Pick of the Month - March 2026

Welcome to March's Pick of the Month! We’re excited to feature individuals who are making a real impact in the charity world. From creative social innovators to tireless charity leaders, their work is all about driving change and improving lives. We’ll take a closer look at their unique paths, the challenges they’ve navigated, and the incredible contributions they’re making to communities across the UK. Come join us in celebrating their inspiring efforts! 

Trustee of the Month - Sarbjit Dhariwal, ecoACTIVE

ecoACTIVE is a sustainability charity that supports local communities through solution-based, hands-on learning and nature connection to inspire action. 

We spoke to Sarbjit Dhariwal, ecoACTIVE's current Co-Chair.

Sarbjit told us a little bit about what her mission is:  

"We help people to notice, connect, care, act and influence, on a journey to sustainable living. We run projects and sessions with a wide range of themes, including forest school, community gardening, nature conservation, sustainability and climate literacy. We support schools, young people, families, social housing residents, and the wider public in London.   

I have been a Trustee at ecoACTIVE now for around 8 years and for the past 10 months have served as Co-Chair. It’s a great privilege to work alongside Catherine (Co-Chair), Jess (Director), a fantastic board of trustees, staff team and volunteers at ecoACTIVE."

We asked Sarbjit how she got to where she is today and what her role involves:  

"I first became involved in ecoACTIVE  some 10 years ago when ecoACTIVE delivered a sustainability workshop to my Nursery Class. A friend in ecoACTIVE invited me to join as a committee member because of my educational background. I was so impressed by the projects I also started volunteering and when ecoACTIVE became a CIO my role changed to trustee and last year I was appointed as Co-Chair.  

As Co-Chair, I try to make the best use of the skills and abilities of the people around the table. I try to get to know the trustees and what each trustee can offer."

Sarbjit shared some advice for aspiring leaders: 

"My advice to prospective leaders is to not let “imposter syndrome” put you off considering trusteeship. We all have skills in various areas which are surprisingly transferrable. Imposter syndrome can also be put to good use as it can keep you asking questions, listening, and bringing a fresh perspective.  

I attended online ‘Trustee Leadership’ and ‘Emerging Chairs” courses led by Michelle Wright with Cause4, which I highly recommend. It provided an opportunity to meet individuals from other charities and gain deeper insights into how charities function and operate. The sessions were full of valuable takeaways and significantly enhanced my understanding of the sector."

Finally, Sarbjit discussed what she's passionate about seeing change in the sector:  

"From my experience it is the small organisations that are the most agile and dynamic. However, they are also the most overstretched and under resourced. I would like to see more recognition of their critical role in the environmental and sustainability sector and more understanding from funders of their limited capacity for administration and reporting. ]"

Read more about the work at ecoACTIVE.

Charity Leader of the Month - Caroline Guarnaccia, CEO at The Baytree Centre

The Baytree Centre is a social inclusion charity supporting women and girls in London.

We spoke to Caroline Guarnaccia, CEO at The Baytree Centre.

Caroline told us a little bit about what her mission was:

"I had the privilege of leading the Baytree Centre for 14 years. After retiring 18 months ago, I was asked to return to cover maternity leave for our current young and vibrant CEO. Baytree’s pull was simply too strong to resist, and I am once again honoured to lead this remarkable organisation.

Baytree is dedicated to supporting women and girls to overcome inequality and reach their full potential. Our work spans education, employability, emotional wellbeing and community connection, creating a safe and empowering space where women and girls can build confidence, develop practical skills and realise their aspirations. Our mission is rooted in social justice — ensuring that those facing systemic barriers have access to the opportunities and support they need to thrive."

We asked Caroline how she got to where she is today and what her role involves:  

"My leadership journey began in the commercial sector, where I developed strong strategic, operational and people-focused skills. Over time, I felt a growing desire to apply that experience in a more purposeful way. Moving into the charity sector allowed me to bring commercial discipline, sustainability and strategic thinking to community-based work. This blend of perspectives continues to shape my approach — balancing purpose with practicality and ensuring we grow while staying true to our mission."

Caroline shared some advice for aspiring leaders: 

"As CEO, my role spans setting vision and strategy, ensuring financial resilience, building partnerships and supporting our team to excel. Leadership, for me, is about creating the conditions in which others can grow and lead.

I encourage prospective leaders to lead with purpose rather than title, stay curious, invest in relationships, remain resilient yet human, and create space for others to shine."

Finally, Caroline discussed what she’s passionate about seeing change in the sector:  

"I am passionate about securing longer-term, sustainable investment for community organisations, enabling preventative, grassroots work to flourish. At Baytree, we are strengthening the quality and impact of our existing programmes, investing in staff development and diversifying our funding to ensure long-term resilience and meaningful support for the communities we serve.

Leading Baytree has pushed me to my limits, and yet it has been the most fulfilling experience of my career."

Read more about the work at The Baytree Centre.

Social Entrepreneur of the Month - Tom Ryalls, BAP!

BAP! is a home for creativity and community organising, all in the name of equity and taking up space.

We spoke to Tom Ryalls, Founder of BAP and former Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy Senior Fellow. 

Tom told us a little bit about their work and what their mission is:  

"I am really interested in something called cultural organising, which is the idea of organising arts & culture within a community organising strategy. This doesn’t necessarily mean a place-based community, it can be in the broader sense of community. It resists the notion that a largely managerial class of people produce culture for consumption / engagement by the “community”. Cultural Organising has mainly emerged from political organising in the USA, and I am interested in creating the environment for it to grow in the UK."

We asked Tom how they got to where they are today and what their role involves:  

"I started off as a writer, and I still write quite a bit, I haven’t lost that practice. I also had a day job in fundraising and that practice grew and grew until I founded my own organisation called BAP!. More recently I’ve reframed my fundraising practice in the language of wealth organising, and that has helped me think more broadly about building systems that move resources in ways I believe in. This means now I develop strategy through consultancy, I do a little bit of philanthropy advising, I develop creative projects that are aligned with all of this, I share knowledge about moving resources too. It is often hard to explain in a neat way, but I think of it all as a little system that creates the conditions for cultural organising to grow. I’m also in the early stages of building a foundation for cultural organising too."

Tom shared some advice for aspiring leaders: 

"Don’t try to be a leader. Do the thing you are moved to do, and you might at some point find that people need you to offer some kind of leadership. I am actually a bit skeptical about identifying as a leader. If the most useful thing I could do to contribute to something I believe in is not lead, then I would rather do that. I believe more in movements, and movements tend to cycle through leaders. It’s really exhausting to lead something for the sake of leading, if you don’t believe in it fully."

Finally, Tom discussed what they're passionate about seeing change in the sector: 

"I sometimes avoid this conversation, because I think it often gets reduced to nonsense, but there is an obvious class problem in the arts. We often try to tackle this with schemes in the arts, which largely just reframe the problem, when a lot of the things that need to change are outside of the arts. I am really passionate about us taking a more proactive role in trying to shape economics, social policy, education etc. as opposed to writing a report and making a new scheme every 3 years in a regular cycle."

Read more about the work at BAP!

Fellow of the Month - Dienka Hines, Travelling Light Theatre

Travelling Light Theatre is a non-profit organisation in Bristol It exists to create theatre with and for children and young people, lighting up imaginations and sparking creativity. 

We spoke to Dienka, CEO at Travelling Light Theatre, about her role and the year ahead as a fellow.  

Dienka's role has always involved executive leadership such as business planning, people management, governance, finance and business development. As her role evolved, it also involved more and more fundraising, which is now a major part of her job. During a period of significant organisational change when Travelling Light left the NPO portfolio, Dienka took on the role of sole CEO, her main focus being to lead change, steering Travelling Light through the transition in the business model, to increase the organisation's resilience and income generation.

Given the context of the UK right now, we asked Dienka what the key opportunities for her organisation are:  

"We have been working deeply in our community of Barton Hill for over 20 years and during this time our programme has become more impactful and responsive to need. There are opportunities around placemaking- for example commissioning opportunities and also have been developing our new and existing local partnerships (including joint fundraising). With democratic decision making being devolved more locally it will be interesting how this impacts arts and culture and how our work can align with this.   As a children's charity we are well positioned in terms of the government's focus on early years education and Family Hubs. We have a Family Hub within our premises and have a well established relationship with them, as well as local early years centres and are building on the early years strand of our work.  

Our Creative Learning programme in schools and HE/FE is developing well with a mixture of trade and funded activity. We are currently delivering a Paul Hamlyn funded Oracy programme which is a key government agenda. Our traded activity with schools continues well despite the difficult budget situation for schools- mostly due to PTA fundraising and we think the Curriculum Review may provide more opportunities if arts and culture become more of a priority.   Over the past 2-3 year we have been gaining more income from FE/HE teaching and partnerships, as well as CPD for education settings, this is something we hope to build on in the future, utilising our expertise (over 40 years of creating theatre with and for children and young people) to generate income and support sector development in arts and education."

Thinking about the year ahead, we asked Dienka what she is most looking forward to as part of the Fellowship Programme:  

"A community of peer support and getting to know the other Fellows. Being able to escape from the day to day and think more strategically. Being refreshed in terms of skills, knowledge and thinking. Gaining perspectives from others on the wider landscape. Having a focus on professional CPD and the qualification aspect- especially as learning will be applied and include reflective practice. I'm also really looking forward to be able to use the learning throughout the year in a practical way through my work- helping to build our financial resilience and also plan for the future."

Finally, Dienka discussed what she’s passionate about seeing change in the sector:  

"I would like to see more, openness, fairness and equity in all aspects of the sector. From opportunities to participate in and enjoy arts and culture- through to management and leadership (e.g. support for diversity, different working styles, caring responsibilities etc, less reliance on closed door networks)- through to how funding is allocated and distributed (more fair, equitable, transparent, led by community priorities)."

Read more about the work at Travelling Light Theatre.