Benjamin Todd

She thought that joining Leap would help build her career capital, especially her skills and connections, and more importantly, that lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries is an important, solvable, and highly neglected problem.

Since joining, Claire has developed Leap's programs and managed the team implementing them, as well as led the hiring for crucial new staff.

Leap has since started working with governments and industry in 16 countries, and has successfully advocated for the government in Malawi to monitor levels of lead in paints.

These organisations don't even need to be non-profits.

Some social impact projects are better structured as businesses, and could also include think tanks, research groups, advocacy groups, and so on.

For instance, SendWave enables African migrant workers to transfer money to their families through a mobile app for fees of 3%, rather than 10% fees with Western Union.

So for every $1 of revenue they make, they make some of the poorest people in the world several dollars richer.

Within three years, they'd already had an impact equivalent to donating millions of dollars, and they've grown even more since then.

The total size of the market is hundreds of billions of dollars, several times larger than all foreign aid spending.

If they can continue to slightly accelerate the rollout of cheaper ways to transfer money, it'll have a big impact.

Organization-building careers are a good fit for people who can develop skills in areas like operations, people management, fundraising, administration, software systems, and finance.

Pursuing this path usually means first focusing on building some of these skills, which can be done at any competent organization, and then later on using them to contribute to the organizations you think are most impactful.

To find impactful organizations, think about which problems you think are most pressing, and then try to identify the best organizations addressing those problems.

In our problem profiles, we list recommended organizations to give you some ideas.

Finally, try to identify those that have a pressing need for your skills and a role that might be a great fit for you.

What if you want to found an organization?

One mistake people make is trying to work out which organizations should be founded from their armchair or by choosing an issue that they've happened to come across in their own lives.

Instead, go and learn about big, neglected social problems.

Take a job in the area, do further study, and speak to lots of people working on the problem to find out what the world really needs.

You need to get near the edge of an area before you'll spot the ideas others haven't and have the connections you'll need to execute.