People Inspired By Purpose - Purposely Podcast

In this SHORT episode of Purposely, we are back with SimonBowden, Head of Philanthropic Services at Forsyth Barr, on why investment firms are bringing philanthropy into the advisory relationship, and what that means in practice.
 
Simon explains that demand from clients is a big part ofwhat is driving the shift. Generational wealth transfer is bringing people into the conversation who have a strong interest in how their money affects the world around them. Holistic financial advice, the kind that starts with what aperson actually cares about, naturally makes room for that conversation.
 
He talks through how firms like Forsyth Barr handle thepracticalities. A regular distribution to a charity is straightforward. When it comes to larger gifts or capital, partnerships with community foundations anddonor advised funds mean the money can keep working in perpetuity while the advisor stays involved. It is a model that works for the client, the advisor and the organisations being supported.
 
And when the giving conversation opens up, something elsehappens. Clients start talking about their values, what they care about, how their wealth was built and who they want to remember. Advisors who have known clients for years often come out of those conversations having learned thingsthey never knew. It deepens the relationship on both sides.
 
•       Why investment firms are building philanthropicservices teams and what is driving client demand
•       How donor advised funds and community foundations fitinto the advisory relationship
•       Keeping capital working in perpetuity while supportinggood causes
•       Generational wealth transfer and the shift in whatclients want from financial advice
•       What opening up the giving conversation does for theadvisor-client relationship
 
This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Benevity and Trust Investments
Key Themes

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Welcoming Shruthi Vijay Kumar, coach, facilitator andeducator based in Aotearoa New Zealand, to Purposely Podcast.
 
Shruthi works with leaders and organisations trying to shiftfrom extractive to more regenerative ways of working. She draws on indigenous, eastern and western knowledge traditions to do it. She holds an MBA from Oxford, has worked with the World Economic Forum, taught at AUT, and foundedthe Fire Circle, a space for cross-cultural wisdom bringing together indigenous elders from around the world with leaders in business, education and community.
 
This conversation starts with pain. Shruthi was a highachiever who found her way into a blue chip consulting firm in Melbourne, only to be sat down by a senior partner and told her performance was not where it needed to be. She talks openly about what that did to her, the tears, thecollapse of external validation, and the long process of rebuilding a sense of worth that did not depend on how a company reviewed her every few months. Thatexperience, she says, set her free. Rather than waiting for conditions to change or for someone to give her permission, she left and went to India to work for a small education startup trying to reimagine curriculum throughstorytelling. It was, she says, the most aligned she had ever felt.
 
From there, a career took shape that sits at the intersection of inner work and outer impact. Shruthi trained as a coach fromher mid-twenties, drawn to a discipline that holds space for people to find their own answers rather than being told what to think. She is clear that the most important thing she has brought to that work is her own inner journey, including time in ashrams in India, with a mindfulness community in theCoromandel, and with spiritual teachers whose presence, she says, has helped her meet the grief and pain that clients bring.
 
The Fire Circle grew out of the COVID period, when Shruthiand three colleagues from Australia, New York and Arnhem Land asked what it would look like to elevate indigenous and pre-colonial wisdom in conversations about business, leadership and how to build back differently. The circle nowhas eight or nine elders from around the world. It has run online gatherings, retreats with climate leaders, and guest lectures at business schools. The animating idea is that nature is not one priority among many. It is the foundation on which everything else rests.
 
This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Benevityand Trust Investments.

In this SHORT episode of Purposely, we are back with HelenHughes, Chief Executive of Sanctuary Mountain Mangatautari, on what she found when she lifted the bonnet on one of New Zealand's most remarkable conservation organisations, and what she did about it.
 
Helen was the seventh CE in twelve years when she arrived.Three months in, she started asking basic questions about how the place was funded, and the answers were not good. The sanctuary had been running at an operating loss of around $50,000 a month, masked by grant funding landing atirregular intervals. At its lowest point, there were two weeks of cash flow left. On top of that, Helen had inherited a team that had grown disconnected under a previous leader who was working remotely and part-time.
 
Her response was to go to media. She sat with her teamfirst, told them what she was about to do, and went public with the financial reality. It was not an easy call, and it was the right one. Philanthropic funders responded with around $250,000, which bought time and breathing room.But Helen was clear that a rescue was not a strategy. The sanctuary needed to stand on its own feet.
 
Since then, she has been building new revenue streamsalongside the core grant funding. Tourism is the biggest opportunity: 300 visitors a day at full capacity would bring in $3.5 to $4 million annually. An education programme now brings 6,000 students a year through the sanctuary,with global virtual tours being explored. On-site accommodation generates $40,000 a year through Airbnb. A native nursery, recently taken commercial, is expected to add $90,000 to $100,000 annually, growing rare trees most nurseries cannot access.
 
And then there is the biodiversity credit programme, builton work started by a previous CE and developed with Sean Weaver at Ecos. It is the only accredited programme within the International Biodiversity Credit Alliance, listed on a major international carbon trading platform within a weekof applying. The model turns the sanctuary's annual operating costs into priced units of conservation work that can be sold to the market. It is early days, but it is genuinely new ground.
 
•       Walking into a funding crisis: what Helen found threemonths into the role
•       The decision to go public with financial difficulty,and why it was the right call
•       Why grant dependency is not a strategy, and what to doabout it
•       Tourism, education, accommodation and nursery: buildingdiversified revenue
•       Biodiversity credits: how the sanctuary became theworld's only accredited programme
•       What it takes to turn an operating loss of $700,000into near break-even in one year
Key Themes

Welcoming back Tara Arnold, Head of Grant Making at ShareGift, to Purposely Podcast. 
Sharegift is a UK charity built around an idea most people have never heard of: collecting donated shareholdings that are too small to sell, pooling them together and distributing the proceeds to good causes. The model was created thirty years ago by founder Claire McIntosh, a stockbroker who noticed the waste sitting in small, unwanted share parcels. Today, a team of five has given away close to 70 million pounds, with all grants unrestricted and no impact reports required. When Tara rings a charity to let them know money is coming, she hears the relief in their voices. 
Tara also works as a fundraising consultant, supporting small charities through Unbound Philanthropy and Lloyds Bank Foundation. It means she understands the funding relationship from both sides, and that perspective runs through everything she talks about in this episode. Her fundraising career started in 2001 with face-to-face fundraising, moved through trusts and legacy roles, and sharpened into a specialism around compelling grant applications. Her thesis has always been that good proposal writing is part craft and part alchemy. You collect everything you need, you speak to the people whose lives the work touches, and then you bring it all together into something that reads as human. That last part, she says, is what most applications get wrong. If it does not feel human, you will not get a look in. This episode is full of practical insight for anyone working in fundraising or grant making. Tara talks about how Sharegift actually finds charities to support, and it is not always through traditional channels. She describes discovering organisations through Google searches, LinkedIn and even maps. She talks about the reality of pitching to funders, including a memorable moment in a room at St James's Place Foundation where she clocked that her ten-page proposal had been reduced to a single paragraph, and had to think fast. Her advice: always recap your project at the start of a pitch, regardless of what you think the panel has already read. She is also candid about the state of the UK charity funding environment right now. She started fundraising just before the 2008 financial crash, and says that felt like child's play compared to what smaller organisations are facing today. Frontline charities are dealing with rising costs, shrinking grant rounds and funders changing criteria mid-cycle. Against that backdrop, the unrestricted, no-application model that Sharegift runs feels more valuable than ever. The conversation closes on the funder-plus model, where grant makers offer capacity building alongside financial support. Tara's consulting work sits squarely in that space, helping small charities strengthen their income generation, review applications, sharpen their storytelling and think harder about stewardship. Her recurring observation from across all of it: most charities just need to do the basics well. Read what the funder has asked for, and do that. 
Key Themes 
- How Sharegift works and why unrestricted, no-application funding matters more than ever 
- The alchemy of a great grant application and why human writing beats polished writing 
- How Sharegift finds charities, and what that tells fundraisers about their digital presence 
- Pitching to funders: what really happens to your proposal before it reaches the room 
- The UK funding crisis and what it feels like from inside a grant making charity Funder-plus models and the case for investing in fundraising capability 

This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Benevity and Trust Investments.