Deadline:
October 04, 2024
Location(s)
Online United Kingdom
London
Overview
Each year, Charity Entrepreneurship dedicates hundreds of research hours to identifying the most effective charity ideas. Prepare to start an effective charity with our two-month online program. It’s a full-time, cost-covered, intensive training designed by founders for founders.
Start a high-impact charity with our evidence-based ideas, expert training, and funding up to $200,000.
Details
Our instructors will guide you through the most important decisions and help you with the best charity and co-founder match.
Explore the critical components of evidence-based charities. Learn prioritization, impact analysis, cost-effectiveness, gathering support, management, and fundraising in real-world partner projects. Gain clarity, build your confidence, and network.
WHY START A CHARITY
- HAVE A HUGE IMPACT - Directly save and improve lives at scale. We estimated the average alumni’s impact as equivalent to donating $200,000/yr to effective charities.
- BUILD CAREER CAPITAL - Gain the invaluable hands-on experience of becoming an entrepreneur and hone your team and management skills on a high-impact project.
- DO GOOD BETTER - Move resources and attention towards important problems and demonstrate the potential of cost-effective and evidence-based interventions.
HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: APPLY TO THE PROGRAM
Upcoming programs:
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February-March 2025
Both will take eight weeks and run online with one to two weeks in person in the CE headquarters in London. Participants will be required to commit eight+ hours a day.
You can apply with one of two goals:
- To start one of our top charity ideas (highly encouraged).
- To develop and launch your own nonprofit idea, if it looks as, or even more, promising to our team.
Our application process is designed to help you decide if charity entrepreneurship is right for you. It’s always possible that you might have an even more impactful career option. We’re most interested in your values, your work ethic, and your potential for success. We’ve become very good at spotting diamonds, and we won’t waste your time.
STEP 2: PREPARE FOR THE PROGRAM
If you’re accepted, we’ll provide background reading and host casual weekly meetups beginning 1-2 months before kickoff. That way, you can learn the theory at your own pace and start to meet your fellow budding founders.
STEP 3: TWO-MONTH INTENSIVE TRAINING
Our training is divided into two stages:
- Month 1 is all about matching with a co-founder and a charity idea. You will spend most of your time working with project partners on practical challenges. Explore different working styles and test compatibility, values, and epistemics. Deeply engage in a variety of real-world tasks and charity ideas.
- Month 2 is about working with your new partner to build your charity: early pilots, monitoring and evaluation strategy, and even your brand. Together, you will craft and submit a real proposal for funding and get ready to launch. We don’t just teach you about starting a charity, we make sure you have the tools and confidence to actually do it.
STEP 4: CHARITY SELECTION
Our Board of Directors and network of funders evaluate the teams and their project proposals. They then award seed funding to launch successful projects, with grants ranging from $100,000 to $200,000. In recent years all projects have been funded, within a few weeks.
If you don’t seek or receive start-up funding, our track record for connecting non-founder participants to research grants, related jobs, and other pathways to impact is near 100%. (Moreover, we are able to offer stipends to the few participants who do not immediately find a new opportunity).
STEP 5: ONGOING SUPPORT
After launching, you will continue to receive ongoing operational support, one-on-one mentorship, and access to a powerful worldwide network of experts, funders, and skilled employees. We continue to evaluate your measurable impact over time, coaching you and championing your success.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
If you’re ambitiously altruistic, want to work in the charity sector, and are interested in building a skillset and network that you can use for the rest of your life, charity entrepreneurship might be more attainable than you think.
Credentials are less important in entrepreneurship than in other fields. When selecting candidates, we're far more interested in what skills and knowledge you can demonstrate than in your academic history. For example, completing a self-directed project is an excellent indicator that you are a good fit for charity entrepreneurship, as the ability to take initiative and work independently is absolutely necessary for the career. Generally, some useful skills and educational background knowledge include management (particularly nonprofit management), statistics, study design, monitoring and evaluation, ethics, accounting, writing for public audiences, and marketing. Most importantly, you don’t need to have prior experience in starting a charity. That’s what the program is for.
Of course, project and professional experience is helpful, but it’s not necessary. Many of the leading charities in the Effective Altruism movement were started by people with little or no prior experience in the field (e.g., GiveWell, the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Against Malaria Foundation, etc.).
Entrepreneurial and organizational experience can be useful. However, working in large organizations often gives you a limited range of experience as you work within a single department, whereas starting a charity requires a broad range of activities. Experience in managing individual or team projects (including discussion groups, conferences, papers, and fundraisers) will serve you well.
While broad experience is not mandatory, we often receive and accept applications from seasoned experts and managers.
Dates
Deadline: October 04, 2024
Cost/funding for participants
All costs are covered. This includes travel, accommodation (when in person), tuition, materials, and a modest living stipend (i.e., cash to cover living costs) if you need it. We provide stipends for those who need financial assistance because the program requires a full-time commitment for two months.
If you have higher expenses due to special circumstances, you may qualify for additional financial assistance. Please apply as usual, and if you are accepted into the next round, we will discuss any special arrangements that might be necessary.
BENEFITS
- Get access to CE’s 400-page Handbook on starting a charity and over 100 video lectures prepared by experienced founders. Master the fundamental principles of managing high-impact organizations, including:
- Cost-effectiveness
- Analysis
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Fundraising and Operations
- Strategic
- Decision-making
- Work 8 hours a day developing relevant skills in real-world partner projects
- Learn from the best: Hear from experts who have excelled in the nonprofit world as they share their perspectives on entrepreneurship, give advice, and provide valuable feedback.
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Participate in a streamlined co-founder and charity idea selection process by:
- Providing weekly feedback on your project partners and preferred ideas
- Meeting with senior staff members for 1:1 mentoring
- Enjoying individual social calls with all potential co-founders
- Having constant access to a highly-qualified research team
- Joining a network of previous founders that are happy to share experience and advice
- Getting final pairing advice from senior staff members to help you find the best fit.
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Graduate from the program with:
- A co-founder
- A high-quality charity idea and plan for implementation
- A robust funding proposal
- A seed grant (not guaranteed for everyone, but on average, at least 50% of co-founder pairings receive funding).
And the confidence, network, and commitment to launch.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
