Hi! I’m a 22 year old with a Bachelor’s in English with software experience. I have a lot of free time on my hands due to living very frugally.
I’m currently interested in starting up an EA non-profit. I would prefer to help people in impoverished countries because the per-dollar impact would be higher. That said, I don’t want to leave my home state and know very little about international development. As such, most of my ideas pertain to the area I live in—such as encouraging people to go car-free to fight climate change or finding more effective ways to help homeless people. I’m curious if you have any thoughts about this.
Additionally, even if I don’t start my own non-profit, I’m looking to get more experience in the EA and non-profit space. I’ve considered applying to volunteer for an EA organization such as Shrimp Welfare Project, but I’m concerned that if the organization is more than like twenty people, my work will be narrow and repetitive, making it not a particularly helpful learning experience.
At this point in my life, I’m looking to get learning opportunities that also have impact and will lead to more opportunities in the EA space. Is this a good idea, is volunteering at a large EA organization a good idea, and how do I find very early stage EA organizations?
A great option if you’re thinking of starting your own non-profit is the Charity Entrepreneurship incubation programme, which will open to applications on 3 August. If you’re not yet set on a particular idea, they can help you work through that, along with pairing you with a co-founder, and providing various kinds of support. Having a look through their charities will give you a sense of the kinds of ideas people have pursued; not all are in LMICs, and many of the founders didn’t have experience in international development before starting.
Finding the ideal volunteer opportunity can be tricky, but my guess is that even if the work isn’t exactly what you want to be doing in the long term, you’ll likely learn useful things about what makes an organisation successful, what things you like and dislike about organisational culture, and some basic tools and techniques you can take into future work. That said, you might actually be better trying to start a small, low-cost project yourself in the areas you mention above, or even a for-profit enterprise to help you build and demonstrate your skills so that you could start your own non-profit later.
In terms of finding small EA orgs, you can check out the orgs on the Probably Good jobs board. We don’t (yet) have a way to rank them by size, but clicking through and learning a bit about each organisation is probably useful in building your knowledge anyway.
Hi! I’m a 22 year old with a Bachelor’s in English with software experience. I have a lot of free time on my hands due to living very frugally.
I’m currently interested in starting up an EA non-profit. I would prefer to help people in impoverished countries because the per-dollar impact would be higher. That said, I don’t want to leave my home state and know very little about international development. As such, most of my ideas pertain to the area I live in—such as encouraging people to go car-free to fight climate change or finding more effective ways to help homeless people. I’m curious if you have any thoughts about this.
Additionally, even if I don’t start my own non-profit, I’m looking to get more experience in the EA and non-profit space. I’ve considered applying to volunteer for an EA organization such as Shrimp Welfare Project, but I’m concerned that if the organization is more than like twenty people, my work will be narrow and repetitive, making it not a particularly helpful learning experience.
At this point in my life, I’m looking to get learning opportunities that also have impact and will lead to more opportunities in the EA space. Is this a good idea, is volunteering at a large EA organization a good idea, and how do I find very early stage EA organizations?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Hi James! Thanks for the question.
A great option if you’re thinking of starting your own non-profit is the Charity Entrepreneurship incubation programme, which will open to applications on 3 August. If you’re not yet set on a particular idea, they can help you work through that, along with pairing you with a co-founder, and providing various kinds of support. Having a look through their charities will give you a sense of the kinds of ideas people have pursued; not all are in LMICs, and many of the founders didn’t have experience in international development before starting.
Finding the ideal volunteer opportunity can be tricky, but my guess is that even if the work isn’t exactly what you want to be doing in the long term, you’ll likely learn useful things about what makes an organisation successful, what things you like and dislike about organisational culture, and some basic tools and techniques you can take into future work. That said, you might actually be better trying to start a small, low-cost project yourself in the areas you mention above, or even a for-profit enterprise to help you build and demonstrate your skills so that you could start your own non-profit later.
In terms of finding small EA orgs, you can check out the orgs on the Probably Good jobs board. We don’t (yet) have a way to rank them by size, but clicking through and learning a bit about each organisation is probably useful in building your knowledge anyway.
Could you say more about why you want to start a nonprofit? The way you describe your situation, you might consider earning to give.