Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt  are joined by Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, and Rupert Whitaker, psychiatrist, immunologist and co-founder of the charity. 

They discuss the legacy of fellow co-founder Martyn Butler, who died on 21 February, remembering the use of his home telephone number as the charity’s first support line in the early 1980s.

Rupert shares his memories of Martyn as an organiser and driving force in the organisation’s early days and reflects on the ebbs and flows of their involvement with the THT over 44 years.

Richard shares his perspective on the role played by both co-founders in keeping the THT at the cutting edge, rather than falling into the common trap for charity founders of idealising times past.

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Host Lucinda Rouse is joined by Third Sector colleagues Emily Burt, Emily Harle and Andy Ricketts to reflect on three significant sector stories from the past month.

Emily Burt draws attention to recent cases of charities declining to voluntarily recognise workers’ unions. She questions the likely trajectory for union action in the sector in the face of increasingly challenging working conditions.

Andy outlines different ways that charities are attempting to inform AI-generated Google search summaries and explains why this is important.

And Emily Harle provides context to regulatory investigations into Stoke Air Ambulance, which advertised free helicopter rides for volunteers and supporters despite having no provision for air transportation at the time.

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Andy Ricketts and Dami Adewale are joined by John Fitzgerald, digital evolution project manager at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

John describes some of the easy-to-use AI tools that can improve efficiency in working life and shares examples of charities that are already employing them effectively.

He warns of data privacy issues associated with using free services and the risk of “buzzword bingo” when AI is leaned on heavily in funding applications.

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Lucinda Rouse and Emily Burt are joined by Emily Cotter, marketing, PR and communications officer at Leeds Mind, and Col Grist, co-founder and creative director of the digital agency Few and Far.

Emily provides insight into Leeds Mind’s experience of livestream fundraising as it prepares to host the fourth edition of its Get Together Through Gaming online event in March.

Col explains why he considers the UK voluntary sector to be behind the curve in the livestream fundraising space compared with counterparts in the US. He suggests ways that charities can effectively approach and engage established streamers for fundraising purposes.

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Lucinda Rouse is joined by Third Sector colleagues Emily Harle, Dami Adewale and Andy Ricketts to reflect on three significant sector stories from the past month.

Dami recounts the circumstances surrounding a regulatory inquiry into the sale of City and Guilds’ commercial arm to a Greek-owned certification company.

Andy provides his take on the findings of Third Sector’s recent Charity Pay Study, which identifies the sector’s top earners. 

And Emily assesses the implications of a growing number of complaints about street fundraisers from community interest companies for the reputation of charitable fundraisers more broadly.

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Lucinda Rouse and Emily Harle are joined by Chloe Hadjimatheou, narrative editor at the Observer, who conducted an award-winning exposé of the main characters in the bestselling memoir The Salt Path.

Chloe details the steps she took to interrogate some of the assertions made in the book after receiving a tip-off, including the circumstances of an apparent terminal diagnosis.

She suggests ways in which charity leaders can work to uncover the truth when claims surrounding prospective celebrity ambassadors seem out of the ordinary, but stresses the importance of approaching the people in question in the first instance. 

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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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