AIM FOR A CAREER THAT MATTERS
Find the people, research, and funding to tackle the world’s biggest problems
AIM and our charities are supported by:
Ambitious Impact (AIM) is an organization created to help individuals like you make a large positive difference in the world. Our goal is to assist you in finding and transitioning to a high-impact career path by providing comprehensive support to help you succeed. To do this we created a multi-program ecosystem to remove the barriers to maximizing good and help accelerate your impact journey.
OUR PROGRAMS
The AIM ecosystem consists of multiple cost-covered programs, designed to fill crucial gaps in the broader philanthropic ecosystem:
YOUR IMPACT JOURNEY
Maybe you are already donating money to a charity, knowing this can make a huge difference for an individual life. Or maybe you've been inspired to use your job to do good. Something got you to visit this website to consider the broader question - Can I have a more impactful career?
All of our programs are built for people who want to do the most good they can. In other words, people who care about impact and make it the most important factor in their next career choice.
If you have already started to take significant impact-focused actions but are still considering multiple options for your career, our programs are built to help take your efforts to another level.
STEP 1: COMPARE YOUR OPTIONS
There is more than one path to impact, and we want to help you determine the best fit for you. We’ve built a hub of resources and programs for you to choose from, focusing on a few career paths that are especially promising when it comes to impact. You can start by:
Exploring pathways to impact through career guides and coaching provided by organizations like Probably Good.
Join our newsletter and online events - they’re a great place to explore different options, and with extensive Q&A sessions, you’ll be able to address any uncertainties you may have.
STEP 2: LEARN ABOUT OUR HIGH-IMPACT PROGRAMS
Below is a brief overview of our comprehensive programs for high-impact roles. We hope it will give you a sense of what they focus on and encourage you to learn more about each of them. These are in-depth, usually full-time programs that run over several weeks. They are closer to programming boot camps or an MBA than a weekend program. We designed them to give you a significant head start in each of these career paths.
All of our programs are:
Fully cost-covered (including stipends for attendees).
Designed to train you in all skills needed to launch your career or project, so previous experience is not necessary.
Comprehensive - depending on the project, alongside the training we offer funding, mentorship, operational support, and much more.
Supported by an extensive network of experts, funders, and mentors, to increase your chances of success.
An Incubation Program aimed at launching high-impact nonprofits by connecting entrepreneurs with effective ideas, co-founders, training, and funding.
What you get
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2-months full-time training with 2 weeks in-person in London.
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Stipend of £1900/month during (and potentially up to 2 months after) the program.
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Co-founder matching process based on real-life projects.
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Possibility to apply for $100,000 - $200,000 seed funding (~80% of projects get funded).
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Initial operations support and ongoing mentorship.
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Co-working space in our London office.
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A community of previous founders, mentors, and potential donors, to help you succeed.
Potential good fit for
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Entrepreneurially driven
Individuals who want to start new projects and make a huge impact with their careers.
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Irrepressibly altruistic
Those who want to prioritize impact even when it's hard.
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Fast movers
People who like to make rapid progress and work on a variety of tasks. We have found that those from consulting backgrounds, for-profit entrepreneurship, effective NGOs, or recent graduates, perform well in this program.
A CASE STUDY: Lucia Coulter
After studying medicine at the University of Cambridge, and wanting to have a great impact, Lucia Coulter co-founded the Lead Exposure Elimination Project with Jack Rafferty, a prior consultant and NGO founder. LEEP drives effective policies to eliminate lead poisoning across the globe. So far, LEEP has secured government commitments to regulate lead paint in nine countries including Malawi, Madagascar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and more. Founders Pledge estimated that “it costs $1.66 to prevent one child’s lead exposure (in expectation). As of August 2023, that makes LEEP one of our most cost-effective charities.”
A grantmaker training program that equips funders and philanthropic professionals with cross-applicable skills to have more impact.
What you get
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12-weeks of fully cost-covered online training in key evaluation methodologies necessary to make the highest-quality funding decisions.
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1-week in-person to put the skills into practice and connect with like-minded funders.
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Option to join a funding circle - a coordinated, optimized funding ecosystem in your chosen cause area.
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Quarterly mentorship calls.
Potential good fit for
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Philanthropic organizations
Either just starting out or undergoing a large-scale pivot. -
Grantmakers
To learn the skills themselves instead of primarily hiring or deferring to others. -
Individuals who want to increase the impact of their charitable giving
To improve their processes.
A CASE STUDY: Will Troy
Will Troy was a new grantmaker determined to have a greater impact. Placed in charge of a portfolio of grants within a family foundation, Will struggled to determine a focus area and set good structures in place despite years of experience as a philanthropic advisor. After enrolling in the AIM grantmaking program, Will focused on global mental health and launched the Flourishing Minds Fund. He now chairs the Mental Health Funding Circle, is a leader in the field of effective global mental health interventions, and facilitates ongoing AIM grantmaking programs.
A program aimed at giving researchers applied skills such as identifying the most effective interventions and conducting charity evaluations to set them up for a career in doing research that matters.
What you get
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12-weeks of full-time, online program.
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Stipend of £1900/month during (and potentially after) the program.
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Complete research toolkit with useful templates and methodologies, like Theory of Change, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, etc.
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Expert feedback and peer reviews while working on practical research projects.
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Assistance in editing and publishing decision-relevant reports to strengthen your research portfolio.
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Connection to relevant job opportunities.
Potential good fit for
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Early career researchers
The program quickly goes from basics into higher-level content aimed at junior researchers being able to take on more senior research roles. -
Senior researchers
Interested in pivoting their careers to an impact-focused area. -
Impact and application-focused
For those who want their research to be decision-relevant and have the greatest impact.
A CASE STUDY: Zuzana Sperlova
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Zuzana Sperlova worked in engineering and consulting before deciding that they were aiming to have an even higher impact with their career, specifically aimed at improving farmed animal welfare. Through the program they published several reports on neglected animal welfare issues and have now transitioned into a position as a researcher at an animal advocacy organization.
A program run in collaboration with Giving What We Can, aimed specifically at launching effective giving initiatives to generate and direct millions in donations to the world’s most cost-effective charities.
What you get
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2-month full-time training with 2 weeks in-person in London.
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Stipend of £1900/month.
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A pool of highly talented potential co-founders to match with.
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~$100,000 in unrestricted seed funding.
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Administrative and operational and assistance.
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Connections and opportunities within the existing Effective Giving Ecosystem, including mentorship from Giving What We Can.
Potential good fit for
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Networkers/ community builders
People who love talking about the charity world and inspiring others. -
Impartial, open-minded
Individuals who focus on the latest evidence about the most impactful giving opportunities worldwide. -
Earning to givers
Those wanting to increase their impact by using their in-country connections.
A CASE STUDY: Effective Giving Organizations
This is a new program so we don't have a case of a direct graduate but other charitable organizations such as Giving What We Can and Effektiv Spenden were the original inspiration for this idea, both moving over $40M of donations to effective charities. Both are built around the idea that many people would donate to more effective charities if they knew about them.
STEP 3: EXPLORE FURTHER
Never before have we been able to provide so much support for launching high-impact careers and initiatives. This is available through our career programs but we also provide other avenues for those looking at multiple career paths or who want to explore in a less intense way.
Our books - How To Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit and How To Launch a High-Impact Foundation are publicly available on Amazon and cover many of the most important concepts in those fields.
AIM job board - that features jobs from impact-focused organizations who have graduated from one of our programs. We are also able to recommend candidates and in some cases financially support internships for people who apply for our programs but are a better fit to work with one of these organizations.
OUR VALUES
AIM program participants, funders and staff share a set values that are at the very core of our work:
Ambitious altruism: We strive to maximize impact and aim high in our pursuit of making the world a better place. We are results oriented, with a high level of integrity and commitment to these results in pursuit of making the world a better place.
Modest prioritization: Some ways of doing good are much better than others, but at the same time we acknowledge there is a high amount of moral and epistemic uncertainty, so we leverage many strategies and perspectives to maximize impact across a wide range of common views.
Rigorous evaluation: We rigorously prioritize evidence-based decision-making and critical evaluation of our projects. If a project does not meet our stringent effectiveness criteria, we do not hesitate to shut it down and reallocate our resources more effectively.
Collaborative ecosystem: Our focus is on the total impact achieved in the world over individual achievements, fostering collaboration and supporting the entire ecosystem for outcomes greater than the sum of its parts.
SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER
If you’re interested in our programs the best first step is to sign up for our newsletter, as that will keep you updated about all our resources and application openings.