The Charity Changemakers Podcast

Why isn't major donor fundraising working for your charity? According to Louise Morris, it's rarely the cause, and it's almost never a lack of contacts.

Louise is the founder of Summit Fundraising, a consultancy and training company specialising in major donor fundraising.

She began her career in sales and marketing at Unilever, moved into the charity sector in her mid-twenties and held fundraising roles at Tommy's, Samaritans and RNID before becoming a Director of Fundraising.

Ten years ago, she set up Summit and now works with charities of every size, from small local organisations to household names.

In this episode, Louise shares:

• Why losing her Dad prompted her to leave Unilever and look for more meaningful work
• How corporate negotiation training gave her confidence with donors
• Why she stepped away from a director role, and what a missed after-school football club taught her about flexible working
• The fear and "lumpy cashflow" of going it alone, and how Summit grew from there

We then dig into how small and medium-sized charities can start or grow a major donor programme:

• Why it won't grow unless someone has protected time to lead it, even if that's just three hours a week
• Why trustees hold back on introductions, and why they don't need to ask anyone for money
• Why doing major donor fundraising badly can be worse than not doing it at all
• Where to find your first potential major donors (they're probably already involved with you)
• Why being a smaller charity can be a real strength
• The most common mistakes; impatience, skipping the building blocks and nobody owning it
• How long a board should realistically wait, and the milestones to track besides income

Louise closes with a reflection that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt stuck - leadership is not your job title.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome and introduction
00:40 Quick-fire questions
03:30 From Unilever to the charity sector
09:40 Leaving the director role and starting Summit
17:20 What Summit does today
20:57 Where to start with major donor fundraising
28:13 Making the case to your board
30:34 The skills and support you need
33:09 Common mistakes charities make
36:21 How long before you see returns?
41:21 Leadership is not your job title

Resources mentioned
The Summit 3 Essentials guide and other free resources: https://summitfundraising.co.uk/free-resources/
Join the free Summit major donor community: https://summitfundraising.co.uk/join/
Find out more about the Major Donor Fundraising from Scratch programme: https://summitfundraising.co.uk/from-scratch/

Connect with Louise on LinkedIn (Louise Morris, Summit Fundraising) or visit summitfundraising.co.uk

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Kathryn Ward, a people leader, consultant, interim, fractional and coach who spent six years as Chief People Officer at Guide Dogs before founding her own consultancy, Zephyr People.

Kathryn shares the moment a headhunter first called about the Guide Dogs role in January 2019 - and why she turned it down, convinced she didn't have the right background. By the time they called back in April, a shift from a fixed to a growth mindset had changed her answer, and it shaped how she's approached every big career decision since.

Together, Adam and Kathryn unpack:

• Why she nearly said no to the job that defined her charity career
• The gendered confidence gap behind that hesitation, and how she moved past it
• Why "you have to like people to be good at HR" is a myth
• Trusteeship as the smartest, lowest-risk way to test a move into the sector
• The breadth and loneliness of sitting on a charity exec team
• Why charity leaders need more peer-to-peer networks, not fewer
• Leaving Guide Dogs to build Zephyr People - a portfolio life of consultancy, interim work and coaching
• Burnout, trauma-informed coaching, and why change is so hard for people who've self-actualised through their cause

Kathryn also reflects candidly on loneliness in leadership, the staff reps she still stays in touch with more than former senior colleagues, and why making space for quieter voices has become central to how she leads. This is a warm, practical conversation for anyone weighing a move into the charity sector, sitting on the fence about a trustee role, or wondering whether "good enough" really is good enough to take the next step.

Takeaways

• Career journey from commercial HR into the charity sector
• Imposter syndrome and the shift to a growth mindset
• The realities - and the myths - of a career in HR and people leadership
• Trusteeship as a deliberate route into charity leadership
• The breadth and complexity of sitting on a charity exec team
• Portfolio careers - consultancy, interim work, fractional roles and coaching
• Peer-to-peer networks and why the charity sector needs more of them
• Burnout, trauma-informed coaching and leading through change
• Inclusive leadership and making space for every voice

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and quickfire questions
• 07:11 The phone call that changed everything - falling into charity leadership
• 10:46 Overcoming imposter syndrome to become a Chief People Officer
• 18:40 Why trusteeship is the smartest way in from commercial
• 22:17 The hardest part of stepping up - holding the breadth of an exec role
• 26:58 The power - and the gap - in charity peer-to-peer networks
• 32:06 Leaving Guide Dogs and launching Zephyr People
• 35:53 Coaching, burnout and why change feels so hard in charity culture
• 38:40 Leadership lessons learned the hard way

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share and leave a review. Your support helps more charity leaders and changemakers discover the show.

#CharitySector #CharityLeadership #NonProfitLeadership #CharityCareers #HRLeadership #PeopleAndCulture #Coaching #CharityChangemakers

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by David Craig, Chief Executive of Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance, for a conversation about a career that was never planned.

David talks candidly about falling into the sector almost by accident – from processing invoices in a hospitality company, into its public relations team running charity-of-the-year partnerships, and from there into professional fundraising with no formal background in it at all.

He shares the pivotal, deeply personal moment that reshaped his path: after his son was born ten weeks premature, David became a trustee of Bliss, the charity for newborn babies, and helped establish Bliss Scotland from scratch.

That experience of sitting on the other side of the boardroom table gave him his first real grounding in governance and strategy, and set him on course for his first chief executive role at 38.

Eleven years into leading Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance, David reflects on what's kept him in one organisation for so long in a sector where leaders typically move on every five to seven years, what it's like leading a team whose work is genuinely life or death, why he's already thinking about succession planning, and why – whatever the job title – he still describes himself first as a fundraiser.

Takeaways

• A career that began entirely by accident, from accounts admin to public relations to professional fundraising
• How corporate charity-of-the-year partnerships can be a genuine route into the sector
• Why a personal crisis – his son's premature birth – led David to become a trustee of Bliss
• The case for taking on a trusteeship as a deliberate career development move
• Becoming a first-time chief executive at 38, at Falkirk FC's Community Foundation
• Why David still calls himself "a fundraiser" despite the CEO title
• What's kept him at Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance for eleven years and counting
• Succession planning, and the responsibility of leaving an organisation in a stable position
• Leadership lessons learned the hard way: listening, clarity, and a culture of "no surprises"
  

Chapters

• 00:01 Introduction and quickfire questions
• 05:41 Falling into fundraising by accident
• 15:39 Recruitment consultancy and becoming head of fundraising at the Tulliken Trust
• 18:56 A premature birth, a chance leaflet, and becoming a Bliss trustee
• 28:22 First CEO role: rebuilding Falkirk FC's Community Foundation
• 31:47 Joining Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance
• 38:06 Eleven years on: why David has stayed, and planning for succession
• 43:40 The leadership lesson David learned the hard way
  

#CharitySector #AirAmbulance #CharityLeadership #NonProfitLeadership #CharityCareers #Trusteeship #Fundraising #CharityChangemakers

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Julie Randles, Chief Executive of Power2, a children and young people's charity based in Ashton under Lyne, working across Greater Manchester, the North West, West Midlands and Greater London. Julie's route into the sector was anything but obvious, starting on the WHSmith graduate scheme, moving through Waterstones and children's publishing, then into charity by way of unpaid volunteering at Save the Children.

She talks candidly about why volunteering and trusteeship are two of the most underrated routes into senior charity leadership, what running Power2's Teens and Toddlers programme has taught her about self worth, and why the gap between proven impact and available funding remains one of the sector's biggest frustrations.

Julie also reflects on the hardest leadership lesson of her career, learning when passion needs a little less heart on the sleeve.

Takeaways

• Volunteering can be the fastest route into a charity career, even at a senior level
• Sitting on a board teaches you what it is really like to be a CEO
• Charity job applications reward detail, not passion statements
• Proven programmes often can not scale because funding lags behind demand
• Lived experience across a team changes how a charity works, not just what it says
  

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and quick fire questions
• 04:00 From WHSmith to Save the Children, an unlikely route into charity
• 11:00 Why volunteering and trusteeship open doors
• 19:40 Inside Power2, Teens and Toddlers and the programmes that followed
• 24:40 The funding gap holding back proven impact
• 35:15 How to actually get a charity sector job
• 38:40 The hardest leadership lesson Julie has learned
  

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share and leave a review. Your support helps more charity leaders and changemakers discover the show.

Visit the Power2 website here.

#CharitySector #NonprofitLeadership #CharityChangemakers #Power2 #CharityCareers #Trusteeship #SocialImpact

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Roxanne Lawrance, CEO of Teens Unite, a charity supporting young people aged 13 to 24 living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis.

Roxanne never planned a career in the sector. She built a commercial career in business analysis and contact centre management before volunteering with Teens Unite while on maternity leave, telling the founders she'd stay for two years. Nearly nine years on, she's leading the organisation.

Roxanne and Adam unpack how she moved from founder led leadership to running the charity herself, the mentors and "be bold" mindset that shaped her career, and why she believes the best charities operate with the same commercial discipline as any business, just with a different kind of profit.

A candid conversation on team culture, handling funding setbacks, and what it really takes to lead in the charity sector.

Takeaways

• Career journey from commercial leadership into the charity sector
• Why business skills transfer directly into nonprofit leadership
• The value of career mentors, and being bold enough to ask for them
• Building a team culture around honest feedback and psychological safety
• Navigating funding setbacks without losing team morale
• Why the best charities are mission driven and commercially disciplined
  

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and background
• 05:17 Getting into the charity sector
• 09:24 The two year plan that became a career
• 14:05 Building a team culture that isn't built by accident
• 18:18 Mentors, and being bold in who you ask
• 25:57 Success, setbacks, and what continues when you're not in the room
• 40:20 Why charities need mission and commercial discipline
  
  #CharitySector #NonProfitLeadership #CharityCareers #LeadershipLessons #ThirdSector #CharityChangemakers #Podcast

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Olivia Barker White, co-founder and Chief Executive of Kids Club Kampala, an international children's charity now working across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Olivia traces her journey from an 18-year-old on a gap year in Uganda to running a 20-year-old organisation that has supported over 1.5 million people.

She's candid about the discomfort of "voluntourism," the moment that turned a fun kids' football club into something much bigger, and why she believes small, agile charities are often better placed than large NGOs to respond to real need on the ground.

Together, Adam and Olivia unpack: the ethics of gap years and international volunteering, the accidental, organic route into founding a charity, why a community-led partnership model (not a UK-charity-knows-best model) has been central to Kids Club Kampala's growth, how being small allowed the charity to pivot fast during COVID and feed thousands when larger NGOs pulled their staff out, and why donor stewardship and thanking supporters well has quietly driven two decades of growth.

Olivia also reflects honestly on pride, burnout, boundaries, and learning that she isn't personally responsible for solving everything – and why looking after her own wellbeing is what keeps the charity sustainable for the long run.

Takeaways

• The ethics of gap years, volunteering and avoiding "white saviourism"
• How Kids Club Kampala started organically from a gap year friendship, with no strategy or plan
• The moment that shifted focus from fun and games to child protection and basic needs
• Why a genuine, equal partnership model with local teams is central to impact
• How being a small charity enabled a fast pivot to emergency food relief during COVID
• The value of excellent donor stewardship in sustaining long-term growth
• Learning to set boundaries and protect wellbeing as a charity leader

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and quick-fire questions
• 04:35 Olivia's route into the charity sector
• 07:12 Gap year in Uganda and the founding of Kids Club Kampala
• 17:03 The return trip and the moment that changed everything
• 23:44 Registering as a charity and building the UK–Uganda partnership
• 28:03 Why small charities can be more adaptable than large NGOs
• 31:02 Pivoting to emergency food relief during COVID
• 32:15 Olivia's personal journey to becoming full-time Chief Executive
• 37:36 The power of donor stewardship
• 39:56 Kids Club Kampala today: education, family strengthening and child protection
• 42:06 Reflecting on impact, pride and sustaining yourself for the long run
  

#podcast #charity #careers #internationaldevelopment #nonprofitleadership #charitychangemakers

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Ru Watkins, Chief Executive of Hamelin, a learning disability and autism charity growing rapidly across Essex and East Anglia.

Ru brings a career unlike most in the sector. After 23 years in the British Army, he moved into corporate roles with BT and others before a phone call from a headhunter changed his direction entirely. That call led him to Noah's Ark Children's Hospice in North London, a struggling organisation with something worth saving. It was the first of what would become a defining theme across his leadership career: walking into complexity, listening hard, and building something better.

His arrival at Hamelin tells that story at its most vivid. He was called in to close the charity down. Instead, he walked the sites, listened to families, and went back to the board with a different proposition entirely: invest and grow. Four and a quarter years later, Hamelin supports nearly 1,750 people and families, has moved from 100% statutory reliance to 60% self-generated income, and holds significant reserves.

In this conversation, Adam and Ru explore:

• How a chance phone call took Ru from corporate burnout to charity leadership
• What 23 years in the military actually teaches you about listening, chaos, and getting things done
• Why Ru walked into Hamelin's board interview and told them not to close it
• The Klingon Cloak of Care and what it costs people with learning disabilities and autism
• Why community building is the most important thing charities can do right now
• The danger of chief executives confusing their ambition with organisational readiness
• What chief exec loneliness really looks like and how Ru manages it
• Why letting a support worker leave to train as a nurse is a mark of success, not failure
• How Hamelin is getting young adults with learning disabilities into employment
  

Ru is direct, self-aware, and genuinely funny. This is a conversation about what bold, values-led leadership looks like in practice, not in theory.

Find out more about Hamelin: www.hamelin.org.uk

What does Formula One have to teach the charity sector about impact? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Rushab Shah, founder and CEO of OneHive, a tech for good organisation helping youth charities streamline their admin and scale their impact. Rushab's route to the sector is anything but conventional. After studying mechanical engineering at Warwick, he worked in the F1 supply chain, drove test cars around tracks for a living, and led digital strategy for a business decarbonising maritime transport across the Shetland Islands. Running a youth club for disabled young people throughout university kept the mission close.

When the engineering career reached its ceiling, he looked at the charity sector with an engineer's eye and spotted something striking: charities spend enormous time delivering programmes and then enormous time analysing what happened. By which point, it's too late to change anything. In Formula One, you know what the lap time will be by the end of the first corner. What if youth charities could work the same way?

That question became OneHive, now supporting around 30,000 young people across 18 youth-focused organisations, with a county council investing to roll the platform across 10 charities simultaneously.

Adam and Rushab explore:

• Why charities are measuring impact too late, and what real-time data actually changes on the ground
• How a shared interest in Thomas Tank Engine taught Rushab more about inclusion than any disability training
• The "say yes to everything" approach that built a career in five years and a startup from scratch
• Why small and medium charities are currently beating large ones at adopting tech
• The tension between failing fast and working with vulnerable young people
• The honest lesson on when to pitch and when to shut up and listen

A candid, practical conversation about what genuine sector transformation looks like when someone builds it from the ground up.

Find out more about OneHive at onehive.ai

Chapters

[00:00] Introduction and quickfire questions
[05:00] A 17-year-old hosting a residential for young people with disabilities
[08:30] From F1 data to the charity sector, and what the gap revealed
[13:00] Building a career by saying yes to everything
[16:15] How TutorHive became OneHive
[21:20] What OneHive looks like today, 30,000 beneficiaries and growing
[24:00] Real-time safeguarding, the Joe example
[29:00] Sceptics, screen time and why tech is the solution but not the answer
[34:20] The THRIVE framework and plans for Manchester and beyond
[38:00] The personal cost of always saying yes
[40:45] The hardest leadership lesson: knowing when to stop pitching

#CharityChangemakers #TechForGood #CharitySector #YouthWork #SocialImpact #NonprofitLeadership #DataForGood #DigitalTransformation

In this episode of the Charity Changemakers Podcast, Adam is joined by Callum Dixon, Director of Service Delivery and Member Support at Citizens Advice, for a candid and reflective conversation about a career built on stepping into the unknown.

Callum's journey started with a semi-dismissal at a law firm drinks reception that inadvertently pointed him toward Citizens Advice as a volunteer. From there he moved through Shelter, higher education, a chief executive role at 25, a merger, a housing association, and eventually home to the national Citizens Advice organisation, where he has held four different leadership roles in five years.

Together Adam and Callum explore:

• Being told you're too young for a job, and taking it anyway
• What gorilla-glueing carpet while writing a National Lottery bid teaches you about small charity leadership
• The loneliness of the chief executive role and why peer community matters
• Leading a merger and the strategic lessons around stakeholder management
• How federated organisations teach soft power over positional authority
• What becoming an adoptive parent changed about Callum's leadership style
• Why the version of yourself you were 10 years ago shouldn't be recognisable
• The importance of slowing down in a sector driven by passion and urgency
  

Callum also talks openly about the complexity of Citizens Advice as a federated charity, the postcode lottery of advice funding across England and Wales, and the ongoing work to shift power dynamics through co-design with their member network.

To find out more about Citizens Advice, volunteer, or access advice, visit: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share and leave a review. Your support helps more charity leaders and changemakers discover the show.

Takeaways

• Stepping into a role before you feel ready is often how the most valuable learning happens
• Building a peer community is essential for chief executives navigating isolation at the top
• Parenthood can fundamentally shift how you understand and exercise leadership
• Federated organisations require influence and relationship skills more than positional authority
• Slowing down is a leadership discipline, not a weakness

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and career journey
• 08:50 Becoming a chief executive at 25
• 15:00 Peer support, board relationships and early leadership lessons
• 19:00 Merger, housing association and the road to Citizens Advice
• 22:00 Career development, visibility and backing yourself
• 26:00 Parenthood and evolving leadership style
• 33:00 How Citizens Advice works and what it delivers
• 38:41 How to get involved with Citizens Advice

Adam is joined by Jess Camburn-Rahmani, Chief Executive of Cerebra, a UK charity supporting children and families living with brain conditions. Jess takes us on a fascinating career journey from a VSO placement with an indigenous communities NGO in Uganda, to community development in Swansea, to building Elrha (a humanitarian innovation organisation) from a single grant into a 40-staff organisation with over £40 million of lifetime funding, before making a significant move into the disability sector.

This is a conversation full of hard-won wisdom: about what it really means to lead without being the expert, how to build an organisation that isn't dependent on its founder, and why the relationship between a CEO and their board is one of the most undervalued assets in the charity sector.

Together, Adam and Jess explore:

• How a VSO placement in Uganda shaped a career built on humility and listening
• Building Elrha from a £250k project grant into a global humanitarian research and innovation organisation
• Leading through personal loss and learning to know when it's time to move on
• The 18-month wobble many working parents experience and why having a brilliant board chair can make all the difference
• Why calling your charity "a family" might actually be doing your team a disservice
• The dangers of founder syndrome and how to leave an organisation at the right time
• What drew Jess to Cerebra and the growth journey she's leading there now
• Why every CEO has imposter syndrome and why that's actually a good thing
• The leadership mantra she's carried with her: give credit when things go well, take accountability when they don't

Takeaways

• Career journey and international development
• Building organisations from the ground up
• Founder transitions and succession
• Board and trustee relationships
• Leading dispersed and remote teams
• Parenting and leadership
• Imposter syndrome
• Organisational culture
  

About Cerebra Cerebra supports children and families across the UK living with brain conditions, from neurodivergent conditions through to rare diseases and birth injuries. All services are free of charge. Find out more at cerebra.org.uk and listen to their podcast, The Calm and the Complicated, on all major podcast platforms.

Chapters

• [00:00] Introduction and quickfire questions
• [04:38] How Jess found her way into the charity sector
• [06:27] Reflections on VSO and the ethics of international development
• [08:41] Community development in Swansea and the role of Save the Children
• [12:42] The origins of Elrha, from a grant project to a global organisation
• [16:36] Leadership lessons from building something from scratch
• [19:35] The importance of a brilliant board relationship
• [21:43] Knowing when to move on and the guilt of leaving
• [26:13] Cerebra, what the charity does and why Jess was drawn to it
• [32:58] Leadership qualities that take organisations on growth journeys
• [34:42] Building culture across a dispersed team
• [39:48] Advice to your earlier self, nuggets of leadership wisdom
  

#CharityLeadership #NonProfitLeadership #CharityChangemakers #HumanitarianSector #CharityCareers #DisabilitySector #Podcast #LeadershipLessons #ThirdSector #CharitySector #BoardGovernance #SocialImpact #PurposeDriven #OrganisationalGrowth