Welcome to ‘In Conversation With’, a series of articles where Sandy Hinks, Head of Charity Practice at Moon Exec Search, talks with a wide range of her connections about their organisations, roles and the life lessons that drive them.

Jeremy has acted as CEO since 2016 having worked at Young Lives vs Cancer (formerly CLIC Sargeant) and has experience at House of Fraser and Sainsburys. He demonstrated history of working in the charity sector with strong business development professional with experience of delivering change across organisations and teams of different sizes.

Jeremy talked about how data and personalisation is at the forefront of the changing retail landscape, as well as the lessons he has learnt as a leader of large charity.

Could you tell me a bit about your role as CEO at Cards for Good Causes?             

I've been CEO at Cards for Good Causes for over four years now. The charity has a 60-year history, setup in 1959 by a group of charities and it's quite an unusual model. We were set up by 25 UK medical charities, and we now have 18 member charities, who effectively all have a share in the charity and the non-profit trading company. We are owned by charities such as Cancer Research UK, British Heart, RNLI, Alzheimer’s Society, Parkinson's UK,

Fundamentally, we sell Christmas cards to raise money for those charities and over 200 other Guest charities. The charities work together through the Cards for Good Causes to promote their fundraising and to promote and encourage volunteering. We sell cards through pop up shops, churches, Tourist Information centres, libraries, and a variety of venues.

As CEO, I work very closely with the Board of trustees who are incredibly supportive. I also work closely with all the member charities. My role is to lead the organisation to improve the financial return and sales, but also to lead a long-established organisation through change with the support of our member charities, and all the other stakeholders. We are blessed to have 6000 volunteers, and many have been with us for decades.

And what is your vision for the future of the charity?

That is an interesting question – when I first came on board, I wanted to know why people bought the cards and what they knew about the charity.

In terms of the future, people are always going to want to be keeping in touch and supporting good causes, so it is our job to predict and change our business model with how our customers behave.   There has been a pronounced decline in the number of Christmas card packs that are bought in our shops, which traditionally has been our business model.

Covid accelerated the changes that were already in motion, especially the emphasis on e-commerce. Under lockdown, people really wanted to keep in touch with loved ones and they understood that Facebook messenger would not suffice. Secondly, in a time of financial uncertainty, Cards for Good Causes offers support to charities at a relatively low cost at around £4.00 a packet. Last year, we saw a resurgence in that with places like Waterstones and John Lewis selling out of Christmas cards.

Today is all about personalisation; we are almost ready to launch a new, more personable product; with access to 3500 designs, and it is done on our website alongside our regular Christmas cards. This means the customer can personalise; you can choose one of those designs, the message, and the recipient.

People's choice of charity is something quite unique to us and we need to provide that whilst shopping online. The pandemic has accelerated things like online retail, according to what you read, between five and eight years. Fortunately, one of the first aspects of the business I changed was the website. The sales went from 100,000 to a quarter million within two years. That was four years ago, and last year, because of the lock down, we sold a million pounds online.

This year, more than ever, we really understand who our customers are and that is driving the future of the organisation to offer a digital-based service alongside our traditional offering.

Following on from that, do you have any advice to pass on to a newly appointed CEO or company directors?

Now, with me, I have talked about the importance of my senior team in terms of working together, but I recommend building up a network outside the organisation, get some peers and peer groups, I have a board of trustees who are fantastic, they will challenge me, and support me.

One simple thing I also say is take a lunch break, especially when home working, turn the laptop off, go for a stroll in the sunshine. You then might stop thinking about the immediate challenges, but you might have a real moment of revelation when you step away.

What do you do outside of work? What sort of things do you do to relax?

I like the arts generally, gigs when I was young but as I've got older, I've started to really get into theatre and more comedy. I love to read and watch cinema boxsets like everyone else. Six months ago, I bought a record player for the first time. I'm buying all my old vinyl again at 10 times the price!

Who would you say is your hero?

Okay, I've got two, and they're both quite corny. Recently, Gareth Southgate has impressed me. He is everything that a leader should be, he's incredibly calm, but passionate at the same time. He's so supportive of his players, and we saw in this tournament he is prepared to be unpopular and do things for the better of the team making difficult and sometimes, unpopular decisions. I think he's done more to change attitudes on diversity and inclusivity than anyone else. Most organisations say we're committed to diversity, but he has a truly diverse group of players.

One of his senior coaches said that his coaching team are allowed to challenge him. Ultimately, he might say, “no, I'm in charge, this is what we are going with,” but he will listen to his team. I thought he was incredible. A figurehead, very calm, very measured, but very passionate, and someone who has a definite plan. You get a real sense of what the team is all about and where it's going and in which I've never really seen the new England manager before.

And then the other one, again, probably slightly cliched as well is the NHS, so 2019 I had a cancer diagnosis. I have always been a fan of the NHS. Every single person I encountered from literally the car park attendant receptionist, nurses, blood nurses, dental nurses, the and the radiologists, and the consultants are magnificent everything about them. Every one of them treating me like a human being, my journey felt incredibly personal. They literally saved my life, so they are my heroes. I can never really find the words to thank them.

Last question, what books are you reading?

I'm reading Elvis Costello's autobiography, which is really is 630 pages. Also, Tim Winton, who I started reading a lot more in lockdown. he writes so beautifully about people and the environment. And his stories are very readable, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I think is incredible. I've got a whole backlog of his work.

About three years ago, I read Darren Brown, who wrote a book called ‘Happy’. That was a bit of a life changer. It's a big book, and I now dip into ‘A Little Happier’, which is the history of the philosophy of happiness. He has a much more human approach because you must think about other people. Reading both have been a real pleasure.

Sandy comments: ‘Cards for Good Causes are a brilliant organisation that bring together so many incredible charities. Jeremy touched upon issues that many of our non-profit and executive clients have faced. This conversation highlighted some important threads; the rush towards e-commerce and using data to better understand the needs of their customers, whether online, brochure, digital bespoke products, and exploring new markets.

At Moon Exec Search, our primary work is to build and enhance leadership teams as well as sourcing Non-Exec Directors and Trustees. Since the easing of covid, we are seeing many companies change and adapt their business models to be much more cause related which is why I so enjoyed speaking to Jeremy.’

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