Great programme! 👏🏽
6
Impact Accelerator Program: Biggest career program for experienced professionals
Project summary
The Impact Accelerator Program (IAP) is a 6-week virtual program that harnesses the strength of peer support and a systematic approach to envisioning and acting on pathways to high impact. So far, 16 participants (out of 49) have transitioned into high impact careers, including joining CE and roles in AI Safety. This is due to the high action focus of the IAP.
What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?
Through the IAP we support experienced professionals to use their career to generate high impact. This can be done via a mix of using their skills, money, and network.
The four main pillars of the IAP are:
1) Program content: weekly readings and actions via the IAP workbook and extracurricular sessions
2) Cohort sessions: weekly action-oriented discussions
3) global network: creating networking opportunities for participants from around the world
4) Post-program support: 2 additional cohort sessions followed by monthly alumni sessions
How will this funding be used?
The funding is used to cover staff costs for one round of the IAP, including outreach and vetting to get amazing participants, running the IAP sessions, and making sure the entire program runs smoothly. Additionally, we use this to cover relevant software costs for the IAP.
Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?
Nina Friedrich is HIP's Executive Director
Clark Wisenbaker is HIP's Director of Operations
We are currently running the third round of the IAP. For the already completed rounds of the IAP:
16 participants (out of 49) have transitioned into high impact careers, including joining Charity Entrepreneurship and roles in AI Safety
additional 16 participants (out of 49) are taking concrete actions towards a high impact career, including volunteering roles at high impact organizations
many participants are donating a meaningful percentage of their annual salary to effective charities, with several having taken the 🔶 10% Pledge or 🔷 Trial Pledge.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?
The most likely reason for this project's failure would be a lack of sufficient funding or resources beyond February 2025, limiting our ability to operate and scale effectively. Another risk is not attracting enough high-quality applicants to the program or participants not transitioning into high-impact careers. Although we track both metrics closely and have seen promising results so far, a decline in either could affect our impact.
What other funding are you or your project getting?
HIP has previously been supported by Open Philanthropy, Charity Entrepreneurship's Seed Funding, and EA Funds, as well as other individual donors and supporters. If the current low level of expenses are maintained, we have enough funding to continue operations until February 2025.
donated $50
Neel Nanda
4 months ago
16 out of 49 participants doing high-impact jobs seems extremely impressive (though unclear how much I'd agree with your definition of "high-impact"!) - I'd love to clarify what exactly you mean by that
Nina Friedrich
4 months ago
@NeelNanda Thank you for your support. I look forward to discussing this in more detail with you soon!
donated $20
🥦
Tony Gao
4 months ago
It seems to me that more people want to work in high impact roles than such roles are available. In the same way that you wouldn't want to donate to a charity with more money than it knows what to do with, isn't the high impact job market also overfunded at the moment? If so, isn't this project subsidizing the production of a good which is already in too high supply?
Nina Friedrich
4 months ago
Thank you for raising this point, @TonyGao. While the high-impact job market might seem oversaturated, our experience shows that organizations, especially when hiring mid-career and senior talent, still face challenges in finding truly exceptional candidates. Often, the top candidate is significantly stronger than the next, which makes programs like ours—focused on experienced professionals—crucial.
Additionally, we don’t restrict our focus to roles within existing high-impact organizations. Instead, we encourage participants to explore a broad range of impactful paths, including founding their own high-impact organizations, advising others, joining boards, or Founding to Give. This approach ensures that talent isn’t just competing for current roles but is also creating new opportunities for impact.
donated $100
Kevin Xia
4 months ago
The numbers from the previous programs look extremely promising and I trust the team's ability to even improve upon them.
Nina Friedrich
4 months ago
@KevinXia Thank you! So far we've improved our Impact Accelerator Program after every round - thanks to the great feedback from our participants and facilitators - which will hopefully lead to even more high impact career changes going forward! 🤞
donated $10
donated $100