About Lively Minds
The problem, our idea, and our mission
There’s no debate: the early childhood years are critical for a child’s lifelong success and well-being. Yet a staggering 250 million children globally miss out, the majority of whom live in rural communities in the Global South. Current solutions do not offer the quality, affordability, urgency, or scale required. It is time for a new, practical approach that gets early childhood development working effectively everywhere.
Lively Minds’ core idea is simple and powerful: parents are the sleeping giants of early childhood development. When parents are activated with practical, context-appropriate ideas, they can dramatically improve children’s learning, wellbeing, and readiness for school—at very low cost.
Our mission is to get quality early childhood development to millions by helping governments activate the power of parents.
Our journey so far
Founded in 2008, Lively Minds began with deep grassroots work in rural Ghana and Uganda, working directly with families, communities, and teachers to design practical, play-based approaches that fit the realities of rural life. In 2016, we made a deliberate strategic shift from direct delivery to supporting governments to integrate and scale parent-powered ECD through their own public systems.
In Ghana, our parenting programme is now embedded into the public pre-primary system, operating successfully in 3,500 communities, fully funded and delivered by government, with plans underway for national expansion. Randomised controlled trials show learning gains equivalent to an extra year of school, with the largest impacts among the poorest children—results that have been replicated when delivered at scale by government.
Alongside this, our radio programme for parents is broadcast by governments in Ghana and Uganda in 24 local languages, reaching over 2 million parents each week, demonstrating the potential of mass communication channels to deliver parent-powered ECD at population level.
Where we are going next
Our ambition is for parent-powered early childhood development to become the norm, not the exception, across the Global South. This moment is pivotal: governments are seeking affordable, scalable solutions; funding environments are shifting; and strong proof from Ghana shows parent-powered ECD can work at scale through public systems.
To reach the next level of impact, we are evolving our scale strategy. We are focusing on supporting new governments to embed proven, parent-powered solutions into their own systems, tailored to their context, capacity, and budgets. We have already secured partnerships with the Governments of The Gambia and Oromia (Ethiopia) to provide time-bound technical advisory support to pilot parenting approaches and develop costed scale plans.
Lively Minds now operates in increasingly complex political, institutional, and funding environments, requiring strong governance, strategic judgement, and the ability to balance learning, risk, and scale.
We are therefore seeking new trustees who can help us double our funding, expand our government partnerships, and significantly increase our visibility and influence within the global early childhood development sector.
About the Opportunity
The Chair leads the Board of Trustees to provide effective governance, strategic oversight and support to Lively Minds. The Chair ensures the Board focuses on mission, performance and sustainability; provides appropriate challenge and assurance; protects good governance and regulatory compliance; and supports the CEO to lead the organisation through strategy shift and scale while maintaining clear boundaries between governance and management.
Board Chair – Core Responsibilities
Lively Minds is seeking a Board Chair to lead the Board through its next phase of growth and development.
Board Leadership and Governance Effectiveness
- Set the tone for a high-performing Board culture characterised by trust, constructive challenge, clarity of roles and accountability
- Chair Board meetings effectively, ensuring focus on the most material strategic issues and clear decision-making
- Ensure appropriate committee structures are in place and operating effectively
- Lead trustee recruitment, onboarding and succession planning to ensure the Board remains balanced and fit for the next phase
- Lead the development and embedding of clear governance structures, decision-making processes, and ways of working
Strategy Shift and Organisational Oversight
- Guide the Board’s oversight of the organisation’s strategy, ensuring clarity of direction, prioritisation and realistic sequencing
- Ensure the Board is engaged early in strategic discussions, not only at the point of approval
- Ensure robust oversight of organisational performance, including impact, quality, financial sustainability, risk and safeguarding
- Support the Board in overseeing organisational effectiveness during scale, including operating model, leadership capacity, and accountability
External Credibility, Partnership Stewardship and Resource Growth
- Represent Lively Minds externally at senior level, alongside the CEO, including with governments, major funders and strategic partners
- Increase appropriate visibility of the Board with external stakeholders to strengthen confidence, relationships and transparency
- Support a coherent pathway for income growth and influence, including government financing, institutional funding, philanthropy and partnerships
- Use networks and credibility to open doors and convene decision-makers, while respecting the CEO’s executive leadership role
Charity Governance and Assurance
- Ensure the Board meets its legal and fiduciary duties and maintains strong governance standards
- Provide confident oversight of charity governance and regulatory requirements, including UK Charity Commission expectations
- Ensure appropriate risk management, audit, safeguarding and internal control frameworks are in place and actively used
CEO Partnership and Performance
- Act as a trusted partner to the CEO, providing sound judgement, support and constructive challenge
- Lead CEO performance management, including objective setting, review and support during periods of growth and transition
- Ensure healthy and effective Board–Executive relationships, including clarity and follow-through on Board decisions and advice
Candidate Profile
Essential Experience and Capabilities
- Proven experience chairing Boards or providing senior governance leadership, particularly during periods of growth, transition, or strategic change.
- Deep understanding of the essence of Lively Minds’ work: early childhood development/education outcomes, system-level impact, and operating in low-resource contexts.
- Credibility with senior external stakeholders, including governments, major funders and partners; comfort operating in government-facing environments.
- Lived experience of founding, leading, or closely supporting a small or growing organisation, with insight into founder-led pace, ambiguity and pressure.
- Strong knowledge of charity governance and regulation, including sufficient familiarity with Charity Commission requirements to provide confident oversight and assurance.
- Ability to act as a trusted partner to the CEO, balancing support and challenge while maintaining appropriate governance boundaries.
Desirable Experience
- Track record helping organisations scale through government systems.
- Experience unlocking major partnerships and/or philanthropic or institutional funding to support growth.
- Understanding of organisational effectiveness at scale, including operating models, people and performance.
- Experience working across multiple countries/regions in the Global South and comfort with cross-cultural governance dynamics.
Personal Attributes
- Mission-aligned and committed to equity and impact.
- Strategic, thoughtful and calm under pressure.
- High integrity and discretion, with strong judgement.
- Collaborative but able to challenge constructively and hold the line on governance.
- Comfortable operating in dynamic ecosystem.
This position was originally posted by Lively Minds / Oxford HR and has been curated by PurposePhil Career. To apply, please visit the original listing on the "apply" link on the side. We are not affiliated with the employer organization of this job ad or consultancy, and provide this curated listing as a service to our users.
