People Inspired By Purpose - Purposely Podcast

In this SHORT episode of Purposely, we’re back with Duncan Matthews – founder of Good Numbers – on funder reporting, the pain of being a volunteer treasurer, and why small charities deserve better tools.
Duncan opens with a familiar frustration: tier four charities – those under $140,000 in annual expenditure – are everywhere in Aotearoa (around 15,000 on the charities register alone), yet virtually no software has been built with them in mind. Small in money, perhaps. But not small in impact.
He talks about the reality of funder reporting – and how wildly it varies. Foundation North makes it simple.Gaming trusts? Not so much. Some require receipts, bank statements, and proof of every expenditure. That’s hours of work, printing and highlighting and photo-taking, just to stay compliant and keep the grants flowing. Good Numbersis built to make that whole workflow dramatically easier.
And then there’s the treasurer problem. Duncan has sat on four nonprofit boards at once – because the role isa “guaranteed vacancy.” Nobody wants it. It’s not because people don’t care; it’s because the tools make it needlessly hard. The xRB reporting standards that arrived in 2013 were a step forward, but most small organisations still struggle to match their old categories to the new ones. Duncan’s insight: if complex tasks can be made easy in other parts of life, why not here?
Good Numbers is his answer – a purpose-built tool that turns bookkeeping and funder reporting from a chore into something close to effortless. Because more time on compliance means less time on mission. And that’s a problem worth solving.
•   Why tier four charities are underserved – and what’s atstake when reporting feels impossible
•     The xRB reporting standards that changed everything,and why many small organisations still struggle
•      The real cost of funder reporting – from gaming trustrequirements to highlighting bank statements
•    Why the volunteer treasurer role is a “guaranteedvacancy” – and how to change that
•   Good Numbers: bookkeeping built for small charities,not adapted for them
•   Making compliance easier so organisations can focus onwhat actually matters
This episode ofPurposely is brought to you by Benevity.
Find Duncan and Good Numbers at goodnumbers.nz – including a free 15-minute demo booking.
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Welcoming Ned Wills, CEO of Laureus Sport for Good, to Purposely Podcast - a global foundation that uses sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage, working with young people across 40 countries through more than 200 programmes, and chaired by All Black legend Sean Fitzpatrick.
Laureus was born from Nelson Mandela's words - that sport has the power to change the world - and 25 years on, Ned makes a compelling case that the organisation is more relevant than ever. But this isn't a story about elite athletes and glitzy awards. It's about what actually makes a purpose-driven organisation endure: deep trust with grassroots partners, a community of 400 volunteer sporting ambassadors, and the rare ability to think in 20-year horizons rather than four-year funding cycles.
Ned also reflects on his own unconventional path - sailing, the oil industry, running commercial operations at Harlequins Rugby, and back to Laureus as CEO. He talks about what crossing between the for-profit and for-purpose worlds taught him, why he believes traditional philanthropy alone won't get us there, and what Grant Dalton once said to him on a boat that shaped how he leads.
Key Themes
Why the community around Laureus, not the awards, is what's kept it alive for 25 years
The productive tension between corporate partners and community organisations, and how to work with it rather than against it
Long-term thinking as a leadership asset, what it actually looks like in practice
What a stint in elite sport taught him about purpose, performance and what really drives a fanbase
Letting go as a CEO, and why his job is to give talented people the cover to do their best work
Why sport is one of the most cost-effective interventions in the sector, and what resilience has to do with it
The funding and impact questions every for-purpose leader is grappling with right now
This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Trust Investments your specialist for-purpose investment manager and Benevity, the all-in-one software solution that benefits employees, customers, nonprofits and society.

In this SHORT episode of Purposely, we’re back with fundraising strategist Craig Pollard – and this time he’s asking a question that most of the sector is too busy to sit with: what is enough?
 
Craig opens by naming something that rarely makes it into funding conversations: wellbeing. He works alongside people carrying enormous weight – Afghan exiles, communities under pressure, leaders navigating impossible situations – and he’s clear that the sector often measures and incentives the wrong things. His reframe is: rather than being well-funded, be well and funded.
 
He shares a story from the Joseph Heller obituary that stops you in your tracks. Heller – author of Catch-22 – was once asked how it felt to know a wealthy hedge fund owner earned more in a single day than Heller had made in lifetime book sales. His response? “I have one thing he’ll never have. Enough.” For Craig, this isn’t just a good anecdote. It’s foundational to how nonprofits should think about funding, growth, and impact.
 
On funding strategy, Craig challenges the dominant logic. Most fundraising conversations start with income – which, he argues, is entirely the wrong place to begin. His three-eyes framework – Impact, Investment, Income – reorients everything. Start with impact. Be honest about what you’ve invested. Then income follows naturally, because you’re no longer asking for money – you’re inviting co-investors into something they care about.
 
Craig also challenges the idea of unrestricted funding –bluntly, he says it doesn’t exist. All money has motivation, strings, or designation attached. What organisations can do is move up the quality ladder: from project-level funding, to programme-level funding, to purpose-level funding. That shift takes three to five years, requires strategic clarity, and sometimes means reducing your project funding first. It’s uncomfortable – and it’s exactly right.
 
And a note of caution for those dreaming of a transformational grant: Craig has seen organisations receive MacKenzie Scott-level funding and fall over because they weren’t ready for it.
Purpose-level funding doesn’t solve problems – it shifts the type of problem.
The transition has to be deliberate, careful, and well-supported.
 
•       Wellbeing and the real cost of the funding treadmill
•       Being well and funded – not just well-funded
•       ‘Enough’ as a strategic and philosophical foundation
•       The three-eyes framework: Impact → Investment → Income
•       Why unrestricted funding is a myth – and what to pursue instead

Welcoming Gary Stannett MBE to Purposely Podcast, Chief Executive of the Rio Ferdinand Foundation, the UK charity that uses sport and the creative arts to open up opportunities for young people in communities that have historically been overlooked and underinvested.
Gary came into this work through youth work and community sports development, not through a career plan. He built programmes from the ground up in South London, earned his qualifications alongside the work, and has spent nearly 30 years getting better at something he never expected to turn into a career. That experience shapes how he leads and how the foundation operates.
The Rio Ferdinand Foundation was set up around 15 years ago, inspired in part by Rio's mother Janice, who was deeply embedded in community life in Peckham and served as the foundation's chair until her death in 2017. It started with a focus on education and training for young people in London and Manchester, and has since grown to deliver work in Belfast, Derry, Sligo and across the UK and Ireland through partnerships with other organisations.
In this conversation, Gary and Mark get into what it actually means to run a charity with a famous name attached to it. The brand opens doors but it does not conjure funding. Every partnership still has to be earned, every impact still has to be evidenced, and there is a constant discipline required to make sure people are engaging with the foundation for the right reasons and not just for access to Rio. Gary is clear-eyed about all of it.
He talks about the foundation's model, using football and youth culture as a way in, then moving young people through personal development, accredited training and real pathways into careers. The goal is not a quick programme but a longer journey, connecting young people with industries and employers they might never otherwise encounter, and building the networks and confidence that social mobility actually requires.
Gary also reflects on what he has learned about leadership over time, becoming less harsh on himself, stepping back more, and bringing people on the journey rather than pushing them towards a vision they do not yet share. And he talks about young people today, the very real weight of poverty, housing costs, debt and a changing jobs market, alongside the energy, talent and resilience he sees every day that keeps him showing up.
Find out more about the Rio Ferdinand Foundation at rioferdinandfoundation.org
This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Benevity and Trust Investments NZ.

Welcoming Steven Moe to Purposely Podcast — partner at Parry Field Lawyers, founder of the Seeds Podcast, author, event organiser, governance leader, and one of the more consistently active people in New Zealand's for-purpose sector.
Steven's career has had two distinct chapters. The first was corporate law - big firms, big transactions, time in Japan, London and Sydney. The second, starting about ten years ago when he returned to Aotearoa, has been something quite different: using the law as a tool to support charities, social enterprises and purpose-driven organisations, while building a body of work around education, connection and community that goes well beyond legal advice.
In this conversation, they get into what drove that shift, how Steven thinks about his role as a catalyst for impact, and what it actually looks like to run at the pace he does — four kids, a law partnership, two podcasts, a team of 15, a governance role as Chair of Community Finance, and a conference coming up next month.
Steven talks about the career pivot that brought him back to Aotearoa and why that moment became one of reinvention rather than just a change of location. He traces the influences that shaped him — a Peace Corps family, time living in Chile as a child, early exposure to poverty — and how those experiences connect to the work he does now.
He makes the case for the law as a tool rather than an end in itself, and explains the thinking behind Parry Field's approach of giving away enormous amounts of free content, resources and events. The serve-and-win model isn't accidental — it's deliberate, and it works.
There's a practical thread running through the conversation too. Steven talks about the Pareto Principle and why he'd rather ship something at 80% than spend three times as long perfecting it. He talks about collaboration — why his default is to approach people, say yes, and bring others in rather than trying to do everything alone.
On the bigger picture, Steven shares his thinking on Community Finance, which has now raised more than $600 million to house people who would otherwise be on the emergency housing list. He also makes a case for separating housing, health and education from election cycles, and discusses the idea of impact companies — a possible new legal structure that borrows the best from both charities and businesses.
They also get into podcasting, parenting four children with intention, and what it means to stay present when there's always more to do. And Steven shares details on the Seeds Impact Conference on 22 May a free online event with around 20 speakers from across the sector. Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/impact-conference-2026
Find Steven and the Seeds Podcast at theseeds.nz and Parry Field Lawyers at parryfield.com — including a large library of free legal resources for the for-purpose sector.
This episode of Purposely is brought to you by Benevity and Trust Investments NZ.
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