This month I joined Kenneth and James of the Do More Good podcast to chat about going it alone for the first time.

“just do it. stop overthinking it.“

After a winter hibernation we return with an episode about jumping in at the deep end.

We chat to Jenni Anderson, the former Director at Invictus Games, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Haven House and future consultant to the sector about taking the plunge during a pandemic. We talk about the motivation of a big birthday, unfulfilled dreams of musical theatre and starring in the next season of The Crown.

We also talk tech and the transformation of charities this past year, fighting your inner chimp and how to properly ask for help. There’s also high-brow entertainment choices; how fundraising, comms and brand need to work in unison; and slowing down to focus long term.

Avyze

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With some light appearing on the fundraising horizon, now is the time to reset your approach to developing corporate partnerships with purpose.

The pandemic has made everyone evaluate their purpose and charities can help businesses and their employees create a new future that’s fair for all.

Remarkable Partnerships and Fundraising Everywhere have a new conference dedicated to international charity-business relationships.

Join them and some amazing charities on 25 February 2021 by booking your spot here.

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And soon enough we will be back to ‘high-five-ing’ in person when those partnership deals are done!

I’ve always been fascinated with the construction of words.

The use of i before e, except after c; why a y, when an i will do; when does -ize become -ise.

How language has adapted and evolved over centuries and across geographical boundaries. Punctuation, pronunciation and phonetics all playing their part to produce a panacea of understanding.

Just writing this blog, I considered hundreds of words and many ended up on the cutting room floor for being too superfluous (which is a glorious word in itself).

Last week my niece learnt what onomatopoeia meant and I got such a buzz recounting all the words we could think of together [I dare you to refrain from internally sounding out ‘meow’ and ‘quack’].

Words make stories. Whether they are written down or read aloud. They help us to learn, to make sense of the world, to laugh and to cry. And most importantly, stories enable us to connect.

avyze gives me the opportunity to use my love of words to help others. Adapted from Edmund Spenser 1590s allegorical poem, The Faerie Queene, avyze means to advise, give counsel or offer an opinion.

The word has evolved and adapted, however its meaning has survived. As we navigate the next year, there’s a lesson in there for all of us.

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And yes I did check, avyze is a valid Scrabble word, securing 20 points. So there’s an option next time you are landed with a V, Y and Z together.

With most of 2020 and our festive season put on hold by the global pandemic; I was optimistic about what 2021 would bring. I had made a commitment to refrain from using ‘unprecedented’, ‘now, more than ever’ and ‘unexpected’ as staple vocabulary when the January inboxes opened up again. And a return to frothy coffees and meeting face-to-face was top of my list of new year resolutions.

This positivity, is, of course helped by the days already getting longer and two vaccines making their way to the most vulnerable in our communities.

Reflections on the Christmas that many of us didn’t expect, remind me of my favourite Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, and how the chance encounter between Pip and Magwitch is the pivotal moment for both of their lives to change. Not as they expected.

Master storyteller, Dickens, weaves an intricate web of connectivity across his characters, each of them unknowing to how closely they are related and what they mean to one another.

In some ways the impact of the virus made our world feel smaller. Yet, in other ways I am more connected to my friends, family and colleagues than I have ever been, and for that I am grateful.

This month I launch my new venture, avyze. I’ve been inspired by many who have been working successfully in this way in one of the hardest years possible to start my own business to continue to connect to and help others in ways I never expected.