A few years ago I was invited to contribute an article to the Charity Finance Yearbook on what makes a successful charity FD. One of the main observations I made at the time was the need to think in a different currency, especially for those of us who spent our formative years in a business with shareholders and a profit imperative. Charities’ measure of success isn’t couched in terms of creating dividends but rather our ability to use money to create positive social change.

Ultimately, though, this line of thought still revolves around the use of money. Recently I’ve been thinking: what if we need to go further and change our fundamental ideas around money? For finance professionals that is a huge jump. But there is an argument for us thinking differently. The systemic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic forces us to be more lateral – the sobering potential for parts of civil society to be decimated is a call to action.