An Interview with Amanda Norman, CEO of The Leprosy Mission Shop
23 June, 2026
Amanda is in her fifth year at The Leprosy Mission Shop, which is part of The Leprosy Mission, the world’s largest leprosy-focused charity, operating across 27 countries worldwide. Here, Amanda speaks with ELOVATE about her role as CEO, the challenges charities face in fulfilment, and the benefits of using a 3PL provider.
Can you tell us a little about your journey to becoming CEO of The Leprosy Mission Shop? What originally drew you into the charity sector?
My journey started when I was 15, when I was invited to a large, thriving church youth group. The leader had been a missionary doctor in Africa, and I was captivated by that. I felt called to be involved in overseas mission work and to devote my life to God and trying to alleviate poverty.
I then studied languages at university and afterwards spent a year in DR Congo, which was a very formative experience in my life. After that, I worked in marketing for a publishing company, but I wanted to use those commercial skills to help alleviate poverty. I then spent time with the Christian charity Tearfund on their French-speaking Africa desk, before becoming Deputy Director of All We Can.
I’m now CEO of The Leprosy Mission Shop, which fits with my interests in global health, my Christian commitments, and my commercial skills. I have been here for five and a half years.
What does a typical week look like for you as CEO?
I love my job. It can be very interesting, but also very challenging. My main role is leading a team of eight and strategising on how we can raise the profile of ending leprosy and raise money in this challenging economic climate.
A lot of my work is focused on direction, finance, and strategy, as well as personnel matters, keeping the board happy, and managing our relationship with our fulfilment house, ELOVATE.
Once a year I get to do a big trip. I have recently been to India, which was amazing because I was able to see the work we are doing and how it is making a real difference.
How do you make difficult decisions when resources are limited?
That’s such a great question, because there are lots of difficulties and resources are very limited. A key principle for me is that I want to be able to look our generous and sacrificial customers in the eye and say we have used their money well.
I also want to sit next to someone affected by leprosy, whose voice is never heard, and know that I have done my best to make them heard and fight for them.
This does mean making difficult decisions. We run our business by kind Christian principles, but sometimes we have to make hard decisions for the benefit of people affected by leprosy.
When you aren’t being a CEO, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I love travelling and languages, so I am lucky to be able to enjoy those through work as well. For stress relief, I go to a Zumba class a couple of times a week, and I also love swimming and being active outdoors.
As a charity, what struggles do you face when it comes to fulfilment? How does partnering with a 3PL help with these challenges?
At The Leprosy Mission Shop, we used to run our own warehouse with a large number of staff, which was very challenging. It was difficult to ensure customer quality in this market, as customers expect deliveries to be accurate and quick.
Now ELOVATE does a lot for us. They don’t just store products; they send them out, take phone orders, and handle refunds.
The biggest challenge is the peak season in the run-up to Christmas, when we receive a huge spike in orders and donations. As a small team, that is very difficult to resource, so the fact that ELOVATE can scale up their warehouse and contact centre staffing to ensure orders go out on time is critical.
That is the main reason we use a 3PL; it would be too difficult to manage those peaks ourselves, and we cannot employ that many people all year round.
What benefits have you seen from working with ELOVATE? How has the partnership influenced your team?
The Leprosy Mission Shop has been with ELOVATE for eight years, and I’ll be honest, we have had our ups and downs. There is no perfect 3PL, because problems in logistics do happen.
However, there are people at ELOVATE, including the CEO, Victoria, who are always willing to listen and work through problems with us.
Partnering with ELOVATE means we have a much lower staff count than before. However, some of the team still spend a lot of time managing the relationship with ELOVATE, including weekly calls with our account manager.
They are our biggest partner, so getting this partnership right is critical. We may be quite demanding of ELOVATE, but that is because we want to do our best for people affected by leprosy, ensure our money is not wasted, and make sure customers are served well.
What advice would you give another charity considering using a fulfilment partner?
Don’t believe the salespeople completely. They will tell you everything will be possible and wonderful, but logistics is not always wonderful. It is actually quite difficult, and problems do occur.
We have visited a few other 3PLs, some of which are shiny and impressive, but when you get beneath the surface you can see that this is a difficult business. Be realistic, recognise the challenges, and be prepared to invest in the relationship with your 3PL in order to overcome hurdles and minimise problems.
Key Takeaways
Amanda’s journey reflects a strong commitment to Christianity and alleviating poverty. Throughout the interview, she highlights the realities of leading a charity in a challenging economic climate, as well as the operational pressures charities face, particularly during seasonal peaks.
Her experience also underlines the value of building a transparent, collaborative relationship with a trusted 3PL partner. While logistics challenges are inevitable, a strong partnership can help charities scale effectively, improve customer service, and remain focused on their core mission.