E268 - The Charity Spark

We sat down with Mark Hughes, founder of mch positive impact and Michelle Benson founder of Culture of Philanthropy to talk about strategies and philosophies around effective time management. Mark and Michelle bring a wealth of experience from their individual careers to the discussion. They’ve never met before but you wouldn’t know from the instant rapport they had for the episode which allowed us to delve into both theoretical and practical takeaways plus some great book recommendations to help you manage your time.

In this episode we speak with friend of the show, Giles Pegram CBE, about fundraising, how it may or may not be changing, and some fundraising first principles that we can all benefit from keeping in mind. Giles is a seasoned fundraiser with heaps of expertise and it was great to catchup up with him again.

In this episode, producers Samuel Davies and Rachael Conroy look back over the past year of podcasts and reflect on what has been said.

In this episode, we speak with Emma Bracegirdle, friend of the show and founder of The Saltways, who we spoke with back in episode 262 or the podcast about ethical content creation and the importance of it in telling authentic and sensitive stories. In this episode we speak with Emma about her experience of running thank-a-thons, and what charities should consider before doing this, and how it can help improve supporter retention and increase a sense of loyalty and desire to give.

We sat down with Beckie Denny, Founder and Director of The Charity Spark to talk about how they are on a mission to help the charity sector do more even more good. We talk about how showing legitimate impact is so important across the sector, discuss the similarities and differences faced by different size charities and try to tackle some of the biggest social and economic challenges facing us all right now.

In this episode we speak with Charlotte Lamb, Principal for Involvement and Decision Making at NPC, about lived experience. We talk about why charities should consider bringing lived experience into their organisational culture and why this is important and could help them to thrive.

We sat down with Phil Kerry, CEO at New Horizon Youth Centre to discuss salaries in the charity sector. This week’s episode has a slightly different approach to some of our other chats as Phil wouldn’t consider himself an “expert” in this area but is very open about his opinions on the topic. Phil and myself talk candidly about the subject but it should be stated to the listeners that these are very much the views of us as individuals.

This week, we sat down with Andy Mortimer, Head of Communications at Co-op Foundation to talk about how you can use your comms strategy to help tackle inequalities. We take a look at the specific approach the Co-op Foundation took to building out their strategy; explore the importance of understanding the why of communication, not just the how; and, doing all of this without straying away from their golden thread of putting young people and partners at the centre of how they work.

In this episode we speak with Helen Gray, Trust Director at Benefact Trust about the role that churches play in the charity sector. We talk about the part they play in developing a sense of community and what charities can do to both support and benefit from working with them to further their work.

In this episode we speak with Manjeet Pabla, fundraiser, coach, consultant and mentor at Lumos Consulting. We speak about mentoring and how it can help senior leaders but also managers and teams of staff throughout charities. We also touch on how mentoring could have helped us in hindsight to have dealt with challenges in the past.