Do One Better with Alberto Lidji in Philanthropy, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship

Partnership is often spoken about as an ideal. Much more rarely is it treated as a discipline.

In this episode Alberto Lidji speaks with Darian Stibbe, Executive Director of The Partnering Initiative, about what it takes to build collaborations that are not only well intentioned, but genuinely effective.

At a time when the world’s most pressing challenges demand coordinated action across sectors, Darian makes the case that collaboration is no longer optional. Governments, businesses, philanthropies, civil society organisations and communities each bring different forms of value, but bringing those contributions together in a meaningful way requires far more than goodwill.

This conversation explores the deeper architecture of effective partnership: trust, incentives, governance, mindset, shared accountability and the ability to work productively through ambiguity. Darian argues that partnering should be understood as a professional capability, one that can be developed, strengthened and embedded within institutions.

The discussion also examines why so many partnerships struggle in practice. Often, the problem is not a lack of commitment, but a lack of structure, clarity and organisational readiness. From relationship-building and co-creation to institutional culture and leadership, this episode offers a thoughtful exploration of what makes collaboration succeed or fail.

A rich and practical conversation for those working across philanthropy, sustainability, international development, business and systems change.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

What does it take to develop resilient nonprofit leaders, and why does that matter so much today?

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Madge Thomas, President of the American Express Foundation, about how the Foundation is investing in people, communities, and institutions to drive meaningful, long-term social impact.

With a legacy spanning more than 50 years, the Foundation has remained rooted in a simple but powerful idea: strong local communities are the foundation for broader societal progress. From disaster response and recovery to small business support and nonprofit leadership development, its work reflects a deep commitment to helping communities thrive, especially in moments of need.

At the centre of this conversation is the American Express Leadership Academy, a flagship initiative designed to equip emerging and mid-to-senior-level nonprofit leaders with the tools, confidence, and networks they need to lead effectively in a rapidly changing and often resource-constrained environment.

Madge shares how the Academy has evolved to reflect the realities nonprofit leaders face today, including growing financial pressures, increasing complexity, and the need for resilience, adaptability, and stronger connection across the sector.

This is a thoughtful conversation about leadership, philanthropy, capacity building, and the importance of investing in the people closest to the work.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

Dementia has long been viewed as an inevitable part of ageing. That perception is now being challenged at its core. This conversation with Hilary Evans-Newton CBE, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, explores a pivotal shift in how we understand, diagnose and ultimately treat the diseases that cause dementia.

At the centre of this transformation is Alzheimer’s Research UK, the leading dementia research funder in Europe. The organisation exists to find a cure by advancing three critical areas: understanding the biology of disease, improving diagnosis, and developing effective treatments. By investing over £60 million annually and acting as a catalyst for collaboration, it brings together scientists, clinicians and partners to accelerate progress from laboratory discovery to real-world impact.

A major theme is the move away from vague, late-stage diagnoses towards precise identification of underlying diseases such as Alzheimer’s, which accounts for the majority of dementia cases. This shift mirrors the evolution seen in cancer care. Where once there was stigma, limited understanding and few treatment options, there is now a pathway towards early detection, targeted therapies and improved survival. Dementia research is approaching a similar turning point.

Recent breakthroughs are beginning to validate this progress. The first disease-modifying treatments for early Alzheimer’s have emerged, marking a significant milestone after years of unsuccessful trials. While access remains limited, these developments are reshaping global investment and signalling that effective intervention is possible.

Equally transformative is the promise of early diagnosis. Advances in blood-based biomarkers could enable detection decades before symptoms appear. This opens the door to earlier intervention, when treatments are most likely to be effective, and reframes dementia as a condition that can be managed proactively rather than reacted to late.

The conversation also highlights the importance of participation in research. Clinical trials remain vastly under-subscribed in dementia compared to other disease areas, slowing the pace of discovery. Increasing participation is essential to turning scientific promise into practical treatments.

Alongside scientific progress, there is a growing understanding of how individuals can reduce their risk. Many of the most impactful actions are familiar: maintaining cardiovascular health, staying physically active, eating well and avoiding smoking. Additional factors such as treating hearing loss, staying socially connected and keeping the brain engaged also play a meaningful role. Brain health is increasingly recognised as part of whole-body health.

Looking ahead, personalised medicine is set to redefine treatment. Rather than a single solution, future therapies are likely to combine approaches tailored to an individual’s biology, genetics and stage of disease. Emerging fields such as gene therapy offer particular promise for certain inherited forms of dementia.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating this progress further. From analysing complex datasets to identifying early digital signals of cognitive change through everyday device use, AI is helping researchers detect patterns and develop interventions at unprecedented speed.

Despite the scale of the challenge, the outlook is increasingly hopeful. The science is advancing, the roadmap is clearer, and momentum is building. What was once seen as an unavoidable decline is now understood as a set of diseases that can be studied, treated and, ultimately, prevented.

Key takeaways:

Dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing but a set of diseases that can be understood and targeted

Early diagnosis, including future blood tests, will be critical to effective treatment

New therapies are emerging, signalling real scientific progress

Lifestyle choices can meaningfully reduce risk and support brain health

Collaboration, funding and research participation are essential to accelerating a cure

This episode offers a grounded yet optimistic view of a field on the cusp of transformation, and a clearer understanding of how research today is shaping a future where dementia can be detected earlier, treated more effectively and, ultimately, defeated.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

What if a university degree did not require stepping away from work, taking on significant debt, or leaving one’s community? What if the workplace itself became the campus? Joe Ross, President of Reach University, joins us to share his insight.

This episode explores a different model of higher education that seeks to turn jobs into degrees rather than degrees into jobs. The approach centres on apprenticeship degrees, where learners earn an accredited university qualification while working full time. Half of the learning takes place on the job, while the other half occurs through structured academic instruction designed specifically for working adults.

The result is a pathway that combines higher education, workforce development, and economic mobility.

At the heart of the model is a simple framework described as the “A, B, C” of apprenticeship degrees.

A stands for affordability. Programmes are intentionally designed so that learners do not accumulate student debt. Participants contribute a modest amount, but the cost is kept low enough that it does not become a barrier.

B stands for being based in the workplace. Learners begin with a paid job and remain employed throughout their studies. The workplace becomes the learning environment, with colleagues functioning as classmates and mentors.

C stands for credit for learning at work. On the job experience, mentorship, observation, and practical tasks form part of the academic journey and translate directly into university credit.

Despite the strong workplace component, the degrees themselves remain academic. Students earn traditional qualifications such as a Bachelor of Arts or Associate of Arts. The curriculum integrates liberal arts thinking with practical experience, encouraging critical reasoning, creativity, and intellectual curiosity within the context of real work.

This approach challenges the idea that vocational learning and higher education must exist separately. Instead, it combines both.

Early adoption has focused on fields facing severe workforce shortages. In education, for example, many schools struggle to recruit qualified teachers. At the same time, schools employ large numbers of support staff who know their communities well but lack the degrees required to advance.

By transforming their current roles into a pathway to a degree, classroom aides, library staff, or after school programme workers can train to become fully qualified teachers without leaving their jobs or communities.

The same logic is now emerging in healthcare. Patient care assistants can progress step by step into roles such as certified nursing assistants, registered nurses, and beyond. The model enables employers to build talent from within while offering employees a clear route to professional careers.

The outcomes are promising. Many graduates move directly into the roles they trained for, with a large share seeing their salaries double or even triple. Completion rates also exceed typical national averages for learners from similar economic backgrounds.

Beyond individual success stories, the ambition is broader. If workplaces become learning environments and degrees can be earned through employment, every community could effectively host its own pathway to higher education.

Finally, the discussion touches on the future of education in an age shaped by artificial intelligence. Rather than making higher education obsolete, the argument here is that AI increases the importance of human capabilities such as critical thinking, creativity, and judgement. Those qualities, long associated with the liberal arts, remain essential.

If the challenge of the future is learning how humans and intelligent machines work together, then education that develops adaptable, thoughtful, and creative people may matter more than ever.

This episode offers a glimpse of a higher education model that seeks to expand opportunity, strengthen local workforces, and make the pursuit of a degree possible for people who might otherwise never have the chance.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

What does it take to deliver high quality medical care in the middle of war, displacement and disaster? We gain a behind the scenes understanding from Chris Lockyear, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

This conversation offers a rare look inside one of the world’s most recognised humanitarian medical organisations and the complex system that allows it to operate in some of the most dangerous and hard to reach places on earth.

With around 70,000 staff working across more than 70 countries, the organisation provides emergency medical care to millions of people affected by armed conflict, disease outbreaks and natural disasters. In the past year alone, teams carried out more than 16 million outpatient consultations, alongside trauma surgery, treatment for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, vaccination campaigns, and mental health support.

Yet behind every clinic or hospital lies an intricate global operation that combines medicine, logistics, diplomacy and risk management.

In this episode, MSF's Secretary General explains how humanitarian medicine works in practice. Teams must negotiate access with both state and non state actors, often in highly polarised conflict environments. Medical professionals work alongside logisticians, analysts and coordinators who ensure that drugs, equipment and staff can reach remote locations safely and reliably.

The scale of the logistics alone is extraordinary. Medicines and vaccines must travel through complex supply chains while maintaining strict quality standards and often requiring temperature controlled storage. Equipment for surgery, sterilisation and treatment must arrive on time in places where infrastructure is limited or damaged. In many cases, care is delivered through mobile clinics operating from the back of a vehicle.

Security is an ever present concern. Staff operate in environments where shelling, crossfire or kidnapping are real risks. Rather than promising safety, the organisation focuses on understanding risk, training staff and ensuring informed consent about the conditions in which they work. In 2025, eleven colleagues lost their lives while carrying out humanitarian work.

The conversation also explores how knowledge gained in these extreme settings travels across the global health system. Experience with epidemic response, infection control and contact tracing developed in Ebola outbreaks later helped support hospitals and health ministries in Europe and the United States during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A defining feature of the organisation is its financial independence. Around 98 percent of funding comes from private donors, with more than 7.3 million donors contributing. This allows operations to be guided primarily by medical need rather than political priorities. Beyond funding, these contributions represent something deeper: a global expression of solidarity between people who will likely never meet but are connected through a shared commitment to helping others in crisis.

For listeners interested in humanitarian medicine, global health, logistics, crisis response or international cooperation, this discussion offers an inside perspective on what it really takes to bring medical care to the front lines of human suffering.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.