Batting for Change

Ryan Carters is a dad of three and Founder of Dadfit, a charity supporting fathers to enable healthy, safe, and gender-equal families. Read on for our interview with Ryan!

A former professional cricketer, Ryan retired from the sport in 2017 to pursue a career in social impact. He founded the education charity Batting for Change, earned a Master in Public Policy at Harvard, and advised social purpose organisations at McKinsey. Ryan’s experience of fatherhood led him to found Dadfit, a charity supporting men from all backgrounds to be the best dads they can be. Ryan was made a Snow Entrepreneur in 2025, a fellowship for social change supported by the Snow Foundation. 

Describe your career trajectory and how you got to your current position.

There’s a video of me on my third birthday, brand new cricket bat in hand. Beaming, I tap the bat on the pavement. “You’ll never get me out!” I yell down the driveway at my gran.

It was always my dream to play cricket for Australia, and I was fortunate to play professionally for a decade as my first career.

As I got older and travelled the world playing cricket, I became more aware of inequalities that prevent communities from reaching their potential.

This led me to found Batting for Change, a charity supporting education opportunities for disadvantaged students in developing, cricket-playing countries. After retiring from cricket, I completed a Masters in Public Policy and consulted to social purpose organisations.

Underneath it all, I was struggling with how to be a young dad and navigate serious family health issues. In 2023, I founded Dadfit to address a gap in services for fathers in need of community and support. 

What drives you to do the work that you do?

When I became a step-dad at 22, I felt alone and unprepared. No one I knew talked honestly about the challenges of fatherhood. Later our family experienced serious health issues, and I felt completely out of my depth.

To confront gender inequality, family violence, and high rates of men’s self-harm and suicide, Australia urgently needs dads to be healthy, nurturing care-givers. Yet existing family services predominantly reach mothers and fail to engage most dads.

Dadfit fills this critical gap by supporting fathers, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to build the physical, emotional, and social capabilities to be the best dads they can be. 

Our mission is to rewrite the story of fatherhood in Australia—away from outdated stereotypes and toward a culture where men are proud, capable and supported as caregivers.

If you could go back in time, what piece of advice would you give yourself as you first embarked on your career?

This will all take a lot longer than you imagine, but it will also be just a memory before you know it. There’ll be many twists and turns you wouldn’t imagine.

Take your time, keep learning, invest in relationships, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Any words you live by?

Today, I’m a dad and husband first. This is a precious time while our kids are young, and it won’t last forever.

What are you currently watching / reading / listening to?

Sadly I don’t find too much time to read right now, but I love audiobooks and podcasts. Recently I’ve been enjoying the Joe Walker Podcast. His long-form interviews with Australian thinkers are in the sweet spot for a policy nerd like me.