​Building a nonprofit from the ground up is a lot of work. It can be difficult to know what tools and services are tried-and-true vs. a waste of your valuable time. We’ve asked a few of our incubated charities for their honest opinions about our favorites and come up with a list that should get you off the ground.  Of course, there are solid alternatives for all these tools. You might have different preferences, but these are ours as of October 2021. Since start-ups operate a little differently than larger businesses, we prioritize affordability, ease of use, and effectiveness. And, we ..read more

​2021 was the third year that we at Charity Entrepreneurship held our annual Incubation Program. Interest in the program was very high, with over 2000 applications submitted. 27 participants representing 16 countries graduated from the 2-month intensive training program, including teams that will start new organizations, individuals that are being hired by high-impact organizations, regional groups that will conduct research under our mentorship, and a foundation that will focus on providing grants to high-impact interventions. We are delighted to announce the launch of five new charities a ..read more

​ ​It's highly valuable for an organization to clearly and transparently specify its cause area preferences, and although Charity Entrepreneurship has written considerably about our process of intervention selection, we have not done so for our cause area selection process. CE is a unique organization in that it benefits quite significantly from rotating through cause areas over time. The number of talented founders and promising new charity ideas in any given cause area is limited. So, focusing on multiple cause areas over the years has allowed significantly more charities to be founded than ..read more

​? Goodbye post-its and task lists in Google Sheets. A task management app can help you take your charity startup to the next level. Asana is a great choice for your nonprofit, as we point out in our article on productivity. You even get a steep discount as an organization within the effective altruist (EA) movement (through the EA Hub). Well-known competitors include Monday, Clickup, Notion, and Trello.  Trello is the most restricted in terms of features, not going far beyond a Canva board for tasks. We therefore do not recommend it. Monday is a close competitor to Asana. It is a bit ..read more

​The importance of an excellent charity pitch cannot be overstated. It’s crucial for communicating your charity idea to stakeholders (eg., a donor, potential partner, politician, mentor, etc.), and could be the difference between getting a pivotal donation or coming away empty-handed. The gravity of pitches is appreciated in the for-profit entrepreneurship world, and should be taken just as seriously by charity entrepreneurs. This article will focus on 1-3 minute pitches. Starting with a hook In our experience, charity entrepreneurs’ pitches are often most compelling during their first minut ..read more

This year our Incubation Program attracted over 2,000 applications. We are very grateful to all the applicants for their interest and time. We accepted 30 participants representing 17 countries. We have 21 participants in our core program, 6 individuals who will do region-specific research under our mentorship, and 3 who have just started their own high-impact startups/foundations. You can meet them through our video: ​A huge thank you to our volunteers Taylor Jones and Laura Tresch for producing the video. JOIN INCUBATION PROGRAM IN 2022 If you're interested in joining our Incubation Prog ..read more

Each year, Charity Entrepreneurship gets several thousand applications for its annual incubation program. Other than the simple logistical fact of not being able to incubate that number of people, we think it's fairly uncommon for someone to be a great fit for the CE program and for founding a charity in general. Overall we are very interested in charities that have the potential to be among the most evidence-based and cost-effective in their field, and encourage founders to set this as their goal. Summary Unfortunately, giving personal feedback to every candidate is not viable for an organi ..read more

​Last month the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its Action Plan for Animal Welfare. So what are its core policies, and what will they mean for farmed animals? In this blogpost, we discuss achievements and areas of improvement, and set out the proposed policies. Overview The Action Plan covers farmed, wild, and companion animals. Its goals span more local welfare concerns, such as a commitment to crack down on the bloodsport of hare coursing; and international issues, such as through lobbying for the WTO to consider animal welfare in trade discussions ..read more

We often tell the tale of the gritty founder: the one who persisted in the face of incredible hardship. Grit comes up in a number of books and is consistently mentioned as a core trait for great entrepreneurs. You might say the proselytizers of grit have exemplified the trait in their consistency of its use.  Grit is undoubtedly important. All founders will face challenges regardless of the strength of their project. Even the best projects I’ve known were at points held together with duct tape and super glue. However, persisting through hardship takes its toll. The v ..read more

​Arthur felt the smoke first; it stung his eyes and filled his lungs. As he turned the corner the sight of the house on fire lit up the night. He could see bright flames through the windows and black smoke billowing from cracks in the walls. Hearing a scream from inside the house, Arthur did not think. No one else was around and he knew he had to help.  Few people have saved someone's life. Those who have, say it’s a profound and surreal experience to think that a person would not be alive if not for your actions. And the impact does not stop at the person you save. Their parents, frien ..read more