The Difference

Matt Stevenson-Dodd
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Take a deeper dive into the case studies featured in the book 'The Difference: how to understand, measure and maximise social impact' by Matt Stevenson-Dodd. Join Helen and Matt from Trust Impact as they talk to the leaders behind the stories from some of the most impactful social impact organisations in the world.

Episodes

  1. 5 hr ago

    The Difference - Episode 3 - Marchu Belete

    The Difference Podcast: Marchu Belete, Director of Migration Exchange (formerly CEO of Hibiscus) “The moment required us to step up.” That’s Marchu Belete, on why she chose to challenge Hibiscus’s biggest source of income rather than let the organisation drift further from why it was founded. Marchu is an excellent leader in the UK’s migration and refugee sector. She was co-director at Women for Refugee Women, then Chief Executive of Hibiscus, and is now Director of Migration Exchange at Global Dialogue. Helen worked alongside Marchu during her time at Hibiscus, in her Trust Impact capacity, so this conversation carries real history with it. Marchu’s story is one of the case studies behind Chapter 4 of the book. This is the conversation behind that chapter. The biggest question - purpose or money? Marchu joined Hibiscus in October 2020 to lead an organisation set up to support migrant women. When she looked at the numbers, most of the people Hibiscus was working with were men – this was the result of government contracts that had quietly pulled the organisation away from its founding purpose. Rather than asserting a fix, she went and found Olga Heavens, the woman who founded Hibiscus in 1986, and invited her back in to tell the team why the organisation existed in the first place. Marchu made the case to walk away from a government contract worth a huge share of Hibiscus’s income, because keeping it meant working against the very reason the charity existed. Centring the right risk We talk about what Helen calls Marchu’s quiet leadership, and Marchu’s answer to how you build a culture that takes risks: keep pointing back to who you’re there to serve. Her sharpest point is on risk itself – the reputational risk a funder worries about is nothing next to the risk migrant women face to their safety, their homes, their children. Getting that comparison right changes every decision that follows. Also in this episode Why the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter moment made 2020 the right time to force the purpose question, not the wrong oneHow Marchu carried the same discipline into Migration Exchange, building a clear purpose statement from day oneHer case for why charities can’t afford to work in silos any longerHer honest answer on when the work of a charity like hers is never “done”Listen now Marchu Belete is Director of Migration Exchange at Global Dialogue, and former Chief Executive of Hibiscus. Her case study features in The Difference: How to Understand, Measure and Maximise Social Impact, out now and a number one Amazon bestseller. The Difference Podcast is hosted by Matt Stevenson-Dodd and Helen Greig.

  2. 6 Jul

    The Difference - Episode 2 - Kate Lee

    The Difference Podcast: Kate Lee, Chief Executive of NCVO "We're not MI5. There's not that many secrets here." That's Kate Lee, talking about why she thinks charities are far too nervous about being honest with the public. Kate is Chief Executive of NCVO, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Before that she led Alzheimer's Society and Young Lives vs Cancer, and before that she spent nearly seventeen years at the Red Cross. She has an OBE. She also, this week, accidentally kicked a hornet's nest while gardening. Both of those things are relevant to this episode, though only one of them is about impact measurement. Kate’s story is one of the case studies behind Chapter 2 of the book, ‘Failure versus Success’. This is the conversation behind that chapter. Two truths and a lie We always start the same way. Kate gave us three statements - one false. She was once asked to advise a BBC drama about charities; she kicked a hornet's nest at the weekend; a friend of hers refuses to use the downstairs toilet because that's where Kate keeps her OBE! Helen and I both got it right, for what it's worth. Listen to find out which one was the lie and stick around for Kate's pitch for the charity-sector drama nobody's made yet. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly The heart of this episode is a report Kate published back in 2019 while she was at Young Lives vs Cancer, an annual report that did something most annual reports don't: it told people what hadn't worked. We talk about why the "bad" and "ugly" sections did more for donor trust than the "good" ever could alone, and why Kate thinks transparency is a journey you start two years before you publish anything, not a decision you make on the day. Trust, and why the logic doesn't work We talked about the Ipsos Veracity Index (charity chief executives are trusted less than bankers), and Kate's answer wasn't what we expected. Her argument: this isn't a logic problem. You can't win a moral disagreement about executive pay with better impact data. Sector leaders keep trying to argue their way out of a values conversation, and it isn't working. Data the sector already has Kate also talks about the "wholesale impact" of the sector - the idea that charities collectively hold an enormous amount of evidence about what works, scattered across thousands of organisations that never talk to each other. NCVO has 17,000 members. What could we learn if even a fraction of them pooled what they know? It's a genuinely exciting idea, and one I suspect we'll come back to. Also in this episode Why Kate is "evidence informed" rather than "evidence led"The reach-versus-resource-versus-impact triangle she uses when a service isn't proportionate to its costHer message for the next Prime MinisterWhat "done" would even look like for NCVO (spoiler: not any time soon) Listen now Kate Lee is Chief Executive of NCVO. Her case study features in The Difference: How to Understand, Measure and Maximise Social Impact, out now and a number one Amazon bestseller. The Difference Podcast is hosted by Matt Stevenson-Dodd and Helen Gregg.

  3. 15 Jun

    The Difference - Episode 1 - Frank Fletcher

    Frank Fletcher: from "Do" to "Difference" Find out more at - https://www.thedifference.guide Most charities can tell you what they do. Fewer can tell you the difference they make. In this first episode of The Difference Podcast, Matt and Helen sit down with Frank Fletcher, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, the charity that opens Chapter 1 of Matt's book The Difference, to get behind the story in the chapter. The Trust takes young people who've been through cancer treatment on four- and five-day sailing and outdoor adventures, giving them the chance to challenge themselves and build new memories. For years, the team came home with a yacht full of inspiring stories. But when they asked, "Have you had a nice time?", the answer was yes about 99% of the time. Lovely to hear, and almost useless for knowing whether they were actually changing lives. This episode is about what happened next: the shift from a "do" organisation to a "difference" organisation, the honesty it took to get there, and what it feels like to go looking for the gaps in your own impact, and then publish them. Why this one's worth your time ·       "Do" or "difference"? Most organisations talk about activities, sessions delivered, people reached. Difference organisations talk about the change they make. ·       The "So what?" test. "We take 700 young people sailing each year." So what? "It builds their confidence." So what? Keep going until you reach the change that matters - for the Trust, helping young people believe in a brighter future, living through and beyond cancer. ·       Form follows function. Decide the difference you want to make first, then design the activity around it. ·       Honesty is an asset, not a failure. The Trust openly shows how many young people didn't improve their wellbeing, and that honesty makes the successes believable. ·       Its hard to measure a "nice time." A favourable experience and a genuine difference are not the same thing. Go deeper in the book This episode is the behind-the-scenes version of Chapter 1 - "'Do' or 'difference'?" You'll find the full "do" vs "difference" breakdown and a simple test for your own organisation, the Trust's reworked need, vision and purpose statements, the "So what?" diagnostic step by step, and the three golden rules Matt set at Street League: never over-claim; back every percentage with absolute numbers; make every outcome auditable. See the Trust's live impact dashboard: https://www.trst.uk/emct About the guest Frank Fletcher is CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, which supports young people aged 8–24 to rebuild confidence after cancer treatment through sailing and outdoor adventures across the Isle of Wight and Scotland. He began working with Matt and Trust Impact shortly after the consultancy was founded in 2019. Find out more: https://www.ellenmacarthurcancertrust.org The Difference Podcast goes deeper into the ideas from The Difference: How to Understand, Measure and Maximise Social Impact by Matt - out now. Enjoyed the episode? Follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who talks a lot about what they do, and not enough about the difference they make.

  • 3 Episodes

About

Take a deeper dive into the case studies featured in the book 'The Difference: how to understand, measure and maximise social impact' by Matt Stevenson-Dodd. Join Helen and Matt from Trust Impact as they talk to the leaders behind the stories from some of the most impactful social impact organisations in the world.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Stevenson-Dodd
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Matt Stevenson-Dodd