In this #Global20 interview, which was recorded at an in-person event at Boodle Hatfield’s London offices in May 2024, we dive into the potential of digitalisation to amplify philanthropic efforts.
Compere Ben Morton Wright, CEO and Founder of Global Philanthropic, explains how storytelling has always been in the organisation’s DNA and our eminent guest speakers, Lady Edwina Grosvenor, Clare Stirzaker (Boodle Hatfield), Emily Thomas (ClientEarth), Srishti Bakshi (Global Philanthropic), Nick Taylor (Altrata) and Geoff Holt MBE (Wetwheels Foundation) share their journeys in philanthropy and leveraging technology for social change.
The speakers emphasise the importance of storytelling, network mapping, and tailoring content to specific channels to maximise impact. They share personal stories of perseverance and determination in the face of adversity, highlighting the importance of pursuing one’s passions and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals.
Ben Morton-Wright 0:08
So thank you all for coming. Firstly, I have to introduce myself apparently. So I’m Ben Morton Wright, I’m the founder and the Group CEO of Global Philanthropic. And my first job this evening is to thank our hosts who are providing the venue and the wines and the food. So Boodle Hatfield, thank you very much. The other third leg of the stool in the partnership is Altrata. So this really is a three way evening with Global Philanthropic, Boodle Hatfield and Altrata. So we’d also like to thank Alrata.
There’s really three themes for this evening. They’re all interwoven. And the first is something that’s very deep in Global’s history because of an amazing guy called Sir Duncan Rice, who’s unfortunately no longer with us, but was our Chairman of Europe. He was the Vice Chancellor of Aberdeen University and a great mentor of mine. And he, at our 10th anniversary, so that was actually 12 years ago (yes, we’re getting old), talked about the importance of storytelling. He said, it’s all about storytelling. If you can tell stories in philanthropy, people will raise and give and be really engaged. And that’s as a philanthropist as well as someone that’s trying to raise money. So storytelling has always been in our DNA as a firm.
The second theme is about journeys. And we’ve got a fair few of those coming up as well. And there’s two types of journey. One is a personal journey, but also physical journeys. So we have two amazing examples this evening of physical journeys, of walking and being on the water, which I think are very important. So our life journeys are another hugely important second theme.
And then the third theme, which is the new bit, but dovetails very importantly in the other two old bits, is around digitalisation. Digitalisation is just incredible. And it’s changed everything, all at the same time really fast. That we know for sure. But what we’re really interested in at Global Philanthropic is about that interface with philanthropy, what has happened in digital with philanthropy and how we, as a firm might respond to that. So we’re going to try and unpack that tonight. We’re trying to take a lead on it, as well as as one of our key strategic missions as a company. But we really are in listening and discussion mode. Tonight, we’re going to share with you some of our thoughts, but I think it’s affecting us all differently and it’s a rapidly moving subject. So thank you very much, Clare, we’re going to just say a few words of thanks to you first, but also you might have a chance to do a few digitally, your words are welcome. And then we’re going to hand back to our first key speaker Lady Edwina Grosvenor. So, Clare.
Clare Stirzaker 2:46
Thank you, Ben. And hi, everybody. I can’t actually see you right now. But I saw you entering the room and taking your seats, and it looks like there’s a real buzz in the room and I’m really, really sad not to be there tonight, as Ben mentioned, sadly. So for those of you who aren’t as familiar with our firm Boodle Hatfield, well, where have you been?! Because we’ve been around for over 300 years now working with both a wide range of UK and international families, providing the support that they require in respect to both their personal and business affairs. My personal focus is on succession planning, and obviously philanthropy, working with successful entrepreneurs and business owners who want to use their wealth to effect positive change to society. And these discussions arise from a focus on legacy and what that means to the clients that you work with. When you start to focus quite deeply on legacy, we often find the clients will really wants to think carefully about what they care about and where they feel they can really make a difference with their wealth.
But we very much believe that we are a wheel in a far larger philanthropic cog. And so alongside the technical, legal and tax work that we deliver to our clients on how best to affect their philanthropic giving, we also spend the time connecting with the right philanthropy networks and experts such as Global Philanthropic, to learn and achieve more alongside them on how they can best achieve their giving objectives. And on that note, I’m a really big believer in the power of bringing people together to talk, to learn and to inspire each other. And that’s very much what tonight is about. And we are so delighted that such a large crowd are in attendance to listen and learn. And it’s our pleasure to host you and the reception afterwards to enable you to network. Global Philanthropic continue to develop a really excellent leadership team and it’s really exciting that both Lady Edwina Grosvenor and Srishti Bakshi have now joined the group. And they’re going to share more of their experiences of being philanthropist tonight. And I also can’t wait to hear more from the panel on the topic of digitalisation, and how that can drive even greater impact in the world of philanthropy.
Lady Edwina Grosvenor 4:41
Well, thank you very much for being here this evening and to Boodle Hatfield. My family, the Grosvenor family, have had a long affiliation with Boodle Hatfield and it’s so great to be part now of the Global Philanthropic family too. So thank you so much for asking me to be the Chair of the Advisory Board.
Cut to the age of 18 and I found myself in Central Jail, in Kathmandu, and Nepal. And I was on my gap year and that’s was really the first time that I think my philanthropic journey really kicked in. Because not only did I fall in love with prisons, which I know sounds an incredibly strange thing to say, but it’s true. And I fell in love with the Himalayas, I fell in love with the Nepalese people. But I went on to study criminology from there. This September is my 25th year of working in the prison service in this country but I’ve also worked in prisons around the world, in Hawaii and California, South Africa. So I decided to design what we are now operating and running. It’s called Hope Street. Hope Street Hampshire because it sits across the county of Hampshire. And we have designed a gender specific, trauma informed building, where women now can come on remand, sent from the Magistrates Court. They can be sentenced to Hope Street on a community sentence. Women can come to us if they’re eligible for early release from prison and women can come to Hope Street on the probation contract. And the idea, and my hope is that we replicate it, we scale it, because if you start putting Hope Streets into other counties, then you can start reducing the female prison population, which of course, ultimately will help with the overcrowding crisis, and will drive functionality into a very, very dysfunctional space.
Ben Morton-Wright 6:41
Well over to you, Nick. Tell us about yourself and a little bit about Altrata.
Nick Taylor 6:45
Sure. So my name is Nick, from Altrata, I’m an Account Manager, I look after 50+ charities and nonprofits, so Mouse-Free Marian specifically. I’ve been working on for the last year, and they’ve identified a lot of individuals, high net worth individuals, they wanted to engage with, but they were at a crossroads. What do we do now? You know, what do we with these people? We’ve got these amazing people we want to talk with, they’ve got the means to give, they’ve got an affinity with what we do. So I started talking about one of our platforms, Railside, which was network mapping. So it’s about leveraging your existing connections, board members, trustees, sponsors, ambassadors, supporters, anyone that you’re close to, to see how you can get connected easily with those individuals. From there, that was good but then also, obviously, it’s all about the storytelling. And as I said, Mouse-Free Marion, curious name. Marian is an island just off Africa, off South Africa. Now Marian is an island where is like a stopping posted a breeding ground for seabirds, predominantly albatrosses. If you’ve watched not the latest series of David Attenborough, the one before that, Marian appeared on that, particularly penguins. And the invasive species there is mice, which eat the eggs of the seabirds, and they shouldn’t be there, basically. So Mouse-Free Marion is all about eradicating that. So what a great story because as soon as you meet someone who says this is what it is, this is what it’s called, What does that mean? So really, it’s about setting them on that journey to identify individuals they want to connect with, how they could connect with them, and then what the stories they will tell them to engage with them.
Emily Thomas 8:45
I am Emily Thomas, I am Global Associate Director of Philanthropy and Events. I might have used up all my time, just saying that title! And so Client Earth is an environmental charity that uses the power of the law, the whole lifecycle of the law, to bring around change wherever it’s needed, basically, for the environment, for people and for planet. So what does that look like in practice? It means that we support advocacy campaigns, we have eight offices globally that work in a variety of topics including second HQ, if you’d like in Brussels, which is they’re very much to work with the EU teams that are based on the ground. We have shut down coal plants across Poland, using shareholder and corporate law. So we had shares in the coal plant and we set up an AGM and this was way before,i t’s quite common to use shareholder law now, but we were the first to ever bring this case. And we stood up and said, we have an investment in this coal plant and by investing in fossil fuels, this is a stranded asset and you’re not protecting our investments. And we shut that coal plant down and it was giving off the equivalent of the same amount of carbon emissions as New Zealand was – annually! So it was a huge success to close it. And we made a good return on our 30 Euro investment that day. And it just shows the power of leverage. And that’s kind of what Client Earth are about. We’re quite small, but we try and hit above our weight a lot.
Srishti Bakshi 10:14
I was in Hong Kong, dabbling with the question, what’s the point of me? And I had spent around 10 years in corporate marketing and branding, in different FMCG companies so very hard core marketing and branding. Which brought me to the question of what is the point of me and what I’m going to do, because I was a very loud women’s rights champion. But on the internet! Which is firing away my anger on keyboard, every time I heard something that didn’t sit right with me. So I came across an article from back home, I left my job, because I could not stand it that women are unsafe in my country, and little girls are unsafe in my country, and they’re not able to access the equality and equity that they deserve. So I came back to India, I decided to walk 3800 kilometres from the very south, to the north, meeting people. From the very beginning, my journey was what I call a ‘phygital journey’. It was physical and digital, as well. So a lot of people ask me, why did you decide to walk? And the reason is that, you know, when you’re very angry, and someone says, Go take a walk, I just do a very, very long walk. But what I did was be able to meet 100,000 women, hear their stories, it was difficult as hell. And then take those stories to global platforms, and tell their stories in a very authentic way through digital platforms. So I kind of became an expert in how to use digital in a very profound way in the impact space, and found myself in leadership positions after my journey was done in different charities, not limited to only women and children, the work that I did in India, but transcend into climate work into education and that’s what got me to Global Philanthropic, because I felt that here is an organisation where I can take this niche and my skill set to actually complement the body of work that the organisation has done.
Geoff Holt MBE 10:14
So my journey through life, really, I was a professional yachtsman, I worked in the West Indies on other people’s beautiful yachts. And that was my destiny, it’s what I wanted to do. It’s how I was going to spend the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I had an accident when I was 18 years old. I dived into shallow water and broke my neck and have been paralysed from the chest down for the last 40 years. I can’t believe it’s 40 years this year. And I’m quadriplegic, I use a big, heavy wheelchair, I can’t move my fingers and hands at all. And I rely on someone to look after me 24/7. That person has been my wife for the last 40 years.
Ben Morton-Wright 13:32
Tell us a bit more about what you did 17 years ago because you’re doing the same thing, but rather faster.
Geoff Holt MBE 13:39
So 17 years ago, 2007, I became the first quadriplegic to sail or disabled person even I think, to sail single handed around Great Britain. I did it in a tiny dingey and thanks, Ben for holding up the book. I think you’re the only one that bought a copy of it! And it was in a 15 foot dingey. I sailed around Great Britain, it took 110 days to sail around the country. We visited 51 harbours, which was just phenomenal really, it was a real true expedition in every sense of the word. My wife was on road crew, driving a motorhome, a wheelchair accessible motorhome with our five year old son. And yeah, I call that my personal Everest. It took 110 days to complete 1500 miles and it seems a lifetime ago now but it was with that in mind, this whole sailing piece, that I went on to become the first quadriplegic to sail the Atlantic Ocean. I did that in 2009. And at that time, technology improving a bit more, proving a bit better and able to do live broadcasts back from the middle of the Atlantic using Inmarsat technology, and helping raise awareness and money for what we were doing at the time, which was raising money to get more disabled people on the water. Which leads us quite nicely, which may be your next question…
Ben Morton-Wright 15:20
Wetwheels, of course, tell us about Wetwheels.
Geoff Holt MBE 15:22
In fact I have one behind me, as if by magic, this is a model of what Wetwheels is! So Wetwheels I founded in 2011 and I founded it out of a need to find ways to get disabled people of all ages, their friends and their family out onto the water. My next big adventure, which is to take this very boat Wetwheels around Great Britain, and today is day two!
Ben Morton-Wright 15:55
How’s it going, Goeff?
Geoff Holt MBE 15:59
We left London yesterday, and I arrived in Dover at about four o’clock yesterday afternoon. We’ve had the website, there’s a ‘Where’s Geoff?’ tracker on the website so anyone who wants to find out where I am tomorrow, and keep an eye on me just go in there and take a look at finishing the dream.co.uk. And since yesterday morning, we’ve had 70 media mentions on digital mentions, from different agencies. 70 around the world, since yesterday’s press launch. So the journey today is quite literally radios and telephones going off, notifying the press where we are. doing interviews. It’s not quite the same as it was 17 years ago, it’s different. I’m loving it. And we’re raising lots of awareness.
Emily Thomas 16:47
We are a very small development team. I joined six years ago, and there were only nine of us. And there are more now but we don’t have a research facility. We don’t have a lot of support staff, we don’t have an operations team that’s much bigger than a couple of people. So we had to digitalise very quickly in terms of being able to do that research function. So there’s a couple of AI tools that we use, actually, to put people into that tool, build up a bit of a profile about them.
Srishti Bakshi 17:15
A lot of people, because they their thinking revolves around AI is going to take over. What AI can’t do is create the strategy for you. What AI can do is process all the research and the data for you in a much faster way than traditionally done.
Emily Thomas 17:35
It can run a report in 10 minutes that will take a fundraiser half a day.
Nick Taylor 17:39
Well, that’s what we’re doing. We’re not proposing something that’s nice to have, or luxury, it’s a solution.
Emily Thomas 17:47
Ben did these interviews with a selection of people both internally within ClientEarth, but also some external companies and charities that were already based in in Asia, as well as some of our trustees and a couple of our donors and ambassadors. And then that got compiled into this kind of report that I was like, “What’s this mic?” and I would click on this mic, and it would just give this amazing voxpop of someone, basically verbatim saying it and it brings it to life so much more than seeing it written down. And it also makes you, I’m a bit of a skim reader and if you give me a 40 page PowerPoint, I’m going to skip a few slides. And what this made me do was stop, listen, absorb, think, reflect and make some notes. And then I could just see the dots join up so much more effectively.
Srishti Bakshi 18:36
Yeah, digital is a crowded space and to stand out, it’s it’s tough. It’s also very expensive. So in terms of my approach to it has always been from deeply understanding my target audience, and only focusing on that target audience. A plan to be able to service certain channels of these content to certain kinds of people. So if you’re able to master that, then you will be able to reach a much wider audience with a very tailored approach.
Emily Thomas 19:13
We almost need to focus on how we can start building the forces for good while also trying to dismantle the systems that are difficult to operate in. So you have to think about what’s the cost benefit of doing that. So by using your tech tools, what’s the cost benefit, are you then in creating your startup that’s then going to have this huge impact. And it’s worth that at the time. And then when you don’t need to have this kind of onslaught into research, you can start slowing down the amount of tech that you use, and maybe you can grow your team and you can have someone on site or you build a development board, and they can do some of that work for you.
Ben Morton-Wright 19:52
Please do mingle. Thanks everyone. Thank you my panelists. Thanks for the sponsors and the partners. Thank you all for coming. Thank you.