking on h...
Oct 02, 2023•50 min
“It was thanks to this country that lots of those rights and protections that exist for refugees are in place … but now… you get that sense in lots of parts of the world, frankly, that the UK isn’t playing the active role that it has played historically.” The International Rescue Committee is a global organisation that helps people affected by humanitarian crises. The IRC supports people who have been caught in conflict and been forced to flee their homes, enabling them to survive, recover and r...
Sep 04, 2023•41 min
“Deceptively simple, but devastatingly effective” This is how Ruth Marvel, Chief Executive of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the UK, describes the Award. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was started by His Royal Highness the late Prince Philip in 1956 to provide young men with development opportunities to acquire self-confidence, gain a sense of purpose and help them become well-rounded citizens. Today, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award or DofE provides an experiential learning framework that is open...
Aug 07, 2023•47 min
“You change the world, when you change the lives of children… It is better for society to build stronger children, than fix broken adults.” The Children’s Society believes that every young person deserves a good childhood. Reflecting on the current context for young people in the UK today, is Mark Russell, CEO of The Children’s Society. Mark tells us how he and his colleagues are stepping up the fight for hope and happiness for young people, at a time when its under threat like never before. We ...
Jul 03, 2023•35 min
“We have won the war on climate denial… (but) we cannot underestimate what an enormous fight this is… the climate movement being mainstream doesn’t mean we have the power to make change happen yet.” In this episode, I have the privilege of speaking with not one, but two impressive non-profit leaders: Areeba Hamid and Will McCallum, co-Executive Directors of Greenpeace UK. What's unique about Areeba and Will is that together they have shattered several barriers in their leadership roles. Areeba i...
Jun 05, 2023•51 min
“Gift Aid, yes people know about it (but) they still dont understand it… there is about £750m unclaimed in Gift Aid every year, split between smaller charities unable to claim or dont have the skills to do it and higher rate tax-payers not really understanding … how they could be claiming an additional 25% on the gross (donation) in their tax returns.” Our guest today is Anna Josse, Founder and CEO of Prism the Gift Fund. Prism is a UK-based charity that is changing the face of philanthropy. Pri...
May 01, 2023•40 min
“Creating One VisionSpring is anchored in what we do, so our mission and our social enterprise models, and its anchored in how we do it, and that is in the values that are at the heart of our teamwork… I cant emphasise enough how much values are critical to our success.” There are over a billion people in the world who don’t have the eye-glasses they need. VisionSpring is a non-profit that provides affordable eyeglasses to people in need. The organisation aims to improve the lives of people, par...
Mar 06, 2023•49 min
There are 8 million people affected by human trafficking in India every year, and over 50 million globally. According to the UN, 79% of human trafficking is for sexual exploitation and 20% of all trafficking victims are children. Adventure Ashram is a small but mighty charity that is looking to change this! Driven by a spirit of adventure and freedom, the Adventure Ashram focuses on supporting grassroots anti-trafficking and education projects in South India. In this episode I speak with their C...
Feb 06, 2023•47 min
“What we have learned throughout the years of running the Big Give… is that Match Funding is a great way to get more people to give, and people to give more.” The Big Give is the UK’s leading online match funding platform. The Big Give Christmas Challenge took place from the 29th of November to the 6th of December 2022 and in that one week, raised £28.6m for over 1,000 charities across the UK. With more than £233m raised to date, the Big Give has been a huge enabler of digital fundraising throug...
Jan 02, 2023•37 min
“In a way what we are doing, is we’re engineering social and cultural capital for those who don’t have it… that’s what mentoring is” In this episode we explore a new format for the show. Two charity CEOs having a panel discussion on the topic of mentoring: Bejal Shah, CEO of ReachOut and Verena Hefti, Founder and CEO of Leaders Plus. ReachOut is a mentoring and education charity, rooted in local communities. Working in under-resourced areas across the UK, ReachOut’s programmes support young peop...
Dec 05, 2022•46 min
“No child should die from hunger… we have the treatment… this treatment has 95% cure rate… and (yet) only 20% of the severely malnourished children in the world have access to this (life-saving) treatment” In a world where enough food is produced to feed everyone on earth, how is it that nearly 3 billion people - over a third of the world’s population - can’t get the food that they need to survive! Jean-Michel Grand, CEO of Action Against Hunger UK, shares his views on what is driving this globa...
Nov 07, 2022•58 min
“Everybody’s got a talent, but not everybody gets the opportunity. And thats what we’re about; we’re about opening that door and getting people through that door… that’s what’s missing in a lot of communities and society today… There’s a lot of talented young people out there… The Raheem Sterling Foundation is about capturing that (talent) and making sure the opportunities are there.” This episode is a very special collaboration with The Olympic Mindset Podcast. I have teamed up with its host, D...
Oct 03, 2022•45 min
“It’s not the role of a Trustee to know all the answers; it’s asking great questions. And if we only have a homogeneous group of people on (a) Board, it lowers your ability to ask really great questions from different perspectives, which lowers our ability to manage risk.” Mita Desai is the Chief Executive of the Young Trustees Movement. The Young Trustees Movement aims to double the number of young trustees, so that charity boards can better navigate uncertainty, better reflect the interests of...
Sep 05, 2022•37 min
“Part of Ashgate’s ambition is to change the conversation about death and dying… to enable conversations to happen in daylight, in general conversation, about death and dying. We’re all going to die, its not something that any of us can avoid… ” Barbara-Anne Walker is the Chief Executive of Ashgate Hospice. Ashgate Hospice is a specialist hospice, providing palliative and end of life care for the community of North Derbyshire. Their vision is for people with a life-limiting illness to be able to...
Aug 01, 2022•57 min
“It’s terrifying not being able to breathe… and that’s informed a lot of our strategic thinking and our positioning, because nobody should have to struggle to breathe and we can do so much better for people with lung conditions.” Sarah Woolnough is the CEO of the newly rebranded charity Asthma + Lung UK. Poor lung health is the 3rd biggest killer in the UK and yet only 2% of publicly funded medical research goes towards this cause. Asthma + Lung UK is here to change that. And be the driving forc...
Jul 04, 2022•31 min
“Believe in yourself. Believe that you do have the power to make the change… (Malala) believes in an individual’s ability and power to make the change that they so desire… she tells young women everywhere… believe in your story and believe in your own capacity to catalyse that change and make that impact.” The world knows the story of Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani education activist, who was shot by the Taliban when she was just 15 years old. Shot, for speaking out on behalf of girls and t...
Jun 06, 2022•47 min
“A big piece of what we are trying to do is work with the partners to get the food to where it’s working hardest… food is (just one) part of breaking the cycle of food insecurity.” Charlotte Hill is the new Chief Executive of The Felix Project, a charity dedicated to redistributing food and fighting food poverty in London. The Felix Project believes in a vision of London where no-one goes hungry and good food is never wasted. With an ambition to deliver 100 million meals a year to Londoners by 2...
Feb 14, 2022•42 min
“Technology has an incredible role to play in helping us deal with the challenges of children not being able to access education … but its (impact) is only in how we harness that technology and ensure that it’s grounded in local contexts and local needs.” Shirah Mansaray is the Founder and CEO of the charity, I Am Somebody’s Child Soldier. Having recently joined the Board of Amnesty International UK, Shirah talks about how from a young age she has felt compelled to address human rights issues an...
Jan 31, 2022•37 min
“If there’s one over-riding feature that has really driven success in the last 10 years, it really is that complete and utter belief in the Mission... (and) linking up with people who share that commitment, to the power of education to transform lives.” Today’s is a very special episode: I am speaking with Tim Howarth, my predecessor at United World Schools and its Founding CEO. Tim tells the story of taking United World Schools (UWS) from his family’s kitchen table to the global organisation it...
Jan 17, 2022•43 min
“This is about structural issues in society and structural issues in the sector… Diversity and inclusion is a problem right across the sector… (and) the sector is about social justice and so there is an urgency for us as a sector to get this right. Culture change is not a linear process… real culture change takes a long time… trust and healing is the very beginning of that sort of conversation.” Sarah Vibert is the Interim CEO of NCVO, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. NCVO is a ...
Dec 06, 2021•38 min
“The real disruption in our work has come about as a result of our impact model which is (about) turning conventional approaches to conservation upside down and grounding management of the sea in secure local tenure… management by communities for communities” Alasdair Harris is Founder and Executive Director of the marine conservation organisation, Blue Ventures. With a mission focused on rebuilding tropical fisheries with coastal communities, Alasdair talks about how developing an impact model ...
Nov 22, 2021•47 min
“Leaders who can convene and collaborate are going to be best placed to navigate the challenges of the post-pandemic world… No one (single) person, no one organisation, in fact no one country can beat cancer... we go faster when we collaborate and partner.” Michelle Mitchell epitomises her organisation’s strap-line: Together we will beat cancer. Driven by an absolute determination to accelerate progress in cancer research, Michelle shares leadership insights and lessons learned from being CEO of...
Nov 08, 2021•49 min
“Be curious and communicate… Find the tension between reflection and action. (As a leader) you can equip yourself and you can develop in particular ways by deliberate action.” Darren Cormack is Chief Executive of the Mines Advisory Group, also known as MAG International. Since its establishment in 1989, MAG has helped over 20 million people in more than 70 countries, rebuild their lives and livelihoods after war. This global humanitarian and advocacy organisation works to find and remove lethal ...
Oct 25, 2021•43 min
