On Wednesday June 9th we had the pleasure of hearing from Mark Evans, Managing Director of Marketing & Digital at Direct Line Group, in our You're MarketingKind gathering on how professional extracurricular activities help to build influence and leadership.

In our May Coffee with a Cause we had the pleasure of working with Scott Britton, Founder of Battle Cancer, to engage more corporate supporters in helping to grow their inclusive fitness charity. Richard Simpson, Owner and MD of Tayburn, led the gathering and continues to lead the working group that is further developing the ideas from the session.

In this MarketingKind xChange Paul Skinner and Claire Kennedy asked radical questions to get to the heart of the big ideas we need to build a sustainably prosperous future with a distinguished panel including Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder of the Eden Project, Professor Tim Jackson, author of Post Growth: Life After Capitalism, and Daniela Barone Soares, CEO of Snowball.

Three months on from our Coffee with a Cause I caught up with Teresa Norman, Co-founder of TogetherintheUK and she said, ‘We’ve had an extraordinary amount of support. When we came to you we had about 30 entrants in the writing competition and when it closed at the end of April we had 67, which for our first year is a huge result. Many of the entries are incredibly powerful stories and we’re now following the advice from the group and working out how to get them published.

In our April 30th Coffee with a Cause we explored with Caroline Taylor, OBE and Ruth Dearnley, CEO of Stop the Traffik, how we can finally put an end to modern-day slavery.

During our Digital Fireside on April 21st Mindy Emsley interviewed serial entrepreneur and champion of compassionate disruption, Dr Mick Jackson, for a heartening take on how making enterprise meaningful can drive success and change lives.

In our April xChange we tackled the important topic of how to end modern slavery with Louise Hulland, BBC investigative journalist and author of Stolen Lives, Rosana Elias, Head of Sustainability at Whitbread, Ruth Dearnley, CEO of Stop the Traffik, and host Caroline Taylor, OBE. Click through to watch the full video replay.

In our March Coffee with a Cause members came together to support Local Village Network to help create networks of opportunities for disadvantaged young people in London.

In our March 11th xChange Paul Skinner, Founder of MarketingKind, interviewed Seth Godin on the theme of how we can become more impactful marketers and change makers. The gathering included a live audience Q&A. Lynne Franks, OBE described it as 'The best conversation I have heard about marketing’. Click through to watch the full replay video.

In our February Coffee with a Cause members came together to support Renewable World to help end extreme poverty and combat climate change in marginalised communities in Nepal and Kenya.

In our Feb 10th xChange we explore ‘How to create a climate for change?’ with Mike Barry, Dr Orit Gal, Dhruv Boruah and Louise McLaren.

In our January Coffee with a Cause MarketingKind members came together to help TogetherintheUK create a greater culture of belonging for migrants in the UK by promoting their writing competition, which highlights migrant stories.

In our first Digital Fireside conversation with PR guru and champion of sustainable business and women’s empowerment Lynne Franks, OBE we came together to reflect, find new inspiration and support each other.

In our January xChange we explored with our expert panel of Sue Unerman, Kathryn Jacob, OBE and Mark Edwards how to build more diverse teams where everyone has a greater sense of belonging. We also heard from Teresa Norman, co-founder of TogetherintheUK, how we can all help to create a culture of belonging for migrants in the UK.

In our December xChange we explored with our panelists Emma Ihsan, Lisa Basford and Laurence Stock what both businesses and charities, large and small, can do to build effective partnerships.

We invited our members to participate in an exercise in unselfish marketing by using their skills and expertise to help the Dear Green Santa campaign to make Christmas a time of sharing our wishes for the planet as well as gifts and good wishes for each other.

On Nov 27th we held our second Coffee with a Cause gathering to work with Catherine McClen, founder of BuddyHub, to help them reach more chronically lonely older adults in London

In our second xChange we were joined by Rory Sutherland and Mark Evans to discuss thinking differently, the future of work and how to create neurodiverse teams and businesses.

On October 30th we held our first Coffee with a Cause session to work with Monique Ntumngia, one of Africa’s leading social entrepreneurs, to empower vulnerable and excluded women to build safe, reliable and independent livelihoods

Our launch xChange on Oct 15th explored with question ‘What if marketing wasn’t selfish?’ with John Grant, Caroline Taylor, Célia Pronto, Mandy Bobrowski, Laura Kehoe and Steve Walker. You can view the full event replay here.