Doing Good Podcast - Amra Naidoo

I promise I've got a great episode for you today. I'm sure a lot of the listeners out there have heard about Salesforce and probably even use it. But I'm pretty sure your imagination would be quite limited in terms of the type of social impact initiatives that they work on that are in line with their business. Well today you're in for a treat. I interviewed Esther Nai, who heads up corporate responsibility and sustainability programmes across Asia for Salesforce about exactly that. I'm quite familiar with their work in creating social impact so I'm excited to share this with you too. We chat about their 1-1-1 model, some case studies on impact that they've created, how they measure impact and most interesting to me, how Salesforce aligns the social impact with their business model. Enjoy!   Favorite quote from episode: “I always open with a line that [Marc Benioff] says, ‘the business of business is improving the world” – Esther [25:40]   People/ items mentioned in this episode: Marc Benioff Salesforce org 1

I am excited to introduce to you one of my very good friends and someone who I find extremely inspiring. In this episode, I interview Eli Johnston who does a lot of very interesting work bringing together corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate social innovation. He does this through his work as the head of corporate innovation at the Impact Hub in Singapore which is a co-working space and community for social entrepreneurs. If that’s not enough, he is also the co-founder of Own Your Brilliance that brings students together from around the world and gives them to tools to get started on their journey to becoming social entrepreneurs. In this spare time, for the next 9 months Eli is also teaching a class of 10 women from all over South East Asia. They are house helpers also known as foreign domestic workers in Singapore. And he is going to be running a Venture Club through an organisation called Aidha which teaches financial literacy, business and entrepreneurship to these incredible hardworking women on

The silly season is in full swing! And although, I love this time of year because of the special time I get to spend at home with my family and friends, I can't quite wrap my head around the craziness in the shopping malls and supermarkets. Apart from being absolute chaos, are you noticing the consumerism and materialism? #guilty This is a quick episode about how you can do good over the Christmas season with 3 simple and EASY-PEASY tips to make this time of year truly the GIVING time of year.    I really do believe that you can still have a great time celebrating AND if everyone makes small conscious changes, the impact can be huge.    Big impact doesn’t have to be hard. It starts with small changes. I’m not even saying that you have to radically modify your lifestyle. But if everyone makes small conscious changes to their lifestyle, collectively the impact will be huge. These a just a few quick things that I’ve identified, but I’d love to hear from you about what things small things are you doing this year

Episode 9 & 10 of the Doing Good Podcast are interviews with Founder of Chuffed, Prashan Paramanthan. In this episode, Prashan shares a ton of wisdom from his journey raising VC funds, how others can learn from their fundraising process and general advice for social entrepreneurs who are looking at securing investment from other non-traditional sources. Prashan also talks about Chuffed’s company structure and why they made the decisions they did to set it up that way.  If you don’t already know much about Chuffed, I recommend listening to episode 9 before tuning in to episode 10. Looking forward to your thoughts!   Favourite quote from episode: “Start with only enough that you need to figure out what people actually want [24:13]   People/ items mentioned in this episode: Chuffed Chuffed’s blog Chuffed’s Public Benefit Structure Chuffed Seed Funding Round     Get in contact with Prashan on Twitter   Show notes What was the path that Chuffed took to raising venture capital funding as a social enterprise?

Episode 9 & 10 of the Doing Good Podcast are interviews with Founder of Chuffed, Prashan Paramanthan. In episode 9, we talk all things tech for good, crowdfunding for social good and more. You get a better understand of what exactly crowdfunding is and how it can be used to create huge impact. Chuffed is a unique social enterprise in its structure and is the first of its kind to receive venture capital funding. If you would like to hear more about the business side of things for Chuffed from Prashan, you can check out episode 10 with his advice on getting started, how to fundraise and more. Enjoy!   Favourite quote from episode: “Pitch them the big bold idea of how you’re going to change the world” [24:00]   People/ items mentioned in this episode: Chuffed Chuffed’s blog Telstra Foundation Chuffed Seed Funding Round   Get in contact with Prashan on Twitter   Show notes What exactly is crowdfunding and how is it transforming the charity sector? [02:30] What makes Chuffed different to other crowdfunding p

This is an episode that I have been wanting to do for a while. Everyone knows Facebook, but not many people would be aware about the work that Facebook is doing in the community to create social impact.  In this episode, I interview Clair Deevy who is the head of Economic Growth Initiatives for Asia Pacific at Facebook. Clair is someone who really inspires me, and in this episode, we talk about some of the initiatives that she is looking after. One of the programs we talk a lot about is She Means Business - an initiative to support female entrepreneurs. Another one you may have heard of is Safety Check which has been used around the world for natural disasters and human tragedies. Clair is a seasoned professional in terms of executing high impact initiatives that not only create positive social impact in the community, but also are in line with business objectives. Something that is increasingly becoming more important as businesses take on a bigger role in creating impact in their communities and supply chai

I was planning on releasing an episode from another amazing guest but given recent events, I think it’s an important time to stop and reflect about a new era that we have well and truly entered. This is an episode about tolerance and finding common ground to overcome some of the biggest problems the world is facing. These thoughts have been weighing heavy on my mind for a few years now, but over the past few months I’ve been putting it altogether. Challenging my beliefs and assumptions. Although many of us are genuinely concerned with the direction the world is heading in, I believe that we can all do more. We can all do better. I was honestly a bit nervous about releasing this episode, because I don’t want to sound like I’m coming to the defence, or attacking any certain type of person. I am not discrediting real experiences or feelings from people either. I also don’t want to come across as preachy. My aim is to open up dialogue and challenge you to think further about your role, whatever your opinion is, a

Siddarth Das is the Director of Digital Engagement at WWF International and the Executive Director of WWF’s Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a very interesting campaign in the way that it’s run. Actually, WWF and their online communication in general is quite outstanding. The panda brand is recognized almost everywhere. So, it was interesting when Sid mentioned some common misconceptions about what WWF actually does, but also, how they’re using digital media tools for education and to support their social impact work. There’s a lot to talk about in this interview so I hope you enjoy!   Favourite quote from episode: “It is everyone’s collective problem and it’s everyone’s collective solutions that are going to fix it as well. It’s not a single government or just a few people in the policy or business world that are going to fix this. Climate change is the most universal problem that we have and it’s the most universal issue that we have. And the solution for that is going to come from all of us” – Sid [14:20]   Peopl

This is a very special episode in partnership with CGIAR and CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network to recognise, International Day of Rural Women (15th October), World Food Day (16th October) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17th October). CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. Now the participation and inclusion of rural women is so important to meet the growing need for food and eradicate poverty. Women are central to many development projects around the world. In this episode, I interview Maria Alejandra Garcia who is an Assistant Researcher at the International Centre for

William Stubbs who is the cofounder of an organsiation in Australia called Spur Projects. Most Australians would have heard of their Soften the Fuck Up Campaign and their just launched "How is the World Feeling?" campaign.

In this episode of the Doing Good Podcast, I have a discussion with Zhang Tingjun the Executive Director of Mercy Relief. Ting is the first female to helm Mercy Relief in its 12 year history and was formerly the Co-Founder and Director of The Chain Reaction Project (TCRP), a non-profit organization recognized by the President's Office as one of Singapore's leading social enterprises. We chat about how she transitioned from working at a large bank, to starting up her own social enterprise, to taking charge of one of Singapore's leading independent disaster relief agencies. We speak about what it’s like to work at a humanitarian relief agency, skills-based volunteering, how to best help in the case of a disaster and vent about common misconceptions that donors have about nonprofits. 

In this episode of the Doing Good Podcast, I’m interviewing David Nosibor. David is the Innovation Evangelist at Mazars, a global audit and accounting firm. David describes himself an intrapreneur, that is, someone within an organisation that is entrepreneurial and is making change from within. We find out what he does to promote innovation within a company that is typically seen as traditional and how he has incorporated social impact as part of his work. We touch on how Mazars, as an auditing company thinks about corporate social responsibility. How involved should a multinational corporation be in social good, social impact and sustainability. Do corporations have a responsibility to social impact? David and Mazars think so. Among the topics we discuss, one that I find most interesting is on Mazars award-winning human rights audit and consultancy service for businesses. They are the only audit and accounting firm to offer this service and are ongoing advocates for businesses to demonstrate respect for huma

Chris Annadorai is the Director of Operation Sumatran Rhino which will premiere through Nat Geo Wild’s new series Mission Critical, a new monthly programming initiative featuring powerful stories of the most incredible and endangered animals on our planet.