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

Aunnie Patton Power, Founder of the Innovative Finance Initiative, joins Alberto Lidji on the Do One Better Podcast as she shares her views on how finance can be redesigned to better serve people, communities, and the planet.

The Innovative Finance Initiative brings together more than 2,000 funders, intermediaries, and changemakers exploring what is possible beyond traditional approaches to finance. Aunnie explains why she believes the goal should not simply be to shift the existing system, but to build credible alternatives to it.

The conversation explores some fundamental questions. What does it really mean to invest for...

Dr. Doris Macharia, President of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), joins Alberto Lidji on the Do One Better Podcast for a conversation about the global effort to end pediatric HIV and the challenge of reaching the children and families who remain underserved.

EGPAF has been working for more than three decades to improve outcomes for children and mothers affected by HIV. Today, its work spans 12 countries in Africa, working alongside governments and communities to strengthen HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care.

In this conversation, Dr. Macharia explains what she means by reaching the “la...

Nearly 48 million Americans lived in food-insecure households in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and close to a third of the food produced in the United States goes to waste. Last year alone, roughly 15,000 American farms went out of business. Farmlink exists in the gap between those numbers.

It started in April 2020, when college junior Aidan Reilly and his co-founder James Kanoff were sent home at the start of the pandemic and learned their local food bank had gone from serving 300 families a week to 1,000, almost overnight. Around the same time, they read about farmers...

Justin Steele spent a decade as a funder at Google.org, giving away hundreds of millions of dollars before leaving at the end of 2024 to co-found Outdoorithm Collective, a nonprofit focused on connecting families with public lands and campgrounds in the United States. Finding himself on the other side of the funding table for the first time, he quickly discovered how broken and fragmented the grant-prospecting process really is. That frustration, combined with a self-taught crash course in coding with AI tools, led him to build a simple matching tool for his own nonprofit. That tool became Kindora, a...

Peter Singer co-founded Grand Challenges Canada and served as its CEO before joining its board, where he still sits today.

Over 15 years, the organisation has backed roughly 1,700 innovations across more than 100 countries, deployed over a billion dollars in funding — more than half from the Government of Canada — and reached 85 million people, improved 28 million lives, and saved an estimated 120,000 lives.

Peter shares vivid examples: a small grant that helped seed Mylab, now a billion-dollar Indian diagnostics unicorn; an early investment that led to Ubiologics' cholera vaccine now entering the global stockpile; and Tanzania's M-Mama, an Uber-style mate...

It's a pleasure to welcome Michael Thatcher back onto the Do One Better Podcast. Michael is President and Chief Executive Officer of Charity Navigator, the largest independent evaluator of nonprofits in the United States, now marking its 25th year and covering roughly 245,000 charities as a free public service to donors.

Michael last joined the show in 2022, and returns with a comprehensive update on how Charity Navigator has evolved since then — including a major overhaul to its rating methodology, a new partnership bringing cost-per-outcome impact data into the platform, and candid reflections on some of the biggest structural ch...

Martin Burt, Founder and CEO of Fundación Paraguaya (Paraguay Development Foundation) and former Mayor of Asunción, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss a fundamentally different approach to eliminating poverty. Rather than focusing solely on income or government interventions, Burt argues that lasting change begins with families, dignity, and the entrepreneurial spirit.

The conversation explores the Poverty Stoplight, a framework now used in 62 countries that enables families to assess their own multidimensional poverty across objective measures such as housing and income, alongside subjective factors including motivation, self-esteem, and aspirations. By identifying their own priorities and connecting with pr...

What does it take to change systems rather than simply address symptoms? In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Don Gips, CEO Emeritus of the Skoll Foundation, about the evolution of social entrepreneurship and the enduring role it plays in tackling the world's most complex challenges.

Drawing on a career spanning the private sector, government, diplomacy, and philanthropy, Don reflects on the Skoll Foundation's pioneering efforts to help establish social entrepreneurship as a global field. He discusses Jeff Skoll's founding vision, the creation of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at...

Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett joins Alberto Lidji to explore one of the world's most important—and often overlooked—scientific frontiers: plant science.

As Chair of the John Innes Centre, Sir Thomas shares how this globally renowned research institute is developing the plants of the future—crops that are more nutritious, more resilient to climate change, require fewer chemical inputs, and can help feed a growing global population sustainably.

The conversation examines the remarkable advances emerging from modern plant science, from vitamin D-enriched tomatoes and disease-resistant potatoes to drought-tolerant crops and breakthroughs that could transform biodiversity, regenerative agricu...

Patrick Dunne, author of "Boards", joins host Alberto Lidji on the Do One Better Podcast for a timely conversation on how boards can become more effective, more agile and more valuable.

Drawing on the third edition of his book "Boards", Patrick explores how governance is changing in a world shaped by AI, faster decision making, dynamic strategy, rising uncertainty and more complex risk. He looks at the growing role of AI in boardrooms, from summarising papers and tracking regulatory change to supporting better decisions, while also considering where human judgement remains essential.

Rachel Kolisi returns to the Do One Better Podcast for a candid and deeply reflective conversation with host Alberto Lidji about philanthropy, resilience, and the launch of the Falling Forward Foundation in South Africa.

Since her previous appearance on the podcast, Rachel’s life and work have changed significantly. Having co-founded the Kolisi Foundation and led major impact work, she now enters a new chapter focused on strengthening the broader nonprofit ecosystem, particularly grassroots organisations that are doing vital work but lack visibility, resources, and access to support.

Through the Falling Forward Foundation, Rachel is no...

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with David Mozersky, President and Co-Founder of Energy Peace Partners, about the connection between renewable energy and peacebuilding in fragile and conflict-affected countries.

David explains how some of the least electrified countries in the world are also among the most affected by conflict and climate vulnerability. From South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Somalia and Chad, Energy Peace Partners works to bring renewable energy solutions to communities where electricity access can transform lives, strengthen local economies, improve health and education, enhance security...

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Chris Sherwood, Chief Executive Officer of the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), one of the United Kingdom's most respected and influential child protection charities.

As technology continues to reshape childhood, Chris explores the urgent challenges facing children and young people online, from social media and algorithmic design to artificial intelligence, sextortion, online exploitation, and emerging digital risks.

Drawing on insights from Childline, which receives a contact from a child or young person every 45 seconds, he shares what...

Collaborative philanthropy is emerging as one of the most promising innovations in modern giving.

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, host Alberto Lidji is joined by three leading voices in collaborative philanthropy: Alison Powell, Partner at The Bridgespan Group and leader of its Collaborative Philanthropy practice; Kimberly Dasher Tripp, Founder of Strategy for Scale; and Neha Dalal, Principal at Jasper Ridge Partners, where she advises families and foundations on strategic philanthropy and impact. Together, they explore the growing role of collaborative funds as a powerful vehicle for scaling philanthropic impact.

Drawing on...

Heart and circulatory diseases remain among the world's leading causes of death, yet scientific progress is accelerating at an extraordinary pace. In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, about the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of cardiovascular health.

Charmaine shares how the British Heart Foundation invests more than £100 million annually in research, supports millions of people through information and advocacy, and works to influence policy on issues ranging from smoking prevention to public health inequalities.

The conversation explores emerging b...

With an endowment exceeding $14 billion and annual grantmaking of roughly $600 to $700 million, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation occupies a distinctive position in global philanthropy: large enough to shape conversations, yet intentionally focused on convening expertise, supporting long-term thinking, and backing institutions working on society’s most complex challenges. In this episode, Amber Miller, President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss how one of the world’s leading foundations is approaching artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and an increasingly uncertain global landscape.

The conversation explores how AI is becoming a cross-cutting concern acro...

What does thoughtful philanthropy look like when the ambition is to deploy $6 billion over the next 35 years in support of girls’ education?

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Dana Schmidt, Program Director at Echidna Giving, about the realities of large-scale grantmaking, the responsibility that comes with stewarding significant philanthropic capital, and why supporting girls’ education remains one of the most evidence-backed pathways toward long-term social change. Echidna Giving is expanding rapidly, with annual grantmaking projected to grow from roughly $50 million to $200 million.

Dana explains why giving money away well...

Nicole Taylor, President and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, joins Alberto Lidji to explore the evolving landscape of modern philanthropy through the lens of the world’s largest community foundation.

The conversation examines how donor advised funds (DAFs) are reshaping giving across generations, from ultra high net worth philanthropists to everyday donors seeking meaningful impact. Nicole explains why donor advised funds have become a flexible and increasingly influential vehicle for charitable giving, and how Silicon Valley Community Foundation supports donors in translating intention into action.

Nicole also discusses the Foundation’s deep local enga...

Sustainability has shifted from corporate aspiration to financial reality, but how do companies actually measure its impact on value creation?

In this episode, Alberto Lidji speaks with Michel Driessen about the evolving relationship between sustainability, ESG, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Drawing from the themes explored in Green Gold: How Sustainability Creates Deal Value, Michel explains how businesses and investors are increasingly translating sustainability into measurable financial outcomes.

The conversation examines why sustainability has become more politically charged in recent years, while simultaneously becoming more embedded inside corporate operations, investment decisions, and supply chains...

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Professor Jennifer Davidson, Executive Director of the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures at the University of Strathclyde. The conversation examines how global coalitions, governments, and communities can work together to better uphold children’s rights.

Professor Davidson outlines the Institute’s mission to bridge research and real-world impact, focusing on children facing the greatest adversities. The discussion highlights a persistent global gap between society’s aspirations for children and their lived realities, and the structural barriers that continue to limit children’s access to justice...

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Emily Teitsworth, Executive Director of the Honnold Foundation, about a powerful and often overlooked approach to climate philanthropy.

Founded by professional climber Alex Honnold, the Honnold Foundation focuses on expanding access to solar energy in underserved communities around the world. But its impact goes far beyond clean energy. The organization identifies and supports grassroots leaders who are frequently invisible to larger funders, helping them develop, grow, and ultimately access greater resources.

Emily shares how the foundation operates as both a funder and...

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, host Alberto Lidji speaks with Irene Pritzker, Chair and Co-Founder of the IDP Foundation and author of The School in the Market. The conversation explores how innovative financing models can expand access to quality education in underserved communities, with a focus on Ghana and Kenya.

Pritzker shares the origin story behind the foundation’s work, which began with a visit to Ghana and a revealing encounter with informal, low-cost private schools serving families who lacked viable public education options. These schools, often founded by local entrepreneurs, operate in ch...

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 wa...

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...

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 actin...

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 de...

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 p...

This episode explores how sustained scientific ambition, backed by flexible philanthropy, has helped transform HIV from a fatal diagnosis into a manageable condition and why the search for a cure remains both urgent and achievable. At the centre of the conversation is the work of amfAR and its distinctive role in advancing research that changes lives far beyond a single disease area.

Founded in the mid-1980s, at a time when HIV and AIDS were poorly understood and highly stigmatised, the organisation emerged from the determination of clinicians, researchers and advocates who refused to wait for slow-moving...

In this episode, Nathan Atkinson, Co-Founder of Rethink Food in the UK, shares a deeply grounded perspective on hunger, education and systemic change, shaped by a decade spent leading schools in some of England’s most disadvantaged communities.

Nathan traces the origins of Rethink Food back to a defining moment as a headteacher, when a school kitchen breakdown revealed the hidden scale of child hunger and its direct impact on behaviour, wellbeing and learning. That experience led him to a simple but powerful commitment: to remove hunger as a barrier to education.

The conversation explores ho...

Larry Cooley joins us to explore how to achieve sustainable impact at meaningful scale.

As co-founder of the Scaling Community of Practice, Larry has spent more than two decades examining why promising innovations so often fail to reach the scale required to address global problems. Drawing on 50 years of experience, from his early work as a Peace Corps volunteer to senior roles advising governments, foundations and multilateral institutions, he offers a candid assessment of what is and is not working.

At the centre of the conversation is a shift in thinking. Larry distinguishes between transactional...

A deep dive into how philanthropy in Asia is evolving, and how the next generation of leaders is being prepared to make it more effective, collaborative and impactful.

In this conversation with Brian Sen, Secretary General of the Institute of Philanthropy in Hong Kong, the discussion explores why the Institute was created, what it means to be a “thinking, funding and doing” tank, and how it is working to strengthen the wider philanthropic ecosystem across Asia.

A central focus of the conversation is the LEAP Fellowship, Leadership Excellence in Asian Philanthropy, a new programme designed to e...

What if the biggest barrier to education is not poverty, infrastructure, or even access but low expectations of what children can achieve?

In this conversation, Caitlin Baron shares how the Luminos Fund is proving that children who have never been to school can master foundational literacy and numeracy at extraordinary speed when the right conditions are in place.

We hear how Luminos works with 10 and 11 year olds across Africa who are often first generation readers and who frequently enter classrooms without ever having encountered the printed word. Many are taught in languages they do not...

Nick Temple returns to discuss how Social Investment Business has evolved from a specialist social lender into a major player in grant delivery, programme management, and impact-driven finance across the UK.

At the heart of the conversation is what it takes to turn strategy into action. Nick reflects on the realities of running large-scale, complex programmes, the importance of pace in a turbulent landscape, and how data can be used not just to improve delivery but to shape wider sector thinking.

A refresher on Social Investment Business today: a...

Peggy Dulany is a philanthropist, member of the Rockefeller family and the Founder and Chair of Synergos, a global nonprofit dedicated to advancing social change through collaboration and systems leadership.

In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Peggy joins host Alberto Lidji for a thoughtful conversation on what it takes to address complex social challenges in an increasingly interconnected world. Drawing on decades of experience working alongside social innovators, community leaders, governments and philanthropic institutions, Peggy shares insights into the importance of trust, long-term thinking, and inclusive leadership.

The discussion explores the founding...

Benjamin Perks, UNICEF’s Head of Advocacy for Child Development and Protection, joins Alberto Lidji on the Do One Better Podcast to make the case that the single most powerful investment a society can make is in the relationship between children and their caregivers.

Drawing on more than three decades of neuroscience, public health, and social science, Perks explains why secure caregiver child attachment is not only the foundation of healthy childhoods but also one of the strongest predictors of lifelong wellbeing, economic productivity, and social stability. When those relationships break down, the costs ripple outward into ed...

In this episode, Surita Sandosham, President and CEO of Heifer International, shares how one of the world’s most established development organizations is reimagining the fight against hunger and poverty through locally led, systems-based solutions.

With more than 80 years of experience and work spanning 19 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, Heifer International partners with smallholder farmers, especially women, to build sustainable, climate-resilient food systems. The conversation explores how farmers move from subsistence to thriving producers by strengthening social capital, building profitable value chains, and creating cooperative models that unlock market access, finance, and long-term resilience.

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As we close out 2025, host Alberto Lidji analyses fifty deep-dive conversations from the past year to identify the key trends currently reshaping the social impact landscape. This special 2025 roundup episode moves beyond individual projects to explore the fundamental evolution of systemic transformation. Alberto synthesises the year’s insights into three defining shifts: the transition from isolated funding to orchestrator models, the strategic focus on structural root causes, and a fundamental evolution in how we approach leadership and burnout.

Key Themes Explored in This Episode:

The Evolution of Collaboration: Why the retreat of traditional funding streams in...

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common congenital conditions worldwide, yet effective care goes far beyond repairing a visible deformity. It requires long-term, multidisciplinary support that addresses speech, hearing, dental development and psychological wellbeing.

In this episode, Brian Sommerlad, a surgeon and Chairman of CLEFT, shares four decades of experience in cleft care across the UK and low and middle income countries. Drawing on extensive work in places such as Bangladesh and Nepal, he explains why short-term surgical missions alone are not enough and how well-intentioned philanthropy can sometimes undermine local health systems.

This episode explores the work of the Roger Federer Foundation through a conversation with Maya Ziswiler, Chief Executive Officer, focusing on early childhood education, prevention-focused philanthropy, and long-term systems change.

Maya explains how the Foundation works to give children a better start in life through early and foundational learning, with the majority of its work concentrated in Southern Africa and a growing portfolio in Switzerland. In Southern Africa, the Foundation partners closely with governments and locally rooted organisations across six countries to strengthen school readiness and early learning systems. In Switzerland, it is developing an approach that...

In this episode, Guy Cave, President of the Legatum Foundation, discusses how the foundation launches and scales collaborative funds that focus on ambitious, system-level change. Rather than distributing small grants, the foundation pilots approaches with local organisations, tests what works, and—when the potential for large-scale impact is clear—spins out independent funds with their own leadership, governance and investor base.

Guy traces the journey behind four existing funds: the END Fund, focused on neglected tropical diseases; the Freedom Fund, which addresses human trafficking and modern slavery; the Luminos Fund, bringing out-of-school children back into learning; and, most...