As we close out 2025, host Alberto Lidji analyses fifty deep-dive conversations from the past year to identify the key trends currently reshaping the social impact landscape. This special 2025 roundup episode moves beyond individual projects to explore the fundamental evolution of systemic transformation. Alberto synthesises the year’s insights into three defining shifts: the transition from isolated funding to orchestrator models, the strategic focus on structural root causes, and a fundamental evolution in how we approach leadership and burnout.

Key Themes Explored in This Episode:

• The Evolution of Collaboration: Why the retreat of traditional funding streams in 2025 turned partnership from an aspiration into a vital survival mechanism.

• The Orchestrator Model: Exploring the move toward philanthropic bridge-building, where foundations support government-led initiatives and remove systemic friction points rather than driving isolated agendas.

• Rigidity in Mission, Flexibility in Approach: Why the most effective strategies this year focused on markets and addressing systemic drivers rather than treating symptoms.

• The Grace Shift: A look at how leadership archetypes are evolving to prioritise personnel well-being and structural support as prerequisites for long-term impact.

• The Call to Agency: A concluding reflection on the power of citizen entrepreneurship and why individual action remains the ultimate antidote to global anxiety.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common congenital conditions worldwide, yet effective care goes far beyond repairing a visible deformity. It requires long-term, multidisciplinary support that addresses speech, hearing, dental development and psychological wellbeing.

In this episode, Brian Sommerlad, a surgeon and Chairman of CLEFT, shares four decades of experience in cleft care across the UK and low and middle income countries. Drawing on extensive work in places such as Bangladesh and Nepal, he explains why short-term surgical missions alone are not enough and how well-intentioned philanthropy can sometimes undermine local health systems.

The conversation explores what sustainable cleft care really looks like. Brian outlines CLEFT’s distinctive approach, which focuses on training local professionals, funding non-surgical roles such as speech therapists and orthodontists, and supporting multidisciplinary teams that can continue delivering care long after external support has stepped back.

Key topics include:

• What cleft lip and palate is, how common it is, and why it affects far more than appearance

• The lifelong importance of speech therapy, hearing support and dental care

• The psychological and social impact of cleft conditions on children and families

• Why teaching and capacity-building create more impact than simply doing operations

• How poorly designed NGO activity can unintentionally weaken local services

• The value of treating local clinicians, hospitals and governments as equal partners

• Practical insights into allocating philanthropic funding for long-term benefit

Brian also reflects on his own journey from medical training in Australia to international work spanning Vietnam, Bangladesh, Iraq and beyond, offering candid observations on what has and has not worked in global health over time.

This episode is a thoughtful examination of how healthcare philanthropy can move from short-term intervention to lasting change, with lessons that extend well beyond cleft care alone.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

This episode explores the work of the Roger Federer Foundation through a conversation with Maya Ziswiler, Chief Executive Officer, focusing on early childhood education, prevention-focused philanthropy, and long-term systems change.

Maya explains how the Foundation works to give children a better start in life through early and foundational learning, with the majority of its work concentrated in Southern Africa and a growing portfolio in Switzerland. In Southern Africa, the Foundation partners closely with governments and locally rooted organisations across six countries to strengthen school readiness and early learning systems. In Switzerland, it is developing an approach that uses movement to strengthen body and mind, with an emphasis on preventing mental health challenges later in life.

A central theme of the discussion is the Foundation’s data-driven School Readiness Initiative, including tablet-based learning kiosks and the Child Steps assessment tool. These tools support teachers, simplify reporting, and generate actionable data for decision making at school, regional, and national levels. Key milestones include nationwide adoption of the assessment tool in Zimbabwe and the handover of programme implementation to government authorities in parts of South Africa.

The conversation also covers the Foundation’s strategic transition, with a new strategy to be launched in early 2026. Maya reflects on the shift from a single flagship solution towards an early learning continuum, the importance of partnerships, and the role of catalytic funding in strengthening an underfunded sector.

The episode also traces Maya’s leadership journey from the private sector to UNICEF, UBS Optimus Foundation, and now the Roger Federer Foundation, alongside the opportunities and challenges of leading a foundation associated with a global sporting icon.

Fun fact: The conversation is conducted by Alberto Lidji, former CEO of the Novak Djokovic Foundation, who interviews the CEO of the Roger Federer Foundation, offering a distinctive and collegial backdrop.

Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 350+ case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.