High Impact Professionals (HIP) has already driven at least 20 career transitions and inspired 20 effective giving pledges in 2024 alone, generating over $1 million in counterfactual impact. To sustain this work, HIP requires a minimum budget of $136,000 for an additional year of operations; however, a preferred baseline budget of $191,000 will enable HIP to expand its work and impact. Our current runway extends to February 2025. With your support, we can continue empowering experienced professionals to make high-impact career changes across diverse causes. Contact us or make a donation here.
2024 Achievements & Impact
In 2024, HIP has achieved the following:
- At least 20 career transitions: Through the Impact Accelerator Program (IAP) and Talent Directory (TD), HIP guided experienced professionals into high-impact roles.
- 20 pledges inspired: HIP motivated 9 lifetime 🔸10% Pledges and 11 🔹Trial Pledges, fostering a culture of effective giving.
- Over $1 million in estimated counterfactual impact: This includes counterfactual impact created by high-impact career transitions and pledges through the IAP, TD, and HIP Pledge Partnership.
Goals for 2025 & Beyond
In 2025, HIP aims to achieve:
- 50 career transitions: We expect to achieve 35 high impact career transitions in 2025 on the minimum budget; but, we want to get this up to 50 via the baseline budget, which will enable us to expand the amount of experienced professionals going through the IAP and increase the use of the TD.
- Increased awareness and participation in effective giving: We plan to continue promoting the HIP Pledge Partnership, expecting 20 new pledges in 2025.
To sustain and expand HIP’s impact, funding is required beyond our current runway, which extends to February 2025.
Case Studies
HIP’s programs have led to significant high-impact career transitions. Here are a few examples:
- AI Safety Career Transition: After a three-year break from AI Safety to focus on meditation, this participant joined HIP’s Impact Accelerator Program (IAP). Through IAP, they regained motivation and clarity about their career path, ultimately securing a contractor role with the Utah Office of AI Policy to address AI risk forecasting and scenario planning - an area the Office had not previously planned to explore. The participant noted that “Utah may be the earliest conservative state to release AI regulation, and other conservative states may follow our lead.” They attributed HIP’s support as pivotal in clarifying their goals and relaunching their job search. Since then, they have co-founded Eleos AI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems.
- Hiring at Family Empowerment Media (FEM): Family Empowerment Media cited HIP’s Talent Directory as their top source of “high-quality candidates.” The TD provided 30% of the organization’s final-stage hires for an operations hiring round, underscoring HIP’s role in connecting impactful organizations with experienced professionals. In particular, two of their staff were hired through the TD.
Funding Priorities
HIP currently has a runway through February 2025 and requires further funding to sustain and grow its impact:
- Minimum Budget: $136,000 for 12 months to support HIP’s ongoing operations at the current organization size (Executive Director & Director of Operations).
- Baseline Budget: $191,000 for 12 months to add a Director of Programs after six months.
- Maximum Budget: $232,000 for 12 months to add a Director of Programs for the full 12 months, significantly enhancing HIP’s capacity.
Why Support HIP?
Supporting HIP contributes to a future where experienced professionals across diverse sectors and cause areas can maximize their impact. HIP’s track record demonstrates its success in guiding seasoned professionals into impactful roles, inspiring effective giving pledges, and creating significant counterfactual impact through programs like the IAP and TD. With additional funding, HIP can scale these proven programs, expand resources for high-impact career transitions, and continue connecting skilled professionals to opportunities that drive meaningful, sustainable change. This unique approach fills a critical gap in the EA ecosystem, leveraging the skills, networks, and influence of experienced professionals to create high positive impact across causes.
How to Support HIP?
You can help HIP empower experienced professionals to drive social change by:
- Making a donation through our donation page to directly support our programs.
- Contacting Nina Friedrich ([email protected]) if you have further questions on HIP’s programs, impact, or funding needs.
Together, we can continue to unlock the potential of skilled professionals to maximize their positive impact across a range of causes.
Can you write some more about HIP's impact before 2024? How many pledges and career transitions have you had since starting HIP?
Thank you for your question. Since its inception, HIP has been dedicated to finding the most effective ways to maximize impact by empowering working professionals. Our journey started with a focus on corporate fundraising, but after trialing various strategies and gathering insights, we found that on the margin, talent holds the most transformative potential today. Through an iterative approach—testing hypotheses and refining our programs—we uncovered that connecting skilled professionals with high-impact roles offered the greatest leverage.
This led us to launch two new initiatives in 2023: the Impact Accelerator Program (IAP) and the Talent Directory (TD). Designed to channel skilled professionals toward high-impact roles, these programs tested our hypothesis that talent transitions could yield substantial, lasting impact.
The results have been exciting. In 2023, our pilot round of the IAP helped facilitate 5 career transitions, and we saw the potential to scale. This year, we expanded significantly - starting with around 20 people in IAP 1 and growing 6.5x to reach approximately 130 participants in 2024, including the 50 current IAP 4 participants whose career transitions will contribute to our impact for the year. Each round has built upon the last, with constant improvements aimed at supporting professionals in impactful career transitions. One of those improvements is the addition of the Pledge Partnership, which we started in July 2024.
Our TD has also shown promising growth. So far, we know of 12 confirmed hires through the TD, though we expect the actual number may be higher as not all participants report back. We anticipate that as awareness of the TD grows, so too will the number of successful placements, with potential for even greater impact as more organizations and professionals become engaged.
Our vision for 2025 is to continue scaling the IAP and TD, reaching more professionals, inspiring more transitions, and expanding our pledge community.