There’s no denying that charity endings – especially organisational ones - are extremely hard. The emotions that are tied up in charities, the expectations of service users and donors, the weight of responsibility that lies on the shoulders of leaders and the board – these are not easy issues to navigate.

In this episode we talk to four guests to help us understand why endings are so hard, and how to have a good one. Iona Lawrence, Chief Deceleration Officer at the Decelerator; Richard Litchfield, Chief Executive of Eastside People; and Alison Lucas and Lizzie Bentley Bowers, Executive Coaches and co-authors of Goodbye.

Welcome to the latest episode of 4Impact, the charity podcast, where we tackle pressing issues in the charity sector. Join Felicia Willow, the Mary Poppins of the charity sector, and her co-host, Chris Pitt from the Benefact Group, as they delve into the challenges of the current funding freeze impacting charities across the board.

In this episode, we explore why major funders are pausing or altering their funding distributions, leaving many charities grappling with uncertainty and pressure. Insights are provided by key guests, including Jo Jeffrey, who has meticulously catalogued the changes in grantmakers' approaches, Anand Shukla, CEO at the Henry Smith Charity, who shares their thoughtful strategy transition, and Helen Gray, Trust Director for the Benefact Trust, who discusses strategies for minimizing disruptions.

Listen in as we discuss the systemic issues at play, the responsibility of funders, and strategic approaches to navigate this complex funding landscape.

Why charity leadership is one of the toughest gigs around – and what CEOs can do to survive.

Guests include Vic Hancock-Fell of the Fair Collective, Debra Allcock-Tyler from the Directory of Social Change, and Gareth Oughton from ACEVO's CEO in Crisis Service.

In this episode, we discuss the bottom line of our sector: impact. We talk about why impact isn’t the easiest thing to measure or be regulated on, and how this complexity feeds into funding and regulation systems that actually hold the sector back – as well as how the language we use about our own sector is undervaluing our expertise and purpose. So how can we build the trust we need in the sector as a whole to enable our experts to go out and achieve the greatest impact they can?

In this podcast we uncover why journalists and the public love an anti-charity story and highlight where they get it wrong – and why. We talk to a charity journalist, a media psychologist and an expert charity accountant crusading to transform charity financial journalism for the better to find out: why these stories are so prevalent, what can we do about them, and the negative impact they have on the sector.