In conversation with...

Welcome to the third episode in our series, In Conversation With, where Emma Brown from our Philanthropy Team is joined by Annie Moon, Founder & CEO of Be the Difference, and Helen Hamilton, Senior Policy Analyst for Health and Hygiene at WaterAid UK. They discuss the impact of the COVID crisis on giving trends and consider what's also happening at the same time in policy.

We know modern philanthropy around the world is changing. In part this is due to COVID-19 as well as other crises creating major financial shocks over the past decade. Philanthropists are becoming more involved in their financial giving, self-organising and pledging to give money away in their own lifetimes.  How has the recent crisis affected their giving? Has it changed forever to focus on health, or is there a longer term strategy in development?

Can philanthropists combine their individual interests to effect greater change? And how are policymakers pushing forward a new agenda that demonstrates the need to work together, too, across sectors such as health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)?

Join us as we explore these questions and more.

Annie Moon
Founder & CEO of Be the Difference

Annie Moon, founder of advisory firm Be the Difference. She brings 25 years' experience as a change-maker across public, private, and third sectors. Annie works with philanthropists, companies and wealth advisors to help extend their networks, connect to leading influencers in thought leadership and practitioners, and create platforms that help philanthropists become recognised game-changers in their own right. Be The Difference offers services for philanthropists and companies and wealth professionals from advisory through to end-to-end strategy and implementation.

Helen Hamilton
Senior Policy Analyst on Health and Hygiene, WaterAid UK

Helen leads WaterAid’s policy work on global health and hygiene, championing policy, programming and research innovation on comprehensive approaches to public health. Helen’s experience includes linking water, sanitation and hygiene with programmes to improve maternal and new-born health and working to strengthen health systems governance and approaches to infectious diseases and inclusion.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected communities across the world, but while there have been lots of shared experiences, there certainly isn’t a one-size-fits-all response for those organisations trying to mitigate and respond on the frontline. As the epicentre of the outbreak has shifted from Europe to South East Asia and the Americas, what are charities doing to help the communities prepare?

Join us as we hear from WaterAid whose federation supports 28 countries across the world. Without a vaccine, what measures can be quickly implemented with the most effect to those hardest to reach? And what part can clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene play in mitigating this and any future shocks?

Speakers

VK Madhavan
WaterAid India CEO

Madhavan has spent 15 years living and working side-by-side with communities whilst implementing rural development programmes in the desert in north-western Rajasthan and subsequently in the Kumaun region of the Central Himalayas. Madhavan has worked on policy issues, on women’s leadership in governance and has led an enterprise that sought to provide employment opportunities for young people. Madhavan has led WaterAid in India since 2016.

Joshua Briemberg
Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, WaterAid America

Joshua has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Diploma in Social Sciences from McGill University, Canada. After stints with engineering consulting firms, Joshua moved into the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector where he is now overseeing the growth and development of programmes in Nicaragua and Colombia with a priority on indigenous people, women and girls.

Mariame Dem
Regional Director for WaterAid West Africa

Mariame has 25 years’ experience in gender and community development in West Africa. Mariame has supported local organisations on livelihoods, education and health development as well as advocating for equality and justice for all, with a focus on women and marginalised people. Using her expertise she was involved in the humanitarian response in Sahel and Ituri/DRC before joining WaterAid in 2009.

The crisis of COVID-19 in 2020 has pressed fast-forward on so many of the already burning questions facing philanthropists. How can they free-up funding and in what way can their support help the organisations on the frontline of this crisis? How can charities help philanthropists to understand how this support helps in the short-term and also for long-term systemic change? What do charities need to understand about the changes happening in wealth management?

Jacqui Lazare
Senior Associate at Clarke Willmott LLP

Jacqui has over 13 years’ experience in High Net Worth UK-based tax and estate planning. With particular experience in wills, trusts and their administration Jacqui also advises philanthropists and their charities. Jacqui is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and belongs to the Charity Law Association.

Katie Hillitt
Head of Philanthropy at WaterAid UK

Katie leads a team of 12 to develop transformational partnerships with philanthropists, trusts and foundations, towards the vision of achieving universal access to safe water and sanitation by 2030.

Chair

Jon Kinnell
Senior Philanthropy Manager at WaterAid UK

The sounds of women and children, singing and chatting while collecting water. Tombohuaun, Sierra Leone.