As I wrote last month, my journey to becoming Head of Delivery at Pilotlight has been an unusual one. I led a charity that Pilotlight helped develop and became a Pilotlighter myself before I then took the plunge and became a member of staff. Pilotlight is a bridge, a nexus between the charity and business worlds for all the people we work with, but it can also be a coming together moment for our staff. We have many team members for whom Pilotlight is their first role in the charity sector. We have others who have worked in different kinds of roles and then found their role at Pilotlight is a natural mix of all their skills to date and a place to develop further. You can read about the impact of our programmes in our case studies and Pilotlighter Profiles, but what often gets missed is a little more about who supports this magic to happen.
I’d like to introduce you to three of our newest members of the Delivery Team and offer a chance to learn a little more about who they are and how they found their way to Pilotlight.
The newest members of our Delivery Team
Harry Goulding, Programme Manager
I came to Pilotlight after a career in non-profit project implementation across Southeast Asia. When I moved to the UK last year, I was looking to join an organisation where I could continue to facilitate skill-sharing for positive social impact. The role of Programme Manager at Pilotlight was a perfect fit to continue this journey. I am responsible for overseeing a range of programmes in Partnership with our Partner Business Barclays. The majority of the programmes are focused on researching and responding to a strategic challenge faced by a Partner Charity.
Six months into the job, I have supported many dedicated and passionate business experts, our ‘Pilotlighters’, to put together valuable outputs that create tangible impact for charities and the communities they serve. I’ve also had the responsibility of piloting our most recent programme with Barclays, Brain Trust, and have enjoyed these fast and furious events, sparking new and unexpected ideas that the charity can take away in just a short amount of time.
Kate Allen, Project Manager
My career has been somewhat ‘squiggly’. Following a degree in Advertising, I knew I was very capable in roles involving client relationships and organisation (cue several Account Manager roles within the design and corporate wellbeing industries), and in my personal life I loved acting and waxing lyrical about all things social impact. For a long time, I believed those two sides of my life had to exist separately.
When a funded role as Programme Manager for a local business support project was coming to an end in Summer 2022, I took stock of the skills I had, the work I enjoyed, and the mark I wanted to leave on the world (those familiar with the term Ikigai will understand this process). The key things that stood out were: I love to present, facilitate and build relationships, I am skilled at organisation, planning & account management, and I feel my purpose is to support socially-driven organisations further their impact. But what were the chances of finding a role that fulfilled all those elements?
Down to what I can only believe to be serendipity, a Project Manager role at Pilotlight popped up, offering the chance to directly support charities and social enterprises through a variety of programme offerings. I’m thrilled to have found a role where I can make a tangible difference, utilise my skills in project management, and have loads of fun facilitating along the way. Most of my portfolio sees me working with our Partner Charities on Pilotlight 360. The highlights so far have been visiting the charities (which I do within the first few months of the programme) and spend the day in their premises talking to staff, trustees and service users. Every single visit has been overwhelmingly positive, energetic and productive. It’s also the part of the programme where the Pilotlighter team really understand the impact that the charity has.
Diana Squires, Programme Manager
Pilotlight’s Delivery team is the perfect place for a polymath. I call my theatre degree ‘a degree in human behaviour’ and I’ve spent my career finding interesting ways to use it. My relentless curiosity about how humans think took me onstage and into the director’s chair, writing and coaching other writers, launching a women’s theatre company, and freelancing as a marketer and fundraiser. Eventually, the ‘social profit sector’ became a very comfortable home for someone charged up by people and making a difference. My turning point was leaving theatre and marketing behind for a senior management role at a charity. I was hooked.
My experiences in charity management made me crave a deeper understanding of how I could fuse creative thinking with organisational leadership, which brought me to an MSc Innovation & Leadership in London. Consulting kept me busy while I looked for ‘that job’ – which I assumed would be another charity management role.
But Pilotlight was calling. Here, I’m surrounded by charities hungry for innovation. In a single day, I’m thinking about service development, line management, programme evaluation, and stakeholder relationships. I’m drawing on my theatre roots all the time: collaboration, project management, public speaking. And the best part is, I don’t just work for one charity, I support a host of different organisations.
Increasingly people are looking to make a meaningful difference every day, have an impact and do more for our world. Pilotlight is not only an opportunity for our Partner Charities and Pilotlighters to make their mark, but also for our staff too.
