Philip Black’s journey journey leading up to leadership roles at the Crisis Student Response Network (CSRN) and Action for Refugee Life (AREL) was rooted in both academic and early career experiences. Initially, while studying Economics and Marketing at the University of Ulster, Philip secured a digital strategy internship with PwC . This introduced him to sustainability and social responsibility, complemented by his involvement in establishing the university’s branch of the Irish Student Consulting Group. It was attending the One Young World Summit that further fueled his passion for social impact, allowing him to build networks, support initiatives, and learn from diverse global perspectives. This foundation led to his eventual role as CEO of CSRN, where he expanded student-led crisis response consulting globally and contributed to critical humanitarian efforts. His work in the refugee sector, particularly with AREL, grew from these experiences, emphasising employment pathways and digital skills for refugee students.

1. What was your background before you were leading CSRN (Crisis Student Response Network) and Action for Refugee Life (AREL)?

Prior to CSRN, I was a student at the University of Ulster (UU) studying Economics and Marketing and was working part-time for PwC during my final year as a Digital Strategy Intern.

I spent the majority of my final year of university in lockdown during the COVID pandemic which opened opportunities for me to engage in the Irish Student Consulting Group (ISCG), a national group consisting of student consultancies from universities across Ireland in which I set up the UU branch.

Through my role in PwC, I gained exposure to the importance of sustainability, ESG and social responsibility and my role in ISCG gave me a chance to develop my leadership ability and apply my skills to the social impact sector.

2. What impact did attending One Young World have on you?

I was fortunate to be sponsored by the Education Authority NI to the One Young World Summit in Belfast. I was aware of the organisation and the expectations to make the most of the opportunity so I want in with a mindset to meet as many people as possible, identify new collaborations and learn as much as I could.

Through my first summit, I was able to support 9 other ambassador’s impact organisations through CSRN and take away learnings from refugee delegates to establish AREL’s new employment pathway. After the Montreal Summit, I was able to deliver a workshop to 30 ambassadors on ‘How to start a charity’ as they take early steps in social impact as well as supporting a further 13 ambassador’s impact organisations.

I have also been able to maintain the relationship with numerous delegates, keeping up to date with their work and supporting through engagement, sharing and setting up introductions. These relationships have helped me navigate many challenges working in the social impact sector and kept me more aware of global developments.

3. Can you describe CSRN? What is your role within the company?

CSRN was originally set up during the pandemic as the (COVID Student Response Network) to bring student consultants across the UK to charities to help them adapt to lockdown and continue to deliver impact.

The first response was hugely successful supporting 80+ charities and we decided to continue bringing pro bono consulting further into crisis response and expanding globally. We have now run 9 global crisis responses across the globe tackling crisis in Lebanon, India, Malaysia, Ukraine etc.

We have grown our network of student consultancies to 60+ leading universities across the globe and established functions including research, journalism and impact to promote awareness and action the advisory work of the teams.

As CEO, I am responsible for driving the growth of the organisation and our impact, working with the leadership team to establish new responses, ensure we maintain and quality output and most importantly, support the team in their development and roles.

4. You have now worked with over 500 social impact organisations, what are some of the most common issues you see with these organisations? How does CSRN work with these organisations to improve these issues?

As many are aware, the social impact sector is continually faced by a lack of funding especially those smaller in scale with 97% of UK charity closures being attributed to small and medium charities over the last 10 years. Many organisations are able to achieve one-off grants or funding at conception but face challenges in holding it long term.

We work with numerous charities on their fundraising strategies which are bespoke for every client, but they will generally focus on diversification on income streams, identification of potential long-term sponsors/partners, better financial management practices and methods of cost-saving and efficiencies.

As we work in crisis response, we see many organisations face challenges in adapting to respond and support whether it be natural disaster, conflict or outbreaks. Social impact organisations are often positioned as the first line of response in helping those on the ground recover even as they struggle to maintain continuity or figure out ways to adapt.

We work with organisations on their response and service strategy to help them establish new programmes in times of need and understand the funding and resources required to achieve this. It is then a focus on securing these resources and funding which comes as an influx during and after crisis events.

5. What is your advice to people looking to set up charities or not-for-profits in the UK? What should they look out for while setting up the company to avoid issues further down the line?

My first piece of advice would be to stop and reflect internally on the true reasons you want to start the organisation and how this will motivate you. Starting a charity can be a stressful journey full of difficult decisions and sacrifices which are often highly personal to you. You need to have a strong motivation and commitment to your beneficiaries which will see you through those times and keep creating the necessary impact.

Secondly, we are in a world where it is more difficult to go out and provide support/resources to others without oversight. You cannot ignore the administrative side of running the organisation and need to give consideration to registration and entity type, volunteer codes of conduct, financial management tools, a functional website, impact reporting and annual statements. These may be difficult and time consuming but they will also be able to validate you and your work when you engage with beneficiaries, partners, sponsors and more.

6. What motivated you to work with refugees, and what key projects have you worked on in this area?

I was fortunate to gain exposure to the refugee space through my work in CSRN and meeting organisations working in the field, learning about the challenges they faced and the global nature of the refugee crisis.

I had the great fortune to meet with Kiza Mauridi, a refugee based in the Kakuma camp in Kenya with a highly entrepreneurial spirit, he proposed the idea for Action for Refugee Life and we were able to launch it in 2022. I took the position of Director of Learning and leveraged my professional experience in Learning & Design to establish our learning programmes focused on new age digital skills which have now been delivered to 500+ students. I also focus on developing our employment strategy to help these students then gain long-term and sustainable employment opportunities.

I always maintain an awareness that I, myself am not a refugee and I am incredibly fortunate to be able to work alongside and learn from them which has been a big motivational driver for me.

7. You are now on the Planning Committee Member and Thought Leader for the RISE World Summit. What commitment does this entail and what is the end goal of the committee?

Rise Infinity were one of CSRN’s first strategic partners during our India Covid-19 response and they put as in contact with numerous charities to support through their incredible network. In this partnership, I got to engage with Karon Shaiva and Deepak Nanda, two amazing individuals committed to collaboration and development of the social sector.

They gave me awareness of the RISE Summit which was on it’s 8^th year. A hybrid summit open to all themed around critical global topics and focused on building connections between participants. We shared the vision of greater youth inclusion in the summit and I was invited to join the Planning Committee where I could leverage my network and focus on plans to include more youth in the sessions. I am now on my 3^rd year in the committee and have been able to deliver workshops to numerous participants on the importance of youth engagement and how this can be facilitated. With the CSRN team, we are now planning in-person panel events in London focused on youth leadership and impact acceleration so it’s an exciting year ahead.

I encourage anyone interested to look it up and register to join!

8. What are your plans for the future? Are there any projects or areas that you are excited about?

It would be hard to say I have specific plans for the future. I see myself continuing to move into more impact-focused work and continuing to scale it up but I remain open to any opportunities that come my way to achieve it.

I’m sure I will continue to be committed to the charity work and we have exciting developments in AREL as we execute our employment strategy and gain exciting new partners as well as the CSRN team continually scaling up and setting up new impact services. I always keep an eye on other social needs so I wouldn’t be surprised if another charity got set up!

9. How does all of the outside projects that you are involved with impact on your day job?

Consulting is not a job notoriously known for it’s easy working hours and stability so I do my best to take it week by week. Firstly, I am so fortunate to have incredible teams in CSRN and AREL who are able to drive delivery and impact without my intervention. Secondly, there definitely are practices I have put in place:

1. Prioritisation – I look to the weeks ahead and decide what the priority tasks I need to complete are and what will the value adds be if I am able to make time
2. Distribution of responsibility – It is very easy to fall into the trap of doing everything yourself in social impact but finding people also motivated by your cause and giving the freedom and support they need in the role helps alleviate the pressure
3. Flexibility – Both CSRN and AREL involve a lot of self-led working and limits the need for routine and rigorous meetings This gives all of the team more flexibility in their schedule to deliver the work when suits but still remain aware of deadlines.

Of course, sometimes there are too many deadlines at once or a big event and sleep has to get sacrificed.

10. Are there any other people, companies or programmes in NI or the UK that you are a big fan of?

I have been fortunate to meet many incredible people dedicated to social impact across the UK and Ireland. Some examples would be Matthew Taylor who established UK’s first youth-led mental health charity, as someone who faced challenges in the mental health system in NI, his critical work has been able to help countless youth across the country.

I would also make two callouts to We Make Change set up by James Sancto and DataKind set up by Giselle Cory, with both organisations focused on building the resources and capabilities within the social impact sector to help countless charities achieve more impact.