Awarded an OBE and then recognised as Dame for her services to children and young people Benita (Benny) Refson is one of the most influential people in the nonprofit / charity sector. Benny joins Purposely Podcast to talk about her formative years, including the influence of her father, a false start in psych services and then an interlude in the fashion industry with Vogue as a junior runner. Benny then founded the children’s charity Place2Be and grew it and its impact exponentially over a 29 year period as CEO. Place2Be are committed to helping children with their mental health. Their approach to children’s mental health means they aim to intervene early to prevent life-long mental health issues. Benny offers leadership and commercial advice she also discusses the affects of COVID-19.

Hope and Homes for Children was founded by Mark Cook OBE, a retired Colonel, and his wife Caroline. The first project was an orphanage in Croatia, in a town called Lipik. Cook was posted there as part of the United Nations Protection Force. Initially, he and other soldiers repaired war-damaged orphanages before realising that what children really required was a family. Hope and Homes for children then began to pioneer the deinstitutionalisation of orphanages and children's homes. By August 2018, the charity had closed 105 institutions in nine countries, prevented around 20,000 children entering or re-entering institutions and had helped to change childcare systems. Mark talks about how the early the early mistakes they made on their charitable journey; “We had presumed that what these children needed was food, a roof over their heads, a safe place to sleep and an education, but the children themselves guided us to their heart of our mission – they desperately wanted and needed to be loved. “Over the years we have visited numerous orphanages in many countries. Some were awful and smelled so bad that we felt sick and wanted to leave; others were better, being reasonably equipped and staffed. But the one thing we never found in any orphanage was the feeling of unconditional love that is at the heart of a caring family. “Love became the key to our work and we have quite unashamedly focused on and talked about it ever since.” The charity is still having a significant impact under the expert leadership leadership of CEO Mark Waddington. Hope and Homes for Children working alongside governments and civil society organisations in over 30 countries to dismantle orphanage-based care systems. Their model of transformation is driving reform and laying the foundations for long-lasting change globally.

Annah Stretton joins Purposely Podcast to talk about her successful charitable work. How she has used her entrepreneurial skills to help empower and change lives, particularly women in prison through RAW (rescue another woman). We also delve deep into her other successful career in the fashion industry, initially in a non branded business which makes her significant amounts of money. You will hear how because of changes to the market and the introduction of cheap imports she loses this business almost over night. She then recovers and builds a second clothing business in Annah Stretton Fashion which is still operating to this day. You will hear how Covid-19 and demand for her stylish masks has been exceptionally good for business. But in true Annah style she also donates hundreds of masks to good causes. In the middle of that we also talk about in making a point to her father led her to accountancy and her early years at school and work led to a path destined for success. Enjoy

Olly Belcher joined Purposely Podcast to talk about her founder story and her absolute dedication to helping people living in poverty in India. She talks about how fatherly influence (as well as personal invite from Mother Teresa) led her to dedicate her career to helping people living in poverty in West Bengal. Her father’s career in India led to many bed-time stories focused the wonders and mystique of India to a young impressionable Olly. We go deep into her founder story at the same time reflecting on the charities (her staff in West Bengal) 'inspirational' response to COVID-19. We also delve into her ability to chronically overachieve, this included her University years where she gained a first class honours degree in Geography and a distinction in her Masters degree both from Oxford University. Olly then joined the World Bank in Washington DC where, amongst other achievements, she was awarded the World Bank Youth Innovation Fund. Her time at the World Bank was followed by a move to London where she worked for Accenture Strategy and also helped prepare the 5 year strategy for Accenture Development Partnerships. Back to her founder story… starting the charity Shivia in December 2008 Olly has been the Chief Executive since 2010. It was a brave move, not only was she giving up a great opportunity at the World Bank (a job that paid well and was secure with great prospects) it was also the time of the global financial crisis. These things did not phase Olly though and she has no regrets about the move she made or the life philosophy it has given her... 'there is never a perfect time to do something, you just need to trust your instincts and follow your passion' So what does the charity do and what is Olly's role? Shivia works with some of the poorest communities in West Bengal, India and its mission is to empower them to create livelihoods, boost income and inspire permanent change. Poultry farming is their ‘flagship’ programme launched in 2011. It provides the tools and training (the ‘toolkit‘) for families living in poverty to start a small enterprise from home by raising chickens and selling the produce. You will hear how Olly has become a skilled but reluctant fundraiser. She also forms Shivia’s overall strategy and works hard to support operations.

Kelda Wood experienced a life changing accident in 2002 which almost led to her leg being amputated. Despite these injuries she has turned turmoil into triumph. Kelda’s achievements include para-canoeist representing Great Britain on the world stage, she has climbed two mountains including the highest peak in South America, rowed across the Atlantic solo and unassisted (plus more). Despite all of this her proudest achievement has been the founding of UK Charity Climbing Out which offers intense outdoor activity to people who need it most. Life changing and affirming interventions for people of all ages who have experienced trauma, abuse or who lack confidence and are struggling to reach their potential. A must listen.

Sarah Brook, the founder and owner of The Sparkle Foundation, was on a trip through Malawi when she suddenly fell ill. Being saved and cured in Malawi, Sarah made it her mission to give back to the country by bringing medical care, nutrition and education to children in need. Since its inception in 2015 The Sparkle Foundation has educated 800 children, conducted 4’700 medical interventions and served 66’000 meals.

Join Purposely Podcast to hear my latest guest Howard Lake. In this podcast Howard talks about being an unlikely dotcom entrepreneur and while his friends, family and colleagues supported his start-up mission they also admitted to ‘not really understanding what he was doing’… locked away in his home office learning HTML and developing resources for sharing on the web. While he is very happy with his contribution to the world he sites that one of his regrets it not fully realising the power and value of what he had in his hands. Had he been able to partner with someone he may able to grow faster and gain more reach. You suspect that Howard Lake the dotcom entrepreneur and digital do good Svengali could have easily been Howard Lake the dotcom millionaire… joining the founders of platforms like Just Giving say, those who cashed in on the do good tech boom. But hey that wouldn’t quite fit with the altruistic man I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing for Purposely Podcast. He also didn’t want to run a large organisation with all that brings. So who is Howard Lake… he is a digital entrepreneur and one of the most influential and well respected people working in the non-profit / charity sectors anywhere in the world. Howards specialist field is fundraising and he has been personally responsible for upskilling, supporting and motivating two almost three generations of professional and voluntary fundraisers. People responsible for raising millions of dollars / pounds. He founded UK Fundraising (fundraising.co.uk), the world’s first web resource and community for professional fundraisers in 1994 and wrote the world’s first book on digital fundraising in 1995. Howard remains in control of UK Fundraising to this day and while he uses a small team of expert contributors he is the websites only official employee. Hear how his early and formative experiences at Oxford University fuelled his passion and love for the ‘power of asking people for money’. Howard talks about his involvement with the universities RAG (first coined in Victoria times when students took time out of their studies to collect rags to clothe the poor, to more recent uses to stand for ‘Raise and Give’). He then went on to work as as a fundraiser at Oxfam, Afghanaid and Amnesty International UK in the 80s and 90s. He is passionate about the discipline and although he no longer practices fundraising himself he is a student of the ‘art and science of fundraising’ and is responsible for a number of the most popular training courses in the sector. While his focus on the website has endured for 24 plus years he is also responsible for starting and scaling other ventures in the do good space. He was co-founder of Barcamp Nonprofits and founder of Fundraising Camp, a learning event for fundraisers. His most recent venture is co-founder of Good Jobs a market place for fundraising talent that promises to deliver value for money. Importantly Howard Lake has not shied away from the issues hitting the charity and non-profit sectors due to COVID-19, in fact he has very much led from the front and as early as March 2020 (when the first lockdowns started to happen) he offered sage advice on how one can fundraise in a crisis “All fundraisers and charities are facing this problem. We need to talk to other organisations, avoid overlap, support and participate in existing networks and collaborative groups. This could be other charities, fundraising networks, businesses.” #ukfundraising #howardlake #charity #nonprofit #COVID-19 #training #development #founder #socialentrepreneur #digital #dotcom #svengali

Hear how an incident on the way home from school on May 4 1972 changed Richards life forever. Richard Moore, then aged 10, was shot by a British Soldier. Luckily he survived, however, the rubber bullet did untold damage to his eyes and meant that he lost his sight completely. This was during the troubles in Northern Ireland where there was a huge divide between nationalists (catholic’s) and unionists (Protestants). Richards family had recently lost a family member to the violence and Richards blinding left the family further rocked. Incredibly many years later he met the very soldier who shot him that fateful day and while his Dad was not alive both Richard and his mother were willing to forgive the individual. Richard has never let blindness hold him back though and after a time at University he had a successful business career which included running and owning two pubs as well as nights spent playing guitar in a band. In 1996 Richard started his own charity. Children in Crossfire focused on compassion right from the start. Richard and his team based the entire ethos of the organisation on compassion. Although compassion with a plan which Richard refers to as crucial. It offers to support, educate and care for children living in poverty (poverty referred to as the conflict). Its Ambassador list includes the Dalai Lama of Tibet as well as tv star and activist Joanna Lumley. The charity uses donations from individuals as the Irish and British Governments to help children in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi as well locally. It continues to thrive to his day.

There are approximately 260 million children worldwide who do not have access to education. Our latest inspirational founder believes that she has found a solution to this issue and the challenge she faces now is scaling that solution so it reaches enough children. Katrin McMillan founded Not-For-Profit HelloWorld in September 2018 at the same creating and designing solar powered ‘education’ hubs that brought the power of the internet to remote villages and cut off communities (See full description below). Hear in this podcast how Katrin overcame the debilitating effects of dyslexia at school and then the University of Bristol to overachieve in both her ensuing corporate career and her role as a social entrepreneur. Katrin was brought up in a house that despised injustice and this has helped to shape her thinking. Her parents are a South African / Australian mix and they both have close up experience of the damaging effects of bigotry through apartheid and subjugation of indigenous people. Katrin has lived in Nigeria, New York, Bristol, Australia and now London. She is a mother, a wife and a highly successful social entrepreneur hell bent on changing the world through he power of the internet to provide access to education. The Hubs Hello World deploys Hello Hub kits to communities in need of educational resource. Communities learn to build, use and maintain the hubs themselves, so that they can continue to gain benefit long after the Hello World team has departed. Each Hub provides wifi internet access, and is loaded with educational resources such as apps and games, in relevant languages. The hubs have weatherproof touch screens for easy interface, and are available 24/7. #Even if we combined the entire global budget for education, it wouldn’t come close to reaching every child. The traditional approach to tackling the education deficit is not working. There are 69 million too few teachers to hit current education targets, that’s just targets. We need an affordable, scalable and world-class solution for ALL children, no matter where they were born.” Katrin McMillan Project Hello World has a plan: a solar-powered digital education Hub where children can learn, and explore the world’s body of knowledge, right in the center of their community. Instead of “airdropping” a fully-built system into a community, Project Hello World works with the community to build Hello Hubs in places that are well below the baseline poverty index–where resources normally wouldn’t allow for these sorts of forward-thinking projects. Community members invest time, meals, lodging for Project Hello World volunteers, and responsibility for their systems as the Hello Hubs take shape. As the Hubs are built from the ground up, the entire community learns about its maintenance, importance, and possibility. https://www.projecthelloworld.org/

Sanjeev Gandhi founder of education charity Reach to Teach. He launched Reach to Teach in 2003 with the aim of providing education to children living in poverty in Gujarat (Western India). British born Sanjeev had been a regular visitor to the region from birth. Gujarat is his parents homeland and they installed not only a love for the area and its people but also a respect and passion for education. Those values along with formative experiences lead him to launch Reach to Teach. It wasn’t easy though with some stern challenges thrown down from local leaders who initially doubted his sincerity and his staying power. They along with a rather forceful aunty wanted to know what value he could add to the lives of children living in India when he was British. And young. Sanjeev’s perseverance won the day though and Reach to Teach went on from strength to strength. His genius included attracting the attention of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. Larry’s foundation along with Indian state government helped Reach to Teach to develop a unique high quality, low cost primary education system which has grown to reach tens of thousands of children in India Sanjeev has also held leadership roles in the media, technology and investment management sectors including as partner at Marwyn Investment Management, Director of Strategy at Yahoo! Europe and Head of Strategic Development at BBC Worldwide.   channel television market; at Yahoo! Europe Sanjeev was Director of Strategy, where he was one of the leadership team which established the business in Europe in early 1998 growing operations to every major European market in less than three years and turnover to over $100m. Sanjeev has a deep understanding of the need for companies to be seen as a force for good.  This is based on the direct experience of growing a not-for-profit enterprise which has reached significant scale.  He. Sanjeev is non-executive chair of the Eden Project Ltd, a non-executive director of the ECB’s New Competition Board and a trustee of the Fidelity Foundation.

Join Head of Purpose Mark Longbottom interviewing the inspirational Sir Tim Smit. Tim dreamt about a gigantic ‘tree museum’ that would go on to become one of the largest and most popular tourist attractions in the world. He turned that dream into a reality around the time of the new millennium. The project centred on the build of these giant biomes that take people on a journey of discovery through the undergrowth of Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Mediterranean all while using green technologies. Sir Tim and his team raised £80 million as start-up and build capital, transforming a disused China Clay Pit in Cornwall to social enterprise that has brought over £1 billion to the once failing Cornish economy. He describes it as ‘kissing a frog to make a prince’ . The museum became so much more and had educated hundreds and thousands and promises to spread its magic across the Globe including China and New Zealand. Hear about Edens challenge with the effects of COVID-19, Tim’s founder story including the early years as a successful music writer and producer in Soho, his frustration with his beloved Nottingham Forest and so much more. It really is a great listen.

Joseph Russo states his dyslexia is his super power. Tune in and hear how growing up with a disability propelled him to a life of purpose as founder and CEO of UK Charity The Enthusiasm Trust. A poignant interview that provides fantastic insights on what effective and impactful youth work does and should look like. Joseph also lays bare some of his toughest moments as a leader in the charitable sector with the relentless search for funding, sacrificing material wealth and the worry that he was falling into the trap of ‘founder syndrome’. Recruited by the UK Home Office as a special adviser on youth, criminal justice and gangs Joseph is a great listen.

In 2012 Ian Thwaites swapped a career in the City with an Investment Bank for a life of purpose. Ian and his co founder and now Chairman Stuart Rhodes set up the UK charity Level Water. Level Water provides one-to-one swimming lessons for children with physical disabilities or sensory impairments. They used the buzz caused around the 2012 Olympics, particularly the Para Olympics to help launch and grow the charity. Also hear how the damaging effects of a serious cycle accident just 15 months after launching the charity effected Ian and meant greater impetus and drive for his mission. A great listen for all people who believe in the power sports activity and participation (particularly swimming)

Lucy Buck swapped a successful career producing reality television for a life of purpose in Uganda helping orphan children. Love Island for a love of children. Lucy discovered that many of the orphanages operating in Uganda were in fact damaging to children and she was inspired to connect orphan children with loving alternatives and if possible helping them back to their families. Lucy’s ability to tell and share stories, like she had producing tv programmes, helped her to raise over £6 million over 11 years. These funds have helped to train foster carers, save and transform children’s lives and work with other agencies like UNICEF and Hope and Homes for Children to go a long way towards ending damaging institutional care.

Hannah Underwood is a self-confessed charity and data geek with an unquenchable desire to improve as many young lives as possible. In her early career Hannah learned how to measure performance and use data to improve organisations. At the age of 25, Hannah became CEO of The Key, a charity inspiring belief in young people. Working with venture philanthropists, Impetus PEF, they used data & metrics to build a vibrant, robust and well respected organisation. Outside of running The Key, Hannah’s been a Director of Datakind UK since 2013 and became part of the ‘Data For Good’ movement. When she’s not trying to change the world, you’ll find Hannah chasing a mucky toddler or renovating their old farmhouse in Northumberland.

Nyasha Gwatidzo was born in Zimbabwe and gained a degree in Chemistry from London University. She then went on to retrain at Reading University and gained an MA, to work with adults and children with emotional issues. She is a qualified psychotherapist, social worker, coach and mentor. http://walkwithmenetwork.com/ She is a serial social entrepreneur, working with disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. She founded a multimillion pound social enterprise Banya, which finds foster families for children in the care of local authorities. www.banya.co.uk She founded a charity in the UK, Vana Trust which raises funds for children affected by HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, supporting their education. The Trust also supports adults and young people here in the UK who have learning and emotional difficulties, through her therapeutic organic farm in Buckinghamshire. www.vanatrust.org.uk Nyasha wrote a book in 2015 after walking the length of the River Thames (206 miles) “Walk With Me through 16 Inspirational Business and Life Tips”. Her vision for the future is to forge global connections with women in the developing world who inspire her everyday through the social investment fund she is setting up, World Impact Capital. She would like them to reach economic independence through enterprise and she currently mentors women starting up in business. WIC will be a £100 million pounds social impact investment fund for African women entrepreneurs/leaders. This fund will fund their enterprises to grow their businesses as well as hands on business support. www.worldimpactcapital.com