The Lorna Young Foundation was thrilled to be shortlisted for the Charity Governance Awards 2020, in the category of Improving Impact (charities with 0-3 paid staff). This was a wonderful nod of recognition for our brilliant Board of Trustees, who have worked extremely hard to launch Farmers’ Voice Radio as a standalone initiative.
For the past 10 years, the Lorna Young Foundation (LYF) has been engaging farmers across Africa in the production of local radio programmes that broadcast vital farming information to help them to achieve more secure livelihoods. Over the last few years, the Foundation has made an effort to maximise scale, impact and sustainability by championing Farmers’ Voice Radio as a flagship programme of the LYF and by focussing on building the capacity of local partners to develop their own Farmers’ Voice Radio projects. In order to further increase the reach of the initiative, the Board decided to ‘open-source’ Farmers’ Voice Radio; making the approach freely available to any organisation, anywhere in the world, where it can make a difference. To support this process, the Board created trustee working groups for specialist areas such as Marketing, Communications and Business Planning; it also recruited a new treasurer and engaged every trustee in the development of a Farmers’ Voice Radio Position Paper, Business Plan, and Branding and Communications strategies. At the start of 2020 the new Farmers’ Voice Radio brand, website and resource hub was launched, and we are happy to say that Farmers’ Voice Radio is going from strength to strength!
Ian Agnew, LYF’s Chairperson said, “Being a 'lean but mean' charity has meant that we have rarely been able to focus on shouting about our achievements and the enormous difference that our Board and team have made to the work of the Foundation in transforming the lives of thousands of the world's poorest farmers. We are so pleased that the huge efforts and achievements of our Board have been recognised”.
Due to the COVID19 pandemic the award ceremony had to move online, but it was still a wonderful evening celebrating the work of amazing trustees and charities across the UK. We were very proud to have made the final three in the shortlist, and we send a huge congratulations to the winning charity Older Citizens Advocacy York. We are very thankful to The Clothworkers’ Company for organising the awards and giving us this opportunity to celebrate our Board!
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