Do One Better with Alberto Lidji in Philanthropy, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship

Home for Good is the charity Krish founded 5 years ago, which came out of his own family’s experience of fostering and adopting.

We hear how in the UK there’s a shortage of foster carers and adoptive parents; in the USA there are over 110,000 children who are in the care system waiting to be adopted and are ready for families. Globally, there’s a whole issue on how we care for children.

In the UK, the government is the corporate parent of every child that’s in the care system. There has been a huge upturn in the number of kids who are in care in England with 75,000 kids in care at present. The government is struggling to find carers.

Krish works very closely with the UK Department for Education and, also, he is increasingly working with the UK Home Office, since there is a pressing need for unaccompanied asylum seeking children who have fled war and terror in places like Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.

Krish notes that asking someone to become an adoptive parent or foster carer is a really big ask. It goes well beyond asking someone to give money.  Rather, we’re asking people to open their homes and welcome into their families strangers’ children who have had all sorts of on-going trauma; to love these kids as their own flesh and blood, not just for a hobby or a weekend but for the rest of their lives – that’s a huge ask.  It’s a hugely philanthropic way of living.

During the conversation, Krish also shares his fascinating personal story and sheds light into his mixed race background, his mother’s experience growing up as a child in an orphanage and his own six children – three of whom are his birth children.

Krish’s dad was born in Malaysia, and his dad’s dad was born in Sri Lanka. His mother was born in India, and her dad was Irish.  Krish notes how in the 1940s and 1950s it was quite unusual for a mixed race marriage to take place and, because mixed race children were not socially acceptable, his grandfather’s three daughters ended up in three different orphanages all over India. This was the case even though their mother was around and able to care for them.

As a consequence of discovering his own personal family history, Krish is now also quite focused on the issue of de-institutionalisation.

Most children in orphanages around the world have living parents. However, he notes that because of social stigma or well-intentioned philanthropy that hasn’t necessarily been thought out we are unnecessarily institutionalising children. This was Krish’s mom’s story – she didn’t need to be in an orphanage as a child yet she grew up in one unnecessarily.

Krish goes on to explain how, today, he now has three birth kids and three permanent other members of their family through fostering and adoption.  It is through these experiences that Krish and his wife know both how challenging fostering and adopting are and, also, just how very rewarding they are as well.

Krish’ passion comes across loud and clear and he explains how the goal of finding a home for every child that needs one has been the operating vision of Home for Good since the very outset.  

To underscore how consequential this issue is to society, he presents some sobering statistics: for instance, kids who age out of the foster system in the UK make up 1% of the population but they make up 25% of the homeless population and make up between 40% and 50% of our prison population.

Krish's takeaway for philanthropists: Passion and heart are not enough to do effective philanthropy. As philanthropists we have go to be absolutely informed and clear that our interventions are actually doing good.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely -- thank you!

We hear how five venture capitalists met in London approximately 15 years ago and explored how philanthropy could embrace more of an entrepreneurial spirit, and how venture capital assets could blend with philanthropy assets. Those were the origins of the EVPA.

There are many ways of defining venture philanthropy, and Steven likes to think about it along three dimensions: 1) yes, giving is good but it’s even better if you can measure your results and you know what you’re after; 2) as in venture capitalism, you need to go beyond the funding by exploring the value that one can provide by opening one’s networks, by providing capacity-building etc; and 3) being creative enough to provide tailored financing that is flexible and fits best with a given situation.

We hear how the EVPA is active in over 30 countries and has more than 300 members.  They are an ecosystem builder and provide diverse services, from peer group convening to research and working closely with all stakeholders.

The EVPA also has a strong relationship with the European Commission and connects closely with academic institutions and policymakers.  The typical profile of an EVPA member is mainly a European, cross-national organisation. Foundations and social investment funds are two of their main membership constituents, along with organisations such as NGOs and social enterprises that are more on the demand side of the equation.

While traditionally their members were organisations, more recently they have also started including high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and philanthropists in their membership – individuals who can bring key resources and expertise to the mix.

Steven notes that COVID-19 is presenting serious challenges and he views this pandemic in three phases:

1) The survival phase – ensuring, for instance, that liquidity challenges don’t lead social enterprises to failure.

2) The revival phase – say the next 6 to 18 months – how best to stabilise and get things back on line.

3) The building resilience phase – being much better prepared for whatever future crisis might be looming in the horizon.

Foundations are struggling right now as they consider how to address the challenges presented by the novel coronavirus; they’re being prompted to ask some highly consequential questions, such as:

1) Should I redesign my programme, perhaps by moving away from a traditional focus on, say, the arts to a new focus on health or tackling COVID-19 in refugee camps?

2) Should I shorten my investment horizon from a multi-year approach to a more short-term focus, right now, to support organisations with immediate funding to address their liquidity challenges? and

3) How should I react if my foundation’s endowment has taken a serious hit?

Steven notes that the EVPA is suggesting to their members that they become a bit more relaxed about the rigorous reporting requirements they’re traditionally asking of grantees and to be more flexible with the management of grants; they should ideally open up a little bit about where and when to use the money; become a bit more relaxed because it’s urgently needed now.

When asked about how the EVPA member organisations and industry stakeholders all share information with each other, Steven mentioned that they have just gone live with Unitus Europe – a European philanthropy and social investing impact hub – a joint initiative the EVPA was very involved in launching.  They’re joining forces to ensure that the whole sector can have visibility on the different actions and initiatives that are being taken and, in the process, connecting supply and demand.

Steven also sheds light on the challenges being faced by social investment funds at this time and the partnerships that the EVPA has developed with various universities that are focused on applied research, such as ESADE in Barcelona, ERASMUS in Rotterdam, Catolica in Lisbon and HEC in Paris.

Steven talks about his background in the private sector and how he ended up running the EVPA. He always had a conviction that there should be a sweet spot where you can both do business and you can also do good at the same time.

When considering what success looks like in the next 10 years; a time horizon that aligns well with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Steven notes that using regulated accounts to measure the success of a business is something we’ve started doing approximately 150 years ago.  Before that there really weren’t any regulated accounts.  Yet, today, the financials are the key metric everyone looks to.  A similar thing happened with risk – looking at risk and return is something that is relatively new. Therefore, what Steven sees now is a third element coming into the picture, which is 'impact'. Societal additionality – there are loads of debates on how to measure impact yet, in 10 years’ time, he’d like to see a state of affairs where impact is a tangible and integral part of this risk-return-impact dimension.

Steven’s key takeaway for listeners: these unprecedented times in light of COVID-19 mean there are big dangers and big opportunities out there. He sees that in times of crisis, we tend to take measures that are not temporary but are often here to stay. Right now he’s following a current discussion on privacy and whether we should deploy smartphone apps to track what we’re doing, who we’re connecting with etc [within a COVID-19 context]. From an immediate perspective, for sure, there is a benefit of implementing such a system.  However, we need to be mindful of how best to implement things that have a short-term value while also keeping in mind that once implemented it may not be so easy to remove them when required. We should be very aware that the actions we take now in this time of crisis will probably be around for a much longer time. Democracy is at stake – we should not take light-hearted decisions and we must keep our long-term values front and centre when taking action now.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely -- thank you!

The organisation was founded in 2016 by the Secretary General of the United Nations; its Board includes the head of UNICEF and the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is a public-private collaboration that includes UN agencies, governments, industry and others.  They have more than 400 members.

Collectively, they want to raise awareness, catalyse leadership commitments, mobilise resources, promote evidence-based solutions and support those who are working on the front line to tackle all forms of violence, abuse and neglect of children.

Early on in the podcast, we delve into the large amount of useful information they’re curating, which is available on their website, to help ensure children are protected during this period of uncertainty with the COVID-19 backdrop. 

The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children acts as a focal point of evidence-based information that is of relevance across many sectors, such as health, education and social services.  We are reminded that many sectors are involved in protecting children from violence.

Howard remarks that the risks children face right now are not new risks but they are exacerbated risks, due in great part to the high stress of COVID-19 in domestic environments -- confinement, isolation, job loss etc.   We hear how children are spending much more time online, and this increases risk.

Collectively, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children is trying to ensure child protection is embedded in government responses to COVID-19 across the globe. This is a key priority. It is also imperative that child protection services continue to be seen as essential services and get resourced appropriately during this pandemic.

Howard notes they must ensure that they get the right evidence-based advice to parents, caregivers and to children themselves. And, he underscores the importance of providing ‘evidence-based’ information since there is a lot of questionable information sloshing around out there. He notes it is a privilege to be working so closely with UNICEF, the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and many others – drawing on a wealth of experience and expertise.

One of the challenges right now is packaging this evidence-based information in the appropriate way to ensure it’s reaching the right audiences, with the right messages, in a timely fashion, to equip parents, caregivers and in some cases the children themselves to stay safe.

Countries are at different stages in dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and are embracing different responses. Irrespective of each country’s particular circumstances, Howard wants to ensure governments are taking child protection seriously. It is important to note this issue doesn’t go away once a coronavirus vaccine is made available. The violence, neglect and abuse experienced by children today will have very long-lasting effects on individual children and national economies.

There are approximately 1.5bn children who were previously in school and now are out of school due to COVID-19. Much of what these children are doing today is online; and they’re not connecting in person with teachers, friends or social workers – the network of people children normally have around them who can serve a protective function.

It’s important that parents and caregivers know what children are doing online. Moreover, we hear how there is also a role for technology companies and telecoms companies to play as well. There are certain things they can do in terms of making their platforms, their social media and their learning spaces as safe as possible; and, they can also help push out child safety messages and help detect, disrupt and stop any harmful activity that’s going on. 

The episode also touches on the increased vulnerability of certain at-risk segments, such as children who are refugees, migrants, displaced children and children living in conflict environments; often without parental care, living on the streets or in urban slums.  On top of everything, there’s also a gender dimension to keep in mind since girls are at higher risk than boys.

Howard speaks about his organisation’s strategic considerations in light of COVID-19 – his organisation employs approximately 25 staff who are mainly based in the USA and Geneva, Switzerland.  Many of them have worked in social impact and international development, yet none of them have ever worked through a global pandemic of this nature. The challenge now is that this pandemic doesn’t only impact their beneficiaries but, indeed, it has a direct impact on the team as individuals and the organisation as a whole.

Despite the wealth of experience the team has in dealing with conflicts and various other crises over many years and many places, the COVID-19 pandemic feels qualitatively different.  Everyone in Howard’s team is remote working and they’ve done much by way of scenario thinking and contingency planning as they try to figure out what this pandemic could look like as time moves on.

It’s not just about how to end violence during COVID-19 but also nobody knows exactly how lockdowns will unwind or how COVID-19 will eventually unfold, or when a vaccine will come in, so it’s also about thinking of the next 18 months and beyond, and what is going to be needed, what is going to be possible and how do they go about that with and through their partners.

Howard also introduces listeners to their ‘Fund’, which has made significant investments in the last few years – particularly to address child online safety and also for children in humanitarian areas of conflict. In light of COVID-19, they’re now reaching out to their grantees to find out what they need on the ground, what the implications are for the work they’re doing, and what it means for them not just workwise but also organisationally.  It is a fund that has mainly been funded by governments and foundations but that is open to everyone who wishes to support the work they’re doing.

We then also hear of INSPIRE – a set of evidence-based strategies for countries and communities working to eliminate violence against children, which was created by various UN agencies, the US Centers for Disease Control and others.  Howard noted that it’s probably the best example of a comprehensive set of strategies which, if adopted, followed, resourced and implemented give you a good shot at ending violence against children.

When asked what success looks like for the next 10 years: Howard would like to see target 16.2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achieved by 2030 – the target focuses on eliminating violence against children. He views it as his job, and that of his team and partners, to hold governments to account and, indeed, also to support governments with the evidence and resources.

Howard’s key takeaway: Firstly, we can and must do more to protect children during COVID-19. Secondly, to have optimism that coming out of COVID-19 the world isn’t going to be the same as it was before, and so asking what is it going to look like to build back differently. Whether that’s around the level of consciousness and awareness of the issue; whether that’s around action that’s taken to address the issue of violence, abuse and neglect of children. Do more now, and in doing so be more aware and, then, let’s build back differently as we come out of this crisis to whatever the next new normal is going to look like for children all over the world.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely -- thank you!

Dalberg is a strategic advisory firm serving a wide range of clients, from foundations and NGOs to private firms and governments. The firm was founded in 2001 and aims to create a world where all people everywhere are able to reach their full potential. In this episode we discuss how they're tackling COVID-19 implications and advising their clients accordingly.

Development and impact is key for Dalberg and, today, they are a group of companies with 30 offices globally and interests in a wide range of activities, including: human-centered design, data analytics, on-the-ground research, transaction advisory, media and advocacy, and increasingly implementation capacity.

Edwin started his career at McKinsey & Co in New York in 2001. He notes how 9/11 was actually his second day at work and it was a defining moment in his life that helped shape his outlook and appreciation of impact and the importance of things besides traditional shareholder value maximisation.

Dalberg works closely with national governments, the UN ecosystem and multilateral agencies. They’ve become the largest top-tier advisory firm in Africa; larger even than those that don’t focus on mission and impact to the same extent.  They appreciate that many markets in the global south are the most forgotten and the least able to access professional support, and they’re keen to ‘localise’ their approach, meaning that in any given country where they operate, between 60% to 80% of staff are from that country themselves.

Thematically, they cover everything across the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since, as Edwin notes, everything is tightly interconnected. You can’t fix malnutrition in children, for instance, by focusing on health alone. The drivers may well be agricultural issues, or trade issues, or education issues – everything is interconnected.

COVID-19 has been a major shock to every single client they serve; private, governmental, philanthropies; it has impacted everyone across the board. When advising clients on how best to brace themselves for the arrival of COVID-19, there are three core things they’re focused on:

Firstly: Understand thoroughly what the situation is today, and respond appropriately. If you’re a private venture, consider your supply chain, your workforce and your distribution networks, for instance.  If you’re a government, what does this do to your fiscal space and your ability to raise taxes. If you’re a philanthropist, which places do you invest in, and are you taking a portfolio view. Even in this immediate context, what are the things you can do today that can have a long-term impact for your own organisation and business. Edwin emphasises that in the middle of a crisis nobody has perfect information, so you need to have a system to constantly assess what’s going on so you can respond accordingly. Also, recognise that the decisions you made yesterday may not be the correct ones for today, since you may now have new or better information that you didn’t have before.

Secondly: Start understanding what are the mid-term impacts that COVID-19 will likely have on your firm, government or philanthropy, and make decisions that provide for the best possible floor for your organisation so you don’t crash through it and therefore are unable to recover when this crisis concludes.

Thirdly: Proactively start to plan for what the post-pandemic world could look like. Because the decisions you make today could lock you in a negative space if you don’t think long-term enough on what recovery begins to look like – you may be tempted to get rid of capabilities or assets or partnerships that you might need to reacquire further down the line.

It is important to recognise that the first thing you’ll feel is panic; the world is falling on your head and you don’t know what to do.  It’s important to acknowledge this but, also, you need to park that to one side and then move to a more deliberate approach to understand the expected impact on your organisation and then start to plan appropriately for what the response looks like.

Even at Delberg themselves, they started tracking COVID-19 in early January 2020 and once they realised that this virus wasn’t going to be contained in China, they very quickly started having business continuity conversations and ensuring the most important matters got attention from the very most senior leadership in the firm. We don’t know what the crisis will look like but we know that we can prepare today as best as possible so we can aim to respond appropriately.

Towards the end of February they stopped all international travel at Dalberg, which was very difficult to do, especially keeping in mind their on-the-ground research and human-centered design work.  This was difficult but it was the right decision to protect their staff, the communities where they’re based and simply to be good citizens of the world and reduce the risk of transmitting this virus as they’re travelling through airports.

Edwin is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and he explains how there, too, they experienced initial panic followed by anxiety. This is a challenge for government leaders because on the one hand you want to protect the health of your citizens and on the other you want to protect their livelihoods – many people don’t have savings and are manual workers. It’s a very challenging reality. In some communities social distancing is simply impossible, with high-density communities, no running water, no possibility for remote working.  A taxi driver or a labourer in a construction site simply cannot telecommute and, yet, these are the most vulnerable segments.

In response, Dalberg is incubating coalitions that can tackle these challenges in effective and scalable ways.  ‘Safe Hands’ is one such initiative. It’s a coalition of Dalberg and new tech companies in Kenya, and manufacturers and distributers aimed at providing the hand sanitisers and face masks so desperately needed, and ensuring as much as possible of these get to informal communities.  It’s large scale manufacturing at the lowest possible cost.  Almost everyone in the coalition has said they’re putting aside the profit motive to ensure they’re protecting these more vulnerable communities.

Another initiative focuses on unconditional cash transfers to those who are most vulnerable. These cash transfers help people so they can continue to operate and exist as individuals. Cash has a strong economic multiplier because it ensures the local shopkeeper is still able to sell products and, therefore, the supply chain is maintained.

They’ve started these two coalitions in Kenya, but their aim is to use these as examples for others to build similar coalitions in countries across the globe. They want to share the model, the lessons they’ve learned and ensure they share this insight with others.

Edwin notes that some philanthropists in the global south have stepped up to the challenge; Aliko Dangote being one such example.  The bit Edwin underscores from a global north philanthropy perspective is that everyone is being called to support the same cause. Everyone is being approached to help with COVID-19, irrespective of whether they live in San Francisco or Zimbabwe or Senegal. This is a departure from what has traditionally been the case, where philanthropists in the developed world would be approached for very different things in their local community versus the needs they might address in the developing world.

Also, because of distance and the inability to travel at present, it’s important for philanthropists to listen to insights from the frontlines. What’s happening in response to COVID-19 in California, for instance, may be interesting but not necessarily directly transferable to what’s happening in Tanzania. So, if you’re already working with partners in the front lines, be much more attentive to the things they say they need, versus looking at your local partner simply as a ‘delivery partner’.

Edwin also brings into the conversation the need to pay attention to what’s happening in the global east.  The people who are furthest along in dealing with COVID-19 largely sit in the global east – China, Singapore, Hong Kong.   They’re weeks if not months ahead.

Unfortunately, though, from a technical perspective, the link between the global east is weakest with the global south.  So, a lot of this knowledge tends to be intermediated by a Western institution. The China context in a development perspective is much closer to an African context than New York or Italy, for instance.  Edwin recommends that as philanthropists today are thinking about where they can provide support today for global south partners; rather than the traditional question of how do I go through a global north institution, which then works with a global south institution, ask yourself 'can I actually find a way to tie the connection between global east and global south'? Because this transmission of knowledge is what needs to happen in a much more accelerated way in today’s world.

Key takeaway: He wonders, how can we expand individuals’ moral universe.  How can we expand empathy and people’s understanding of just how connected we all are. Therefore, looking out for each other is in our own selfish best interests. Hopefully, when we look back on this crisis, we can say 'did we build back better' because all our interventions had a person at the centre of what we were trying to achieve. And that person was not those who we currently consider to be in our moral universe but it’s actually much more global and much more expansive. Because this is the only way we will find long-term solutions to this challenge. To Edwin, COVID-19 is the first of challenges humanity is going to face. Climate change is just waiting around the corner.  We can use this crisis to build back better; an ability to respond will require us to all start from a position of greater and deeper empathy, particularly for leaders across the world, and then hopefully create the systems and institutions to make that possible.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share if you enjoy this podcast -- thank you!

COVID-19 in crisis settings and the power of play. CEO of Right To Play, Kevin Frey, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss how they’re preparing for the pandemic in 52 refugee camps across 22 countries.

This episode looks at Right To Play’s work and how it impacts lives in diverse ways – we frame the whole conversation within the coronavirus context and the challenges for their workforce and beneficiaries alike.

Right To Play is an international organisation that was founded in 2000 by Johann Olav Koss – a former Norwegian Olympian. They’re working in 22 countries – mainly in Africa, Middle East and Asia – and reach over 22 million children every year. They work in 52 different refugee camps and have extensive experience in crisis settings.   

Kevin and Right To Play Internatiponal are based in Toronto, Canada, and the organisation has offices in many countries, from New York and London, to Amsterdam, Norway, Sweden and Germany.  They use all forms of play, from gamified learning to music, sports, arts and more.  

We hear of the organisation’s trajectory, from 2000 until today. Over the years, they have secured impressive government and foundation partners.  They work closely with the LEGO Foundation and the IKEA Foundation, and have collaborated with the governments of Canada, UK, Switzerland and Germany, to name a few.  They have also entered into a high-profile partnership with Liverpool Football Club and have Right To Play’s logo featured on Liverpool's kit for Champions League games.

When asked about COVID-19 and his concerns of how this pandemic will impact their work, Kevin notes that they have concerns about preparing their staff in the Global South for what’s coming and protecting their beneficiaries – the millions of children who they reach every year.

The dynamics on the ground in many of the countries and settings where they work present real challenges.  Densely populated areas, refugee camps, poor water sanitation, poor access to healthcare etc – the list is lengthy.

This will impact local communities in many different ways and at Right To Play they’re not only doing pre-emptive work on hand washing and social distancing but are also paying much attention to providing psycho-social support for the trauma that will ensue post-pandemic.  Mental health and wellbeing are key considerations beyond the direct viral impact of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19.

Interestingly, Right To Play learned much from when they were doing charitable work in Liberia back in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak.  They hope that in countries that have coped with Ebola, there will be experience, expertise and insight that will help them better prepare for the imminent challenges of this crisis.

We hear how ‘play’ is a means to an end.  Through play, they manage to improve children's lives across many areas, including quality education, gender equality, peaceful communities, health and wellbeing, and child protection – it’s a holistic set of objectives and play is merely a means to achieve this.

Kevin notes that Right To Play’s name can be misleading since they don’t actually exist to defend children’s right to play – rather, play is just the mechanism that they use to drive these really important changes in kids’ lives. It’s a powerful force in children’s lives.

Play can convene children so they come out to whatever programmes you’re running and to teach them active experiential gamified learning – there is very strong research that shows this is how kids learn best.

Impact is at the core of their activities and they’re incorporating RCTs (randomised control trials) wherever possible into their programme design.

We hear how building local capacity is key to Right To Play’s model.  RTP employees don’t work directly with children. Instead, they always train local partners to run those programmes on the front lines.  They train and engage with diverse stakeholders, from community organisations and teachers to prison guards in children’s correctional facilities.

Historically, Right To Play were keen to enter whatever countries they had funding for. Today, however, RTP tries to go deep into the countries where they have an existing presence. That being said, they have recently announced with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada a joint partnership bringing Right To Play to Senegal.  This is an exciting addition to the work Right To Play is already doing in Mali, Jordan, Thailand, Mozambique, Burundi, Pakistan, Ghana and several other countries.

When asked about what success looks like in the next 10 years, Kevin remarks that: It’s not about achieving some headline number. Rather, they want to continue to serve more and more children in the run up 2030 -- the target year for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They want to get to more kids to protect, to educate and to empower them.  They’d like to engage with other international organisations that may already be working at large scale across 50 or 100 countries; they’d like to explore how such global organisations can become delivery and distribution partners for the evidence-based work Right To Play is offering.  Scale and reaching more kids really matters.

Kevin’s key takeaway: Speaking within a COVID-19 context, Kevin notes that leaders can get hit by these crises that you never see coming and you can be stunned and left wondering what do I do next. But he notes that it is precisely when the world is changing super rapidly like this that actually new opportunities are emerging – opportunities to serve new populations, or born out of necessity, to invent new and disruptive ways to innovate and to deliver impact. New opportunities to get into relationships with people that up until now you hadn’t been talking to. There are huge opportunities to leapfrog on strategy, on delivery methodologies, on organisational structure.  Ask yourself, how can I make this crisis a force for really progressive and positive change for our organisation.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe to this podcast and share widely -- thank you!

Canopy is focused on protecting the world’s forests, species, climate and helping advance community rights.  They do this by harnessing the power of the marketplace.

Nicole launched Canopy 20 years ago with a small budget of $1,800. Today, they work with 750 large corporate customers, including H&M, Zara and Kimberly-Clark by helping them to develop and implement environmental policies.

They aim to change behaviours at a societal level. They approach this by working with the top 1,000 to 2,000 senior decision-makers who work within clothing companies, e-retailers and publishers.

The sheer size and purchasing power of the companies these individuals work for means they have incredible economic and political influence to incentivise forestry companies and governments to change business-as-usual practice. 

Nicole notes that Canopy is probably best known for ‘greening’ the Harry Potter series, which we hear was a lot of fun to do. 

Back in the early 2000s, they were working with Raincoast Books – the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the 5th instalment of the series. They worked to get the book published on environmental paper – free from ancient and endangered forest fibre.  Nicole underscores that both JK Rowling and her agent were very supportive of the initiative.

Then, fast-forward to the 7th book in the Harry Potter series where the book was printed on environmental paper in 24 countries and became the greenest book in publishing history.

The sheer volume of this endeavour provided proof to the industry that you really could publish high volume work on environmentally friendly paper.

Canopy’s work also tackles fast fashion, and the environmental and social footprint of the whole fashion industry. We hear how fashion is a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation. There are 200 million trees today disappearing into fashion annually; into viscose, into rayon, and modal fabrics. And this number is slated to double within the next decade.

Canopy have been proactive in engaging with industry leaders and they started reaching out to brands and designers, icons within the fashion industry: Stella McCartney, H&M, Eileen Fisher, Levis – working with them to develop environmental policies that commit to eliminating the use of viscose and rayon fabrics originating from ancient and endangered forests and, also, to prioritise and help drive next-generation solutions.  

They publicly launched ‘Canopy Style’ six years ago and now have 213 brands on board that represent $260 billion in annual revenues. This has enabled them to get similar commitments from most of the world’s viscose producers and, consequently, enabled them to start transforming the industry. Canopy drives change through collective action and convening; they help corporate clients through key services such as developing policies, tools and systems.

Interestingly, Canopy does not enter into financial relationships with any of the brands they work with. They feel this helps protect the integrity of their work – they’re keen on long-term, transformational relationships. Nicole feels that when a cheque is slid across the table, the whole relationship can become more transactional. Therefore, Canopy relies on a more traditional philanthropy model whereby most of their income comes from Foundations (60%) and major donors (30%).

Nicole’s key takeaway: We’re at a critical junction as humanity. Our time is calling us to be more audacious and to take risks. We can’t just keep doing the same things and feel frustrated that we’re not shifting the dial fast enough. We have to be bolder and we need to be willing to be uncomfortable.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely with others if you enjoy this podcast – thank you!

COVID-19 threatens to decimate the developing world. CEO of ActionAid UK, Girish Menon, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss strategic preparations as the novel coronavirus spreads into the Global South. 

​

Girish notes: "We have no idea how it's going to unfold, we have no idea when it's going to end, we have no idea of how the new normal will be defined."

​

ActionAid is an international charity and human rights organisation that works with women and girls living in poverty and aims to end violence, foster women's economic empowerment and protect girls' and women's rights. They work in approximately 40 countries in the Global South, in Asia, Africa and Latin America and have a keen interest in helping girls and women in humanitarian crises.

​

The conversation with Girish focuses exclusively on the devastating impact this global pandemic could have in the developing world and is framed in light of "The Global Impact of COVID-19 and Strategies for Mitigation and Suppression" report from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team published on 26 March 2020.

​

While populations in low-income countries tend to be younger, they also tend to experience poorer health, live in larger households where the elderly would struggle to self-isolate and often live in highly concentrated environments -- including refugee camps and urban areas.  Moreover, a lack of clean water, poor sanitation and health infrastructures that lack capacity and sophistication all point to a highly disturbing scenario whereby mortality rates and economic impact could devastate societies.

​

We discuss ActionAid's strategic thinking and manoeuvring in the face of COVID-19, and the challenges faced by NGOs, and their chief executives, in terms of decreased funding, strained operations and governments that are struggling to cope.

​

We also consider how women and girls could be disproportionately impacted by this global pandemic since in low-income countries two thirds of informal sector workers are women -- compounded by the potential for increased domestic violence that we have seen before in moments of crisis.

​

ActionAid's largest fundraising market is the UK, which constitutes 1/3 of the funds they raise globally. Therefore, any reduction in UK income could have a highly detrimental impact on ActionAid's work. We discuss ActionAid's Southern Africa Food Crisis Appeal, which they launched two months earlier -- 45 million people are facing one of the worst food crises, impacting the poor and most vulnerable the most. While attention now focuses on the coronavirus, a key point worth underscoring is that these themes are deeply intertwined. 

​

During this time of acute crisis, Girish notes how he's been in daily contact with his peers in other organisations. ActionAid maintains close co-ordination and communications with other leading organisations through its membership of 'Bond' -- the UK network for organisations working in international development -- and the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee). Girish mentions how they have already started considering deploying a global fundraising appeal as the pandemic hits the Global South. 

​

Girish's key takeaway for NGO leaders and CEOs: Stay mission-focused and be true to your culture. Don't be distracted from your mission. Focus on what you can control and manage because the world is unpredictable.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe to this podcast and share widely -- thank you for your support.

CEO of Transcendental Meditation organisations, Dr Tony Nader, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss the TM movement, how to start practising TM and why it can benefit your mental and physical wellbeing.

Tony sheds light on his personal journey, from PhD research on cognitive sciences at MIT to leading the Transcendental Meditation Programme across the globe.  He explains how this simple technique can give you energy, strength and make you feel rejuvenated.

We hear what makes TM unique and learn some of the overarching principles that underpin it. For those who are curious, there is an explanation of what practising TM actually looks like and why it has the potential to improve mental and physical wellbeing. 

Tony is clear that TM is not a religion, nor a philosophy, nor a belief system and, indeed, there are individuals from all faiths who practise TM.

Transcendental Meditation was launched in the mid-1950s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And, while many people may associate TM with celebrities, Tony remarks that TM has a presence in most countries around the world and has 12 million people practising it. He describes it as a grassroots organisation – a big family that is open to everyone.

Tony’s key takeaway: we are fullness within; every one of us is wholeness. And, there is something very beautiful, very deep within ourselves. It is our consciousness that is an expanded field of being that we can reach, that we can experience; know the beauty of who we are, know ourselves and the real depth of what we are and live life in fullness and wholeness and perfection. This is the birthright of every human being. And, it is not a hope or a wish, it can be achieved systematically, scientifically and repeatedly.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely if you enjoy the podcast -- thank you!

The Social Investment Business (SIB) has been around for approximately 20 years.  From 2002 to 2010 they did £320m worth of investments into a whole range of organisations.  More recently, they’ve added grant-making and business support to their range of activities.

Their world has changed over the past 20 years, with many new players active in this field compared with just a handful that were active when they first launched.  Nick notes that this is a good thing – the space is more mature and there are a higher number of specialist funds out there and more support available that is better targeted and specialised, based on things such as geography and thematic areas of operation.

The Social Investment Business provides debt/loans, grants and business support – they always try to find the right blend. While, traditionally, most of their investments have been in the form of debt, more recently they’ve been doing grants, including grants for business support.

Nick sheds light on the nature of their various funds and the debt, grants and support they provide. He then proceeds to delve into the ‘Spectrum of Capital’ – from social investing and impact investing to ESG-integrated investing and traditional investing. [NB: ESG = Environmental, Social and Governance]

There is still much work to be done in terms of improving definitions in the world of social and impact investing.  There is also a healthy degree of scepticism when talking of impact investing: Nick referenced instances where ESG funds have simply been re-branded as 'impact funds', while in actual fact nothing had changed except for their name.  There’s a need for standards, and there is an obvious risk of ‘impact washing’ – as there was with ‘green washing’. Nick shares very useful insight on impact and how to interpret it.

Nick’s key takeaway: increasingly we’re thinking less about scaling individual organisations as part of what SIB does and more about scaling impact across the board. And so he thinks, increasingly as times are hard, people should be thinking about sustainable prosperity and strengthening organisations to make them resilient for whatever happens . He thinks that imposing scale on individual ventures and organisations may be something they look back on and slightly question why they had been doing that.

Visit Lidji.org for episode notes, guest bios and useful links. Please subscribe and share if you enjoy the podcast -- thank you!

Fran explains how working on 360Giving has been an absolute joy and a bit of a roller coaster.  It came out of her experience both as a philanthropist, starting off at quite a young age, and from her experience as a technology nerd. She is a massive video game fan and has always been fascinated by the Internet and the potential for knowledge to change lives.

In her earlier career, she worked as a civil servant in the UK government and was in the Prime Minister's strategy unit under Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Back in 2007, she was lucky to be put on a project reviewing the power of information and how the government can use information and data.

This hugely inspired her and got her thinking about future trends in data and where that could be used for public services and public good; not just for commercial ventures.

She set up her foundation when she was just 18 and at that time she knew very little about how to give well and what other donors were doing. So, she wanted to learn from other donors but it was clear that there wasn’t much data readily available on what others were doing in the world of philanthropy.

There was no good reason for this lack of data -- there was no technical problem, it's not a complicated type of data regarding who has given what money to whom.  So, Fran decided to give this idea of getting foundations and philanthropists to share information a try. Interestingly, it wasn't a core part of her strategy as a philanthropist at the time.

She had always had a sort of 90/10 Rule, which was: 90% should be focused on clearly strategic grants, while 10% should be around the more emotional, reactive and experimental work. Because, as she notes, if you exclude the possibility of just trying something non-strategic you often miss the passion and the fun that can come through philanthropy.

When asked whether some philanthropists and/or foundations are sometimes a bit timid about sharing their data, perhaps for fear of being put under the spotlight or of being ridiculed, she notes that things can be complex.  

There is a complex set of reasons of why some do share information while others do not.  It's very different for different donors. She initially was reticent about being public about her own giving. The fact that she had inherited her money; the fact that the press in the UK don’t always view the philanthropy sector in a positive light – these things made her nervous.

Fran also remarks that a lot of donors don't realise that being transparent or open is a good thing to do and that it would be of interest to others.  In actual fact, being open with your data is one of the most powerful ways to help charities.

Fran was keen from the start to make things simple and accessible to foundations of all sizes. If you go to the 360Giving website you will see loads of guidance with everything that you need to do in order to publish your data.

What 360Giving asks is simply for foundations put their internal grant-making figures (figures they’d need for their financial reporting anyway) in a standardised format – the 360Giving Standard – and then to publish this data online. It can be published on a foundation’s own website and the foundation can then simply send 360Giving a link to that information.

So, 360Giving is not so much a platform as opposed to a registry that draws together all those different sources of data and allows people to search them in one place.  Even the tiniest foundation just needs to change a few column headings, re-engineer the data and be willing to put it online with an open licence.

Many foundations are great at publishing annual reports and have lots of facts and figures and case studies. Which is wonderful. But if you're a charity, an academic, or a donor you don't have time to print off hundreds of annual reports to read through. No one has that time and we are wasting time as a sector doing that. However, just by changing the format of data it makes it possible to search it and that is the magic of open data and the Internet – we can make it so much easier for anyone to find information.

Fran explains that when she was trying to learn about how best to do her own philanthropy she was lucky to come across ‘The Philanthropy Workshop’, which was very helpful for her.  She found out that actually there is a way to do philanthropy well; there are skills one can learn; and there is a community of learners that are all asking similar questions.  Aspiring philanthropists can benefit by identifying their peers in the space they’re interested in and also by gaining the skills required to be good at grant-making.

Currently, 360Giving have 115 different foundations in the UK publishing their data fully. Fran explains how the data provided is simple and useful. They’re looking for the absolute simplest data. (i.e. this foundation gave this amount, to this charity, on this date, in this geographic location – all accompanied by a text description of the grant in question) They’re not making any judgement or data statement; there are no averages, no trends, it is just the basic facts, which can be immensely useful.

Fran hopes that in the next 10 years, they will have really made some measurable change in increasing opportunities for donors to improve their work; to learn from others; to work with others.

The key takeaway Fran offers at the end of the episode is particularly for donors, philanthropists and foundation staff.  If we value the role of philanthropy in a modern society we have to be willing to open up and work to constantly improve our practice. She celebrates philanthropy and notes that it’s not always perfect. We make loads of mistakes but, overall, she thinks it’s a force for good in the world. She wants more people to give, and to give more, but she also wants to constantly ask what does it mean to give well.  And, if there isn’t going to be real external accountability and levers for change, then we have to do that ourselves; we have to scrutinise each other, encourage each other, and then hopefully society can judge that what we’re doing is worth continuing.

Visit Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe and share widely if you enjoy this podcast -- thank you!