The Charity Show

AI-generated content is everywhere in charity comms right now, and most organisations are using it without really understanding how it works or how to be transparent about it.

In episode 53 of The Charity Show, Tim and Piers are joined by Emma Bracegirdle, founder of The Saltways, to unpack new research into how UK charities are actually using AI generated content, and where it's going badly wrong.

In this episode...

• Why over half of charities using AI generated content aren't labelling it, and don't understand why they should
• The crucial difference between using AI to enhance an image and using it to generate one entirely, and why the EU AI Act treats them the same
• How AI models can reproduce harmful stereotypes and "poverty porn" style imagery, and practical prompting techniques to challenge and undo this
• Why transparency, consent and updated image release forms are now essential parts of any charity's AI approach
• How authentic, unpolished, phone-shot storytelling is becoming charities' best defence against a trust deficit fuelled by AI scepticism
• Real examples of AI used well (and badly) in the charity sector, plus where the technology can genuinely save time on admin and research

The conversation also covers The Saltways' first Charity Film Festival, held in Bethnal Green, London, celebrating films made by and for the charity sector on every budget.

Links and resources:

• The Saltways: https://thesaltways.com/
• The Saltways Charity Film Festival: https://thesaltways.com/charityfilmfestival/

This episode's Small Charity Spotlights:

• Hastings Furniture Service: https://hfs.org.uk/
• HFS 100 Homes Project Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hastingsfurnitureservice
• Future First: https://www.futurefirst.org.uk/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

James Brindle spent nearly 20 years as a journalist before taking the helm at one of the UK's oldest charities. In this episode, the CEO of the Journalists' Charity joins Tim and Piers to unpack an extraordinary history, one that starts with Charles Dickens in 1864 and now carries the patronage of Queen Camilla. From financial hardship to online abuse, James explains what modern journalism support really looks like.

In this episode...

• The Journalists' Charity was founded in 1864 by Charles Dickens, who served as its first chairman, with a royal charter granted by Queen Victoria in 1890
• James Brindle's journey from nearly two decades in broadcast journalism, including setting up television channels, to becoming a charity CEO
• The realities driving journalists to seek support, from freelance financial instability and redundancy to rising online abuse and mental health pressure
• How the charity's "Lockdown Without Journalism" campaign during COVID reconnected the public with the value of the profession and drove tens of thousands of pounds in donations
• The newly launched Queen Camilla Future of Journalism Awards, offering cash support, mentoring and recognition to journalists starting their careers
• Why pride and the word "charity" itself can be a barrier to journalists asking for help, and how the sector is working to change that

Guest links

• The Journalists' Charity: https://journalistscharity.org.uk/
• James Brindle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbrindleceo/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

Changing your charity's name is never just a logo refresh. On this episode of The Charity Show, Tim Beynon and Piers Townley are joined by Zoe Conn (Fundraising and Development Director) and Keira Park (Marketing and Comms Manager) from Alongside, formerly Julian House, to unpack how the Bath-based charity rebuilt its identity from the ground up after a legal dispute forced a name change.

From stakeholder research to donor retention, this is a masterclass in how to lead a rebrand from inside a small charity team, without a big agency and without losing the trust you've spent decades building.

In this episode:

• Why Alongside chose to treat a legally forced name change as a strategic opportunity, not just a compliance problem
• How the team ran stakeholder consultation with donors, staff and trustees at every stage of the naming and design process, checking back in repeatedly rather than asking once and moving on
• Why they decided to lead the rebrand in-house, using targeted external support from a specialist agency rather than a full-service consultancy
• The practical challenges of a charity rebrand rollout: budgeting, running down old stock, IT systems, and keeping "formerly Julian House" visible during the transition
• How the comms and fundraising teams managed donor anxiety around the change, including direct debit continuity and stewardship of long-standing supporters
• Advice for any charity considering a rebrand: do the brief work before you touch a single name, and be ready to article your due diligence to a nervous board

Learn more about Alongside's work supporting people facing social exclusion across the South West of England, and follow their journey as the new brand continues to roll out.

If you're leading, or thinking about leading, a charity rebrand of your own, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch at [email protected].

Know a small charity doing brilliant work that deserves a shout out on the show? Drop us a line at the same address, we'd love to feature them.

If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help other charity people find us.

Guest links:

• Alongside: alongsidecharity.org.uk/
• DCHS: boost-dchs.org
• Alex, The Leukodystrophy Charity: alextlc.org/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

One in three charity comms professionals is currently burnt out, and an equal number are planning to leave the sector altogether.

In their landmark 50th episode, Tim Beynon and Piers Townley are joined by returning guest Adeela Warley, Chief Executive of CharityComms, to unpack what her organisation's latest Salary and Organisational Culture Survey reveals about burnout across charity communications teams, and why the values-driven nature of our sector makes it so hard for people to say no.

In this episode:

• Why 33% of charity comms professionals are experiencing burnout, and what's driving middle managers to feel the squeeze hardest
• How values-driven work in the charity sector can tip commitment into overwork and self-sacrifice, and the warning signs to watch for
• Why burnout isn't confined to senior leaders, and how junior and entry-level comms staff are equally at risk
• Practical first steps for CEOs and senior teams wanting to build a burnout-resistant organisational culture
• Advice for small charities working with limited resources and no dedicated HR function
• Sector news: the proposed under-16 social media ban and its implications for charity communicators, plus new Charity Commission findings on threats and intimidation faced by charity staff and trustees

Guest links and resources:

• Adeela Warley LinkedIn
• CharityComms: charitycomms.org.uk
• CharityComms Salary and Organisational Culture Survey: charitycomms.org.uk/salary-and-organisational-culture-survey-2025
• CharityComms Wellbeing Guide for communicators: charitycomms.org.uk/wellbeing-guide
• CharityComms "signal template" resource: charitycomms.org.uk/the-signal-framework
• Bank The Food (app connecting food donors to local food banks): bankthefood.com/
• Slade Gardens Community Play Association, Stockwell and Lambeth: sladeadventure.co.uk/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

Sally Williams returns to The Charity Show to talk governance, not philanthropy this time. As chair of trustees at Veterans With Dogs, she's spent two and a half years learning what it really takes to lead a small charity through a founder-to-CEO transition, all while holding down her day job as Head of Philanthropy at the Royal College of Physicians.

Tim and Piers dig into the realities of trusteeship, the impact of assistance dogs on veterans living with PTSD and other trauma-related conditions, and why being small doesn't mean being unambitious.

What's in this episode:

• Sally's 24 years in the British Army and how that experience shaped her move into charity governance
• The origin story of Veterans With Dogs, founded after one veteran noticed his own assistance dog helping an entire support group
• What it's really like governing a small charity through a leadership transition, including stepping into operational gaps without a CEO in place
• How the charity balances demonstrating impact for funders with protecting the privacy and dignity of veterans and their dogs
• The "magic formula" for building an effective board of trustees, and why lived experience matters as much as governance experience
• Third sector news: the London Marathon's move to a two-day event in 2027, and the Big Give's Summer Campaign for Small Charity Week

Plus the usual small charity shoutouts, this week featuring Roundabout Drama Therapy and MK Cat Rescue.

Useful links:

• Veterans With Dogs: veteranswithdogs.org.uk/
• Roundabout Dramatherapy: roundaboutdramatherapy.org.uk/
• MK Cat rescue: mk-cat-rescue.org/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

Air ambulances are among the most trusted charities in the UK, but most people have no idea how they're funded, what it costs to keep them flying, or the sheer scale of engagement needed to make it all happen.

In this episode, Tim and Piers sit down with Keith Wilson, Director of Income and Engagement at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, to find out exactly that.

Keith spent a decade at a children's hospice before joining HIOWAA, and in the years since, he's overseen a major transformation in how the charity thinks about fundraising — or rather, why it doesn't call it fundraising at all. He's also led one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the charity's history: a brand new operational airbase near Southampton Airport, complete with a public visitor centre.

It's a fascinating conversation about leadership, engagement, legacy income, volunteers, and the very human reality of funding a life-saving emergency service entirely through charitable support.

In this episode

• How Keith stumbled into the charity sector via a ghost hunt at a Winchester theatre
• How air ambulances actually work and why every one is different
• Why HIOWAA doesn't use the word "fundraising" and what they do instead
• The sim van: a flight simulator in a transit van that opened unexpected doors
• The new airbase and visitor centre and how it creates year-round engagement
• What it costs to keep an air ambulance operational (the answer might surprise you)
• The role of regular giving, legacy income, and why one major gift can change everything
• Volunteers: why 80% of HIOWAA's community events are entirely volunteer-led
• The toughest leadership lesson Keith has learned
• Looking ahead: what the next five years hold for the charity, hopes and honest concerns

Find out more

• Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance: hiowaa.org
• HIOWAA on Facebook: facebook.com/hiowaa
• HIOWAA on LinkedIn and Instagram: @HIOWAA

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

You've heard of match funding. But do you really know how to make it work for your charity?

In this episode, we sit down with Alex Day, Managing Director of Big Give, the UK's largest digital match funding platform, to find out what separates the charities that smash their targets from those that don't, and why this tool is far more accessible than many smaller charities assume.

From the origins of Big Give to a bold goal of raising £1 billion by 2030, this is a conversation packed with practical insight for fundraisers of every size.

What you'll hear in this episode

• How match funding actually works and why it's simpler than you think
• What smaller charities need to have in place before applying to Big Give
• The most common mistake charities make with match funding campaigns
• What the charities that consistently smash their targets do differently
• How Big Give is evolving as the fundraising landscape shifts

Useful links

• Big Give: https://donate.biggive.org/
• Alex Day on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-day-63b97b62/
• Big Give Christmas Challenge: https://biggive.org/blog/2026/02/09/reflecting-on-the-2025-christmas-challenge/
• Love Oliver: https://loveoliver.org.uk
• Hartcliffe City Farm: https://hartcliffecityfarm.org.uk

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

We often talk about the power of giving. But what if the way we give is part of the problem?

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Niki Banks, co-founder of One World Together, to explore a bold challenge to the traditional charity model, and why ensuring that more of your money helps the people and projects you want it to, may mean giving differently.

From funding flows to frontline impact, this is a conversation that might just change how you think about donations.

What you’ll hear in this episode

• The hidden complexity behind big charity funding models
• Why small, community-led organisations can outperform larger charities
• The case for unrestricted funding and why flexibility matters
• How One World Together claims to make donations up to 40x more impactful.

Useful links:

• One World Together: https://oneworldtogether.org.uk/
• Niki on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-banks-03249459/
• From Me To You: https://www.frommetoyouletters.co.uk/
• Ailsa's Aim: https://www.ailsasaim.co.uk/

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠⁠

In episode 45 of The Charity Show, Tim and Piers sit down with Martin Bisiker, founder of Legasee Educational Trust, for a fascinating conversation about one of the most quietly urgent missions in the heritage sector: capturing the testimonies of veterans before their stories are lost forever.

Martin's path to founding Legasee is an unconventional one. A career in television - including filming Julia Bradbury from a microlight over Victoria Falls - gave him both a love of storytelling and a growing unease about what was disappearing. When the last surviving First World War veteran passed away, something clicked. Armed with a camera and a sense of urgency, he began interviewing Second World War veterans, and what started as a personal project became a registered charity in 2012.

Legasee Educational Trust now holds an archive of over 700 filmed interviews, freely available to view online, spanning conflicts from the Second World War through to more recent campaigns.

Together, Tim, Piers and Martin explore:

• How Legasee grew from a nagging feeling that something important was about to be lost, and the chance encounter with a former Age UK executive that helped turn a personal project into a charity
• Why Martin insists the archive is freely accessible to everyone - not just researchers and academics - and the thinking behind that decision from the very beginning
• The art of the veteran interview: why open questions matter, how you create the conditions for people to open up on camera, and the moments that stay with you long after the recording ends
• The new Aden Emergency Project - a forgotten conflict from 1963 to 1967, now the subject of a National Lottery Heritage Fund-backed project based in Blackpool, including a remarkable collaboration with a drama college to bring veteran testimony to the stage
• Legasee's growing podcast output, from the acclaimed five-part D-Day series to the Berlin Airlift, and how volunteer expertise has shaped the quality of every episode
• The Local Heroes programme - Martin's plan to teach young people how to build their own archives, and why that feels like the natural next step for Legasee's mission

Useful links:

• Legasee Educational Trust – https://www.legasee.org.uk

• National Literacy Trust / National Year of Reading – https://www.literacytrust.org.uk
• Sheppey Pulse Network – https://www.sheppeypulsenetwork.co.uk/
• HANAH – Help Against Bullying and Mental Health – https://www.hab-antibullying.com/
• The Good Studio – Great content for good causes – https://www.thegoodstudio.co.uk

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠⁠

In episode 44 of The Charity Show, Tim and Piers sit down with Kotryna Temcinaite, Head of Research Communications at Breast Cancer Now, for an illuminating conversation about one of the most specialised and often misunderstood roles in the charity sector.

Kotryna's journey is a fascinating one: from biochemistry undergraduate to cancer biology PhD researcher, to discovering that what she really loved wasn't the lab work itself, but the stories that came out of it. A decade into her career in charity research communications, she leads a team of four science communicators at Breast Cancer Now, working across press and PR, fundraising, social media, patient engagement and more.

Her conversation with Tim and Piers is honest, practical and packed with insight -whether you work in comms, fundraising, research or leadership.

Together, Tim, Piers and Kotryna explore:

• Why science communication is about far more than just "translating" research into plain English and why that framing undersells the role
• How to tell a scientific story that audiences find genuinely interesting, without losing accuracy or oversimplifying, and the importance of putting research in context so it means something to people living with the condition
• How to build genuine relationships with researchers, manage their expectations around media coverage, and support them without dropping them in the deep end
• The challenge of evidencing the value of a comms team when so much of the work happens behind the scenes — and why misinformation and AI both pose growing risks for research-led charities
• How Breast Cancer Now and Prostate Cancer Research joined forces to fund research into metastatic cancer spreading to the bone, and what the sector can achieve when organisations work together rather than in competition

Useful links:

• Breast Cancer Now – https://www.breastcancernow.org
• Ripple Suicide Prevention – https://www.ripple.org.uk
• Westminster Hall debate transcript (Hansard) – https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-03-03/debates/A6B461D9-CECF-4376-880B-9365667EC9B7/SmallCharitySector
• Great Gift Aid Hunt 2026 – Swiftaid – https://www.swiftaid.co.uk
• Centre for Social Justice – https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
• Boys in Mind – https://www.boysinmind.org.uk
• Acuro – https://www.acuro.org.uk
• The Good Studio – Great content for good causes – https://www.thegoodstudio.co.uk

• lisaconnell.com and influentialstars.org

Get involved:

• Listen to The Charity Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform
• Email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠
• Send a voice message to TheCharityShow
• Find every link you need: ⁠https://linktr.ee/thecharityshow⁠

Enjoyed the episode? Leave a five-star review and follow/subscribe to support the show!

💡 If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow or subscribe on your podcast app, and please leave us a five-star rating — it helps more people find conversations with real charity experts across the UK.

This episode is produced by The Good Studio – Creating great content for good causes. From podcasts and campaigns to film and copywriting, The Good Studio helps charities tell powerful stories that make people care.👉 Find out more at ⁠www.thegoodstudio.co.uk⁠