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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠
• 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 ⁠⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠
• 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 ⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠
• 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 43 of The Charity Show, Tim and Piers sit down with John May OBE CVO, Chief Executive of Cats Protection, for a wide-ranging and genuinely fascinating conversation about what it really takes to lead one of the UK's most recognisable charities at serious scale.

Cats Protection is approaching its centenary, operates with around 1,000 staff and over 10,000 volunteers, and draws 50% of its income from legacies. John brings a career spanning the Scout movement, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and Young Enterprise to his role - and that deep background in volunteer-driven organisations shapes everything about how he thinks about leadership, culture and change.

Together, Tim, Piers and John explore:

• Why the balance of power between volunteers and staff has shifted over the past 40 years and where the "sweet spot" really lies
• How volunteering is changing, from micro-volunteering and bite-sized commitments to the challenge of aging branch committees
• Why Cats Protection is moving away from a one-size-fits-all volunteering model towards a more flexible, mixed ecosystem approach
• Whether you need to have been a volunteer yourself to lead a volunteer-powered organisation
• The advice John would give smaller charities about getting the most from their volunteers, including the value of a proper skills audit
• How Cats Protection has refreshed its brand and is using everything from a paper magazine to TikTok and its own podcast (The Cat's Got Your Tongue) to reach new audiences without alienating loyal supporters
• Why John doesn't believe there's a crisis of generosity, but does think charities need to be far more sophisticated about the donor lifecycle
• The surprising resilience of legacy income and the turnaround in Cats Protection's retail operation
• How the charity's Lifeline programme supports survivors of domestic abuse by fostering their pets

• His one piece of advice for charity leaders: trust your people, trust your intuition, and explore the tension when the two conflict

Also in this episode, Tim and Piers discuss the return of the Big Help Out (5th–8th June 2026, this time in partnership with The Big Lunch), fresh data from Marie Curie showing 47% of UK adults plan to volunteer in 2026, and findings from the Enthuse Charity Pulse Report showing 77% of charities saw fundraising income grow or hold stable in 2025.

And in the Small Charity Spotlight, huge shoutouts to Tom's Trust - the UK's leading charity providing psychological support to children with brain tumours and their families - and Northumbria Blood Bikes, whose unpaid volunteers deliver blood, urgent medical supplies and donated breast milk across the North East of England, often overnight and largely unseen.

Useful links:

• Cats Protection – https://www.cats.org.uk
• The Cat's Got Your Tongue podcast – search on your usual podcast platform
• The Big Help Out – https://thebighelpout.org.uk
• Enthuse Charity Pulse Report – https://enthuse.com
• Tom's Trust – https://www.tomstrust.org.uk
• Northumbria Blood Bikes – search Northumbria Blood Bikes
• The Good Studio – Creative 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 thecharityshowpod@gmail.com
• 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 42 of The Charity Show, Tim and Piers tackle one of the biggest questions facing charity comms teams right now: what do you do about social media - and is it finally time to walk away from X?

The main conversation is a two-part deep dive with Madeleine Sugden, digital impact consultant and author of the blog that coined the phrase “the Charity Exodus” – a renewed wave of charities leaving X following recent changes to the platform.

Madeline unpacks what’s really driving this shift, from content moderation failures and safeguarding concerns, to the introduction of AI tools like Grok and the breaking of what many charities see as ethical red lines. She explains why some organisations are leaving loudly, others quietly, and why for many charities the decision isn’t as straightforward as it might look from the outside.

Together, Tim, Piers and Madeline explore:

• Why the charity sector feels particularly exposed on platforms like X
• The reputational and ethical risks charities are weighing up
• Whether X is still the place for journalists, politicians and crisis comms
• What the data actually shows about engagement and reach
• The rise of BlueSky and why some charities are thriving there
• When mirror publishing works – and when it doesn’
• How AI-generated content is changing the rules for charity com
• Why flexibility, values and clarity matter more than ever in social media strategy

Useful links:

• Madeleine's blog: https://madlinblog.wordpress.com/

• AP Cymru – Supporting neurodivergent children and families in Wales
  https://www.apcymru.org.uk

• The Muscle Help Foundation – Creating “Muscle Dreams” for young people with muscular dystrophy
  https://www.musclehelp.com

• The Good Studio – Creative 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thecharityshowpod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
  • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠