Emily Harle and Emily Burt discuss snippets from a recent interview with Hannah Bond and Taahra Ghazi, the new co-chief executives of ActionAid UK.

Hannah speaks of the value of a co-chief executive model in supporting feminist leadership and ensuring the best possible decisions are made for an organisation.

Taahra acknowledges the loneliness encountered by many single chief executives and describes the co-chief model as a way of preventing burnout.

She also talks about the charity’s anti-racism work, which has included the formation of a dedicated decolonisation unit.

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Emily Burt and Emily Harle  are joined by Zia Salik, interim director of Islamic Relief UK, to talk about the rising levels of Islamophobia and racism targeting the charity.

Zia describes the measures being taken to support staff in the face of growing online and face-to-face hostility, and the need to plan for an increased risk of attacks during the month of Ramadan.

He stresses the need for organisations and people in positions of power to take a public stand against racism and Islamophobia, as well as the value of solidarity and allyship from others in the sector. 

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Emily Harle and Dami Adewale are joined by Madeleine Jennings, head of policy and communications at the Local Trust.

Madeleine describes how her team has worked to translate lessons learned from the Local Trust’s ‘Big Local’ programme into actionable government policy. 

She stresses the importance of forming relationships with civil servants as well as big-name elected representatives, and explains why it is necessary to identify and provide information that is useful to officials.

She also describes the logistical steps to securing and facilitating a project visit by a senior government representative. 

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Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Kate Lee, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, to discuss some of the issues facing the voluntary sector in 2026.

These include ensuring financial sustainability and the role of civil society in a world of uncertainty in the face of some big existential questions.

Kate also shares her reasons to be optimistic, including the next generation of sector leaders coming up and a growing trend of interrogating impact data to improve organisational efficiency.

Register for the free Pounds & Purpose summit here.

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Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle discuss snippets from a recent interview Emily conducted with Matt Stringer, chief executive of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Matt provides insight into the RNIB’s transformation programme, which concluded in April, and shares his lessons learned from a significant restructure.

He reflects on the differences between charity leadership and his previous work in corporate retail and gives his reasons for leaving the organisation this month.

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Lucinda Rouse is joined by Emily Burt, Emily Harle and Andy Ricketts to dissect the leading stories from the voluntary sector in 2025.

Lucinda delivers a speedy round-up of the year’s charity news before the four discuss their selected top stories. 

These include the launch of the Civil Society Covenant and leadership and governance challenges at Oxfam GB and World Vision UK.

They share their nominations for the year’s strangest stories, from sabotaged locks at a Cheshire museum to the children’s charity whose future was threatened after it bought land that was open to shooting parties.

The team reflects on some recurring trends over the course of the year, from the unwelcome waves of redundancies and charity closures to the effects of rising far-right activism on the sector.

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Lucinda Rouse and Andy Ricketts are joined by Clara Govier, managing director of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

Clara outlines the process for disbursing funds to charities and explains what the People’s Postcode Lottery looks for in prospective charity partners. 

She gives her thoughts on how funders could work together more effectively and puts forward the case for lifting the sales cap on charity lotteries.

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Lucinda Rouse and Dami Adewale  are joined by Jane Ide, chief executive of the charity leaders body Acevo, to reflect on some of the issues facing sector leaders.

Jane provides an update on work relating to the Civil Society Covenant, which was published in July, saying more momentum is expected from the government in the first quarter of 2026.

She warns that charity leaders should be lowering their expected time in post due to unsustainable pressures. And she observes that polarisation within organisations needs to be considered as much as the work being done externally to convene and strengthen civil society. 

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Lucinda Rouse, Emily Harle and Emily Burt reflect on two significant sector issues from the past month.

Emily Harle shares findings from a recent roundtable meeting of leaders from refugee and migration charities, whose staff have experienced a surge in targeted hostility in recent months.

And after the government launched its new Office for the Impact Economy, Lucinda asks what the phrase actually means and the part the voluntary sector will play in it.  

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Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Vic Harper, chief executive of the food redistribution charity The Bread and Butter Thing.

Vic describes how the charity has taken a holistic approach to the way it supports communities by working alongside other charities and local authorities at its food distribution hubs. 

She outlines the process of identifying suitable community partners and explains why a one-size-fits-all approach to communication with such a diverse assortment of stakeholders will never work.

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