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“80 of the most urgent [climate solutions] could take $5 billion tomorrow,” says Jennifer Kitt on Climate Curious. Recorded live in London with Climate Curious co-hosts Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha, the Climate Lead President shares a 101 on how climate philanthropy actually works, why inviting people to dream bigger leads to bolder action, and why many of the world’s leading philanthropic families are moving from asking, “what should I build?” to “how do I make the biggest difference?” From accelerating the move to clean transport, to stopping deforestation in Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo Basin, this one’s for everyone who loves a good climate solution.
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Welcome To The Show
00:29 Meet Jennifer Kitt
01:01 Climate Lead Daily Work
02:24 Billionaire Ethics Debate
05:29 Jennifer Climate Awakening
07:35 Six Billion Impact Stories
09:52 Hope Through Collaboration
11:34 Dream Bigger Funding Plans
14:18 Same Side Of Table
18:37 Next Frontier Built Environment
22:14 What Keeps Us Going
24:14 Joy Invitation And Wrap
25:37 Thanks Credits Stay Curious
Welcome To The Show
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Hello and welcome to Climate Curious Live. From the Conduit
[00:00:09] Ben Hurst: for London Climate Action Week, we wanted to celebrate how the climate movement is already making the [00:00:15] impossible, not just possible, but unstoppable.
[00:00:19] Maryam Pasha: So joining us to share her stories of climate progress is one of our besties who has oddly never joined us on the podcast before. So this is. Very long overdue.
Meet Jennifer Kitt
[00:00:29] Maryam Pasha: We are super [00:00:30] excited to be welcoming Jennifer Kitt, the founding president of Climate Lead. I know. Wait, you can cheer in a minute. There’s, there’s only a reason to share, um, if new money is coming into climate. Jennifer knows about it. Her team’s whole job is bringing brand new donors [00:00:45] into this field and have done that to the tune of more than six.
[00:00:48] Maryam Pasha: Billion with a B dollars so far to accelerate climate solutions. Right. Um, thank you. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:59] Jennifer Kitt: Thank [00:01:00] you for having me.
Climate Lead Daily Work
[00:01:01] Maryam Pasha: Okay, let me ask this, let me start. We, what does it mean to be Jennifer Kitt? No,
[00:01:08] Ben Hurst: who is,
[00:01:09] Maryam Pasha: who is Jennifer? K Um. I just said that you catalyzed, you and your team have catalyzed over $6 [00:01:15] billion for climate action in just six years, advising a hundred philanthropic families to come into climate.
[00:01:21] Maryam Pasha: What do you do day to day? Really?
[00:01:24] Jennifer Kitt: Yeah, that’s such a good question. Um, so every single day starts with [00:01:30] caffeine starts and a little bit of meditation because this work is hard. And you gotta stay grounded. And then it usually moves on to talking to amazing nonprofits who are doing all kinds of work all over the world, [00:01:45] but don’t have enough resource to do it with.
[00:01:47] Jennifer Kitt: Thank you for the water. And then it moves on to talking to some of the new families or foundations that are climate curious as well, or trying to encourage them to be climate curious. But at Climate [00:02:00] Lead, we are completely freed to think of one thing only, and that is how do we help? Everybody we meet, figure out how to bring their talents, their resources, everything they got to this issue.
[00:02:14] Jennifer Kitt: [00:02:15] So thank you for doing what you guys do to get the message out too.
[00:02:18] Maryam Pasha: You are welcome.
[00:02:19] Ben Hurst: You are, you are so welcome. It’s my pleasure.
Billionaire Ethics Debate
[00:02:24] Ben Hurst: Um, I, I wanna ask you, now you say billionaires and I. I dunno, man. I dunno about, about those guys. Well, no. Billions. Billions is what you said when I, when you hear billionaires, right?
[00:02:39] Ben Hurst: I feel like I’m, someone, correct me if I’m wrong here, I feel like public sentiment has changed [00:02:45] over the last decade. ’cause it used to be fine to like billionaires, didn’t it? Like I. I feel like that was okay, like going to somebody’s like, no, Ben. Okay. Uh, but now apparently I’m not allowed to like Jay-Z.
[00:02:56] Ben Hurst: So I don’t know what’s, I don’t know what’s going on. [00:03:00] He’s, he’s just got there. He’s just got there. And I think people have concerns with the fact that people who have billions of dollars of pounds cannot make that amount of money ethically, and so there has to be some kind of lack. Bending of [00:03:15] rules, abusive people, you know, those chill things.
[00:03:18] Ben Hurst: Um, and also I think there’s a big question around when people have that amount of money, is it fair that they get to determine where the money is spent or what issues we care about? What do you [00:03:30] say to those questions, Jennifer? Okay,
[00:03:33] Jennifer Kitt: well I still think you can like Jay-Z.
[00:03:36] Ben Hurst: Thank
[00:03:36] Jennifer Kitt: you. Yeah. And I know you were worried about that.
[00:03:38] Jennifer Kitt: Um, yeah. I mean, great wealth often comes with great power, so I understand [00:03:45] why many of us would be worried about that. And what I think about every day is how can we help people who actually truly care? Who are authentically mo motivated to do good with what they’ve been lucky enough to [00:04:00] either earn or be given to, to enter a space that they don’t know in a humble, truly generous way.
[00:04:07] Jennifer Kitt: So what does that look like At our organization, it means that we talk to them about what matters to the climate and the people most [00:04:15] impacted. Before we ever ask them what they care about, we don’t start. With what they’re drawn to until we’ve already shown them what’s important for solving this problem.
[00:04:25] Jennifer Kitt: And then we make sure that they know that giving long-term, [00:04:30] multi-year, and a really generous and humble way is the way that you make the kinds of changes that we most need and the kinds of families who are willing to enter with that version of, um. Um, groundedness and [00:04:45] thoughtfulness and make a difference for their children or their children’s children, or the places they hold dear or the causes that they care about.
[00:04:52] Jennifer Kitt: You know, health causes and animal causes and all kinds of things are the way that they enter. If we [00:05:00] help them come in, in that kind of way, then we can make the money work for good. And if they don’t enter in that kind of way, then we are free to let them go. So what do you think of that, Ben?
[00:05:13] Ben Hurst: This is why you get the big bucks.[00:05:15]
[00:05:15] Ben Hurst: This is why she makes all the money. I throw away the receipt. I’m buying it. Do you know what I mean? I feel, I feel like, but that’s a convincing argument, isn’t it? I feel like that’s good and the money’s there anyway, isn’t it? Like they’ve got the money one way or another. So the question is, what do we do with it?
[00:05:27] Ben Hurst: I get.
[00:05:28] Maryam Pasha: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Jennifer Climate Awakening
[00:05:29] Maryam Pasha: I wanna stop talking about billionaires for a second. And I wanna talk about, sorry, sorry. I, um, I wanted to ask about you, Jennifer, you’ve not always worked in climate ’cause we have to meet people in this work who are like, I’ve been doing this since I was seven. Um, which is cool, by the way.
[00:05:44] Maryam Pasha: I’m no [00:05:45] shade. I, I just have not been doing this since I was seven. Um, what was, what was your light bulb moment coming in and doing this work and working on climate and nature and everything you do?
[00:05:56] Jennifer Kitt: So seven years ago I was [00:06:00] working in academia, actually at Stanford University, working in medicine, helping donors to give there.
[00:06:05] Jennifer Kitt: And I had started to get antsy to want to do something new. And whenever that happens for me, I start to really think about, okay, like this is probably [00:06:15] something in me and not something in the organization I’m working with. So I start to be on alert for what is the thing that I should do next that matters in the world and a few weeks.
[00:06:23] Jennifer Kitt: Maybe even a few months after I started thinking this way. There was an article in the New York Times that [00:06:30] said the title of which was something like, solving Climate Change is Impossible. Let’s Do It. And I thought, okay, I just started to read it. I’m having my coffee, I’m, I didn’t meditate then. And um, I ended up in tears [00:06:45] at the table and I think it was because.
[00:06:48] Jennifer Kitt: I’m actually, you know, it was, it was so meaningful because it, like, it quoted things from like Martin Luther King Jr. And the beloved community that we could create and that we were built to do [00:07:00] hard things and we had done hard things and it pulled out of me a sense of. Not hopelessness, but actually empowerment and that the things that I knew how to do in the world were something that I could offer.
[00:07:12] Jennifer Kitt: And so I, maybe that’s the thread for me, is like, [00:07:15] I know how to do this kind of work and I want to make sure that I’m doing my part. So that’s how I got into it.
[00:07:22] Maryam Pasha: I love so much that even seven years later, that moment of you sitting there reading that article is so vivid for you. [00:07:30] Um, it’s so interesting though that it said like.
[00:07:33] Maryam Pasha: This is impossible. Let’s do it anyway.
Six Billion Impact Stories
[00:07:35] Maryam Pasha: Given that we’re here to talk about climate impossible, so let’s talk about that. Let’s get into some of what you have actually seen become possible that was seemingly just a pipe dream. Um, what does that number of 6 billion actually represent when it comes to climate solutions?
[00:07:55] Jennifer Kitt: Yeah, I mean, the number is just a surrogate for impact. And of course if, if people [00:08:00] give, they need to take risk with the money, not everything’s gonna work. You know it, that’s how it works. But the kinds of progress that I have seen that that’s a surrogate for is like the fact that the, and I think some of you in this room are actually [00:08:15] quite expert in climate, so you’ll know that on all the charts, the things that are actually having momentum in climate now are things like renewable energy.
[00:08:22] Jennifer Kitt: Lowering costumes everywhere in the world. It just makes sense. We breathe better. Air philanthropy helped to get that going and make a [00:08:30] market and also helped to stop some of the bad stuff. Um, amazing stories of philanthropy making a difference there. Newer things that are happening now. I mean, we’ve made so much progress on stopping deforestation.
[00:08:42] Jennifer Kitt: It’s, it’s important to remember that nature is [00:08:45] sort of miraculously pulling carbon pollution out of the atmosphere using, it’s like soils and peatlands, and especially tropical forests and the ocean. Um, and if you stop any of that, then it will immediately [00:09:00] become a bit of a carbon bomb and start to pollute again, right at hu all at once.
[00:09:04] Jennifer Kitt: So. Progress on protecting these special places. Incredibly important, and I have seen amazing progress in simple things like making sure that there’s labeling on supply [00:09:15] chain so that we know that the beef we’re importing or the palm oil and ingredients or the furniture is coming is not contributing to clear cutting, or that indigenous communities are actually having their lands protected so [00:09:30] that they can.
[00:09:31] Jennifer Kitt: Uh, be enforcers of these special places too. So much progress is being made and those resources are paying for all those little strategies that all together become a flywheel effective change. And it’s really, it’s, it’s part of the, [00:09:45] um, the leverage that philanthropy can have when it plays like that.
[00:09:50] Jennifer Kitt: Yeah, so sorry.
[00:09:51] Maryam Pasha: All bad.
[00:09:52] Ben Hurst: Thank you.
Hope Through Collaboration
[00:09:52] Ben Hurst: So at what point do you start to believe that these things are actually possible? Because you’re talking about, you’re talking about like really big sums of money that people are investing, donating. I don’t know what the correct way of saying it, but given to solve problems and generally.
[00:10:09] Ben Hurst: It sounds like we’re talking about problems that are like beyond Solvability for the average person [00:10:15] in day-to-day life, where do you, or where does your organization hit the point where you’re like, oh, we can actually do this, or do you ever hit that point? Or does it always just feel like it’s never gonna happen?
[00:10:28] Jennifer Kitt: I mean, I see it [00:10:30] through the people who are doing the work, right? I, I will see the possibility when you invite many of the nonprofits who are working on ending the polluting tailpipe and moving to clean vehicles all around the world, or [00:10:45] stopping deforestation in Indonesia or the Congo Basin or Brazil.
[00:10:49] Jennifer Kitt: When those organizations start to collaborate and brainstorm with each other, and you ask them questions like, well, what actually, what would it take to get all the way to an outcome? Or what would [00:11:00] you need to get all the way there instead of just incremental change? That’s when I start to have actual real hope, and I do think donors at all levels can be part of this.
[00:11:08] Jennifer Kitt: I mean, on some of the deforestation examples. You know, some of what’s happening is simple [00:11:15] technical assistance to protect land rights for native people so that they can protect it from threats. And these things are not expensive, especially in many of the developing world where your money can go extremely far and there’s huge opportunity and also a real scarcity of resource so people [00:11:30] at all levels can be part of these sorts of campaigns.
Dream Bigger Funding Plans
[00:11:34] Maryam Pasha: You, you just said something that I think is, is, is something I’ve heard you say before and I think it is. So, um, it’s like the thing, like if I had to put my [00:11:45] finger on the thing that is transformative is working with people to ask that question. That is not bound by what can you do in three years? Yeah.
[00:11:57] Maryam Pasha: What can you do with a million, you know? But actually that [00:12:00] like, unbounded question, how, what has it been like to ask groups to, to how, what has it been like to ask group that question and what impact have you seen on just their thinking? Yes.
[00:12:12] Jennifer Kitt: So, um. [00:12:15] I didn’t start this work when I was seven, as you just told everyone.
[00:12:17] Jennifer Kitt: I only, I’ve only been in it seven years, and when I first entered, what I noticed was that because so little philanthropy and investing and impact investing was going [00:12:30] into climate solutions, the amazing. People who were creating those ideas, the solutions were thinking in increments, right? What could we do with 500,000?
[00:12:40] Jennifer Kitt: What can we do with a hundred thousand? What can we do with a million? Because that’s how they [00:12:45] were getting resourced. You know, it was something less than 1% of all giving then. So what I have noticed is if you meet with them and you know, and they’re collaborating with each other, and you ask questions that are in full increments.[00:13:00]
[00:13:00] Jennifer Kitt: If there’s a reason for them to dream that big. They will begin to do it right. If the, if the possibility of enough resource for them to scale, to meet the needs, to get to the outcomes we need is possible, they will begin to imagine it. And if you just [00:13:15] help them by whiteboarding it, they will get there.
[00:13:18] Jennifer Kitt: And, um, if we limit ourselves to what we think is possible to bring resources to, we will never find this, the, the. Abilities that we have to move quickly. [00:13:30] So just the power of a question actually has been pretty transformative, I think. And of course, think about it from the donor perspective. If I have great wealth and I can give a great deal of money, one of the hardest barriers for me is actually knowing what to give it to.
[00:13:44] Jennifer Kitt: That [00:13:45] could be useful. Like I feel stuck. I may have my grown daughter telling me she’s not going to have children. I’ve heard this story multiple times because of climate, and I wanna do something and I can do something. Large, but until those [00:14:00] people dream to a real outcome, maybe I can only give in small numbers.
[00:14:05] Jennifer Kitt: So it’s a reciprocal relationship where the, the doers, imagine what’s possible, write it down in a business plan, and the donors can now be [00:14:15] part of what their dreaming.
[00:14:17] Maryam Pasha: Okay.
Same Side Of Table
[00:14:18] Maryam Pasha: I am going to, I’m gonna say something shameless, but it’s going somewhere. Okay. So I.
[00:14:25] Maryam Pasha: Um, I interviewed you for my book, that’s the shameless bit, and [00:14:30] um, you said something there, which is. Kind of aligned to this, and I wanna highlight it because I think that it would, is really important for people to hear. But this idea of, you said I asked like about fundraising, ’cause obviously you have this wealth of, of experience of, [00:14:45] of fundraising and working with families and philanthropy and you said this great thing of like, instead of seeing you on one side of the table and the, and the kind of donor or philanthropist or foundation on the other, you need to find a way to be on the same side of the table.
[00:14:58] Maryam Pasha: Looking at the problem, [00:15:00] and I just wondered if you might share a bit more about that and also like how
[00:15:06] Jennifer Kitt: I, um, you know, can you just imagine as a donor what a privilege it is to be able to have [00:15:15] impact through the ideas of others who know how to solve things when movement leaders, you know. Engage their community because they wanna breathe clean air and they ask for the kinds of changes that they deserve of their government.
[00:15:28] Jennifer Kitt: And that makes change. [00:15:30] But they, but in order for them to do that, they needed resources. And now the donor gets to be part of it. I mean, that’s a huge privilege. So starting in a, a stance of partnership, when you are thinking about bringing a donor on. I, it just seems to [00:15:45] me the way that we should invite people to give, and that’s that image of being on the same side of the table.
[00:15:49] Jennifer Kitt: I’m not, we’re not pitching, we are inviting you to be part of something that matters. It’s an invitation. Yeah. Does it
[00:15:58] Maryam Pasha: actually work? No. [00:16:00]
[00:16:00] Ben Hurst: Does it actually, well, obviously it works ’cause you’ve literally got 6 billion. But, but does that because in my mind, I’m putting myself into my third sector. Hat, see, I dunno.
[00:16:12] Ben Hurst: Position and thinking if I was to go into [00:16:15] a, a meeting to pitch for funding, I would be so anxious to say to someone, let me give you an opportunity to, to make some impact here. I’m like, oh, so this is what we do and this, this is the business plan and these are, but it feels like [00:16:30] it’s almost like a very bold position to take.
[00:16:33] Ben Hurst: Do you not feel weird about it or is it just chill for you?
[00:16:39] Jennifer Kitt: Um, well, I, I guess it’s chill. I think it’s chill. [00:16:45] Yeah. But my, my, but my favorite Ben Deer is doing it on behalf of other people. Right? Like I’m never asking for, for myself. Right. We don’t fundraise for ourselves. Right. We are this incredible, we were dreamt up by the experienced [00:17:00] climate funders who were super lonely because there was so little money coming into this space.
[00:17:04] Jennifer Kitt: And we are free. To help bring in new donors, which is really amazing. And so, uh, it’s pretty chill to be able to ask this on behalf of other people, but I do think, I do [00:17:15] think embodying a place of everybody. In the whole wide world should be doing their part for this. Cause you, you guys are doing what you know, you are preparing people who go out and try and tell their story.
[00:17:29] Jennifer Kitt: With your [00:17:30] book and with your coaching, both of you are telling stories on climate curious like. Every one of us needs to figure out, and this is a room where everybody is already probably doing that. It’s London Climate Week, but every one of us needs to bring the skills and talents and resources and money [00:17:45] that we have because it’s that big.
[00:17:47] Jennifer Kitt: And unless we come together, we can’t build it. So yeah, I’m chill.
[00:17:54] Maryam Pasha: I like, I think actually I do, what I’m taking away from that actually for you, Ben, is that [00:18:00] you are, sorry, this is my lesson that I’m learning for Ben, um, and for all of you and myself. Yeah. Um, is that your, you said you’re, it’s not, easier isn’t the word, but it, it doesn’t feel the way that Ben described [00:18:15] for you because you’re asking on behalf of others, and I want you to think that when you are doing it, you are also asking on behalf of others.
[00:18:21] Maryam Pasha: ’cause it’s not like the money’s coming into your account to go on holiday. You’re doing it for the boys and men that you work with,
[00:18:27] Ben Hurst: admittedly.
[00:18:28] Maryam Pasha: Yeah. Yeah. I mean,[00:18:30]
[00:18:31] Maryam Pasha: luckily you did not have the mic. Yeah, he didn’t have the mic when he said that. Okay.
Next Frontier Built Environment
[00:18:37] Maryam Pasha: I wanna ask you, you’ve, you’ve been part of, and you’ve seen, and you’ve supported these Im climate impossible winds. What is on the horizon? Like, what are the great opport, where are, what areas are there for, no, let me try that again.
[00:18:51] Maryam Pasha: See, this is, that was good. That was, I was on a roll and then I just la um, so you’ve been doing this work around the climate impossible winds, and I’m just [00:19:00] curious to know where in climate are the greatest areas for this kind of impossible thinking.
[00:19:06] Jennifer Kitt: I am pretty excited about what we can do next. Um, already climate philanthropy is growing, which is a really lovely thing to be able to say.
[00:19:14] Jennifer Kitt: There is [00:19:15] a report coming out this week. I will not scoop them, but it will have grown in 2024 and 2025 pretty substantially. And I can see some of it just because we know some of the funders who are coming in and that means that the community is actually having more confidence that they can [00:19:30] dream the great new solutions.
[00:19:31] Jennifer Kitt: So there are quite a few things. Many of them are super under-resourced right now. So buildings, the built environment, right. There’s so much building that’s going to be happening in the developing world. Yeah. They, [00:19:45] they need to have their building boom. We want them to have their building boom so they have great houses and offices and schools and all the good things that are necessary.
[00:19:53] Jennifer Kitt: But over the next years, a city, the size of Paris will be built weekly. Uh, for [00:20:00] 45 years, this is like the stat to try and get us to think about this. It’s like the places that don’t have these, not London, they can’t do it in London. So there are huge opportunities to actually build it right the first time, right?
[00:20:12] Jennifer Kitt: Like make sure the way your heating and cooling is actually [00:20:15] in line with the boundaries that our planet needs us to live within. And using the technology we already have, leapfrog over some of the things that we learned in the developing world, the developed world faster. We can give technical assistance to governments to know what kind of solutions to have [00:20:30] there.
[00:20:30] Jennifer Kitt: We can make sure that we’re helping make markets for the materials that those buildings are made out of, right? Clean and green, concrete and steel, all kinds of things philanthropy can help with to make those things happen. And here in the developed world, we’re gonna need to retrofit [00:20:45] all of these spaces.
[00:20:46] Jennifer Kitt: And the thing is, we have actually all the technology like that’s winnable. Now, but we have a scarcity of resource that’s super, super exciting, and there are dozens and dozens of examples like that [00:21:00] in just climate leads database. We have more than 400 diligence climate solutions that could accept resources today, and the 80 most urgent could take 5 billion tomorrow.
[00:21:13] Jennifer Kitt: So every dollar [00:21:15] matters. And every solution matters because of the race that we have against time. So that’s some of what I see coming.
[00:21:23] Maryam Pasha: I think that is very exciting, particularly because as I’ve been doing this work more with you, I’ve understood this idea of something [00:21:30] being ready because I, I, I think maybe I didn’t understand that so much, but this idea that you can accept it tomorrow and, and actually it’s not just like, oh, well we, if you got it tomorrow, then it would take another 18 months to to plan it.
[00:21:44] Ben Hurst: Uh, [00:21:45] how often do you like, listen to people speak about stuff and think that things are actually possible? Is that like a everyday experience for you? I feel that this is like a quite trippy for me. I know I’m asking, but they’re not answering, so I’m just gonna move on. Don’t, don’t worry about it. No, but [00:22:00] seriously, does it feel like, I, like, I feel quite inspired hearing this because it sounds like the solutions are here, they’re ready.
[00:22:07] Ben Hurst: We just need the cash and somebody knows how to get it, which is positive so that, that, that feels. It feels like we’re moving in the right direction.
What Keeps Us Going
[00:22:14] Ben Hurst: Um, I guess the question I wanna ask you is, which also feels a little bit redundant now, because I sat here and watched you almost cry over like the, the reason that you started doing this work.
[00:22:25] Ben Hurst: But what inspires you to keep going? Like when you wake up in the morning, you [00:22:30] have your caffeine, you do your meditation, what is it that like actually makes you think, I’m not gonna quit this, like, I’m gonna keep doing it?
[00:22:38] Jennifer Kitt: Well, two things probably. One, the momentum, like I, I actually get to see when things work, you know, when, [00:22:45] when philanthropy has been able to do like, just this little thing, you know, it’s not the prime mover.
[00:22:50] Jennifer Kitt: Governments and businesses are the prime movers for the changes we need, but when philanthropy is well played, it can make something go faster and we need that. So I think those [00:23:00] wins. I, I spend a lot of time thinking about those wins and trying to build on them. And then, um, my own children. Hmm. Right.
[00:23:08] Jennifer Kitt: Like I want them to have a world that knows how to live within its [00:23:15] resources. I want them to be able to know that I tried everything I could. Yeah. What inspires you?
[00:23:23] Maryam Pasha: Marry
[00:23:25] Ben Hurst: Merriam inspires me to no serious, but seriously though, I do think for [00:23:30] me, actually it is. It is not. That’s not a ridiculous answer.
[00:23:33] Ben Hurst: If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be talking about any of this stuff. I literally didn’t care, not not supposed to say that in climate week, but I didn’t care because the adverts were boring. Do you know what I’m saying? You know what I’m talking about? It wasn’t like a, [00:23:45] they were pulling on heartstrings, but they weren’t mine.
[00:23:47] Ben Hurst: Um, and I think you’ve gotta be invited into the conversation in a way, like you’re saying with the, with the, the philanthr, how do you say the word philanthropist? Philanthropists That’s okay. [00:24:00] Is, yeah, like you’re saying with those people, with the people with the cash, sometimes the invitation is the thing that’s important and I think I received the correct invitation at the right time.
[00:24:10] Ben Hurst: So that’s what keeps me inspired.
Joy Invitation And Wrap
[00:24:14] Jennifer Kitt: I, I love [00:24:15] that you just said that, because actually that’s a job we all have, right? It’s not just for funders. We have to be inviting more people to, to come into this in the way that’s right for them. That’s actually probably the most profound thing that we do to help new [00:24:30] donors come in to get over the many barriers that will help keep people on the outside is, is, is pay attention to what’s important to them and help them see how that connects.
[00:24:40] Jennifer Kitt: To what this work is, um, in the way that maybe Maryam did for you, and I’m so glad [00:24:45] she did.
[00:24:46] Ben Hurst: Thanks mate.
[00:24:48] Maryam Pasha: Yay. Um, no, it’s wonderful. It’s, it’s, we also have a lot of fun doing this. So I think that for me, I actually think the thing I’ve learned is the joy. Like the more [00:25:00] joy you can have doing this work that is obviously hard and really affects people’s lives and livelihoods and all of the terrible things.
[00:25:07] Maryam Pasha: And I do think that this week, even though I’ve been doing this work for a long time, I don’t know why, but I was in Hyde Park on, on [00:25:15] Father’s Day on Sunday, and I just had this moment where I thought, oh my God, we are not ready. Hmm. Like, we’re not ready. It’s so hot in London and I dunno why, because obviously we do it every day.
[00:25:28] Maryam Pasha: But then I thought, it’s okay. [00:25:30] I’m, even though I’m feeling a bit blah, I’m gonna come talk to Jennifer tomorrow and we’re gonna feel much better. Um, it’s true. Um.
Thanks Credits Stay Curious
[00:25:37] Maryam Pasha: Thank you so much for this conversation. Um, I think it’s pretty incredible because I do think that the, the level at which you are seeing the movement happening, and one of the things you said that we kind of buried, but I, I do think is really important, is that more money is actually coming into this work than ever before, which is kind of incredible.
[00:25:55] Maryam Pasha: So. We are kind of, we we’re sorry that we haven’t had you on until now. [00:26:00] Um, we, we will have you back though, because we’d like to know what’s, what’s happening. Um, so thank you Jennifer.
[00:26:09] Maryam Pasha: Thank you for joining us this week. We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode.
[00:26:13] Ben Hurst: If you did, please hit the follow [00:26:15] button to make sure that you get next week’s release. While you’re at it, please leave a rating and a review.
[00:26:21] Maryam Pasha: Now let’s shout out to our fabulous team behind the pod
[00:26:24] Ben Hurst: executive produced by Josie Colter,
[00:26:26] Maryam Pasha: produced by Ben Beheshty.
[00:26:28] Ben Hurst: Music, also by Ben Beheshty,
[00:26:30] Maryam Pasha: communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston.
[00:26:33] Ben Hurst: Curation by Deesha Chandra,
[00:26:35] Maryam Pasha: hosted by Ben Hurst.
[00:26:37] Ben Hurst: I’m Maryam Pasha,
[00:26:38] Maryam Pasha: and remember,
[00:26:39] Ben Hurst: stay [00:26:45] curious.
