TLDR: Serious about impact? We help you start a high-impact charity
Are you looking for an opportunity to make a huge difference in the world,improving the lives of millions?
Founding a charity might sound daunting, but it’s more achievable than most people think, especially with the right support. Through our incubation program, we help you launch a new, evidence-backed charity by providing the idea, co-founder matching, funding, and hands-on guidance. And we’ve done it before: we’ve helped 100+ founders launch 50+ organisations tackling some of the world’s biggest problems.
Applications are open until March 22nd - for more information, attend one of our online information sessions or visit our website.
Why found a charity – and why do it with us?
Many people want to have more impact through their careers, but it isn’t always clear what the most effective path is. At Charity Entrepreneurship, we believe founding a charity is one of the most impactful things you can do.
Research has shown something incredible: the best charities are more than 100 times more effective than average ones. At Charity Entrepreneurship, we’re on a mission to launch more of these exceptional, evidence-backed charities — the ones capable of making a truly transformative difference.
We have a proven model. Since 2018, we have helped more than 100 founders launch more than 50 organisations, collectively reaching over 75 million people and improving the lives of more than 1 billion animals, so far.
Within just a few years of launching, our charities have been recognised as some of the very best in the world and supported by many of the biggest funders and most rigorous evaluators of charitable work - from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to USAID, GiveWell, Founders Pledge, Mulago, Open Philanthropy, and Animal Charity Evaluators.
To take one example, the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) was founded through our program in 2021 by Lucia Coulter and Jack Rafferty - a former doctor and former consultant - with just £50,000 in funding. LEEP now operates in more than 35 countries, partnering with governments from Malawi to Pakistan. Their work is projected to protect 46 million children from lead paint exposure over the coming decades.
The world needs more founders to start more of these field-leading non-profits.
We give you: the idea + a co-founder + training + funding + community
Our two-month Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program provides a research-backed, high-impact charity idea, along with the training, funding, and mentorship you need to launch and lead an organisation tackling global inequality and alleviating suffering at scale.
Evidence-based Nonprofit Ideas
Many capable people want to do meaningful, high-impact work but don’t have the time or resources to independently identify the most effective problems to tackle.
Our program is designed specifically for this: instead of expecting applicants to come with a fully formed charity idea, we provide you with a shortlist of rigorously researched, evidence-backed opportunities where new charities could have an outsized impact.
Our research team spends more than 5,000 hours a year identifying new solutions tackling some of the biggest problems in the world - from improving education quality and job opportunities for people living in poverty to reducing environmental pollution, farmed animal welfare and newborn mortality.
Over the past 12 months, our team has delved deeply into the global health, wellbeing, and family planning space to identify gaps where high-impact opportunities lie. We narrowed the field down to six standout opportunities we believe could be especially promising for new charity founders.
CHARITY IDEAS for the September 2026 Cohort:
- Improving population health through advocating for taxes on sugary beverages
- Promoting access to effective pain relief in palliative care in LMICs
- Treating depression with guided digital self-help programs
- Enabling underserved communities’ access to family planning opportunities with mobile clinics
Learn more about these impact opportunities here
Note that while we accept applications for both the September 2026 and February 2027 cohort, these ideas are confirmed for the September 2026 cohort only.
Value-aligned Cofounder
One of the hardest parts of starting a nonprofit isn’t just the work. It’s finding the right person to build with. Founding alone can be isolating and slow. But choosing the wrong co-founder can be even worse: it can drain momentum, create conflict, and derail an otherwise promising idea.
That’s why co-founder matching is a core part of our incubation program. We help connect you with a value-aligned co-founder, someone who shares your commitment to impact and complements your strengths.
Expert-led Training
Nonprofit entrepreneurship is a niche. Starting a nonprofit isn’t a common default career path, which means many people who could become exceptional founders simply don’t know where to begin, what “good” looks like, or how to avoid the mistakes that sink early-stage organisations.
Our program is designed and delivered by people who have founded field-leading, evidence-based charities from scratch, and who have since coached dozens of founders to do the same. You’ll learn directly from practitioners who understand what it takes to go from zero to a functioning, high-impact organisation. We teach you everything you need to know to do the same - from evidence reviews to intervention design to operations - through applied, cohort-based learning.
Funding & Financial Support
Funding for the charity (seed funding)
Early-stage funding is difficult for any venture, and often even more challenging for nonprofits. At the earliest stages, founders’ time and attention are the most precious resources. Fundraising can slow progress and distract from what matters most: launching, building momentum, and validating your impact pathway.
At the end of the incubation program, you’ll pitch for seed funding to our network of aligned funders, who are actively looking to support new, high-impact organisations. More than 85% of our candidates receive seed funding (typically ranging from 100,0000- 150,000 GBP).
Funding for you (founder financial support)
This is a fully funded training program with no fees. Participants receive a stipend of approximately £1,900 per month, with some flexibility for those who may need more (or less) support based on their personal circumstances. We provide this stipend throughout the program, and for up to two months after.
Supportive Community
Founding a charity is exciting — but it can also be lonely, uncertain, and hard to navigate without peers who truly get it.
During the incubation program, you’ll be based in a co-working space at our London office, alongside other founders building new charities. At the same time, many founders in our network are based around the world, so you’ll also be plugged into a global community of people working on similar challenges across time zones and contexts.
You’ll join a group of founders and alumni who have been through the same journey and are eager to share what they’ve learned. Our network genuinely takes pride in helping each other succeed, because for us, increasing impact matters more than who gets the credit.
Who are we looking for?
We encourage anyone with a drive to direct their work to producing real, positive change to apply. There are no mandatory skills or experience - we’ve had founders from every continent, from twenty to mid-fifties, and from almost every type of prior job you can think of. Some of the world’s most successful for-profit founders had no prior experience. Our experience training charity founders suggests the same applies to the non-profit world.
We value candidates who:
- Aspire to lead: You should have the potential to be an effective organizational leader, able to create structure and clarity in the face of uncertainty.
- Think evidence-first: You’re willing to adapt your approach based on evidence and focus on impactful priorities, like global health or animal welfare.
- Strive for excellence: You have a track record of pursuing and achieving outstanding results, aiming to build something exceptional rather than just good.
- Dream big: You’re ambitious about creating large-scale impact and are dedicated to maximizing the good you can do in the world.
- Stay flexible: You’re open to exploring diverse ideas and solutions and are comfortable working in varied contexts, including low- and middle-income countries.
- Are driven by altruism: You’re motivated by doing good for others and have a demonstrated track record of acting on that motivation through your career choices, projects, volunteering, or other impact-oriented work.
Practicalities
Program format
2-month full-time online training with 2 weeks in-person in London (transport and accommodation costs covered
Program Dates
September 2026 cohort: Sep 14 - Nov 4, 2026
February 2027 cohort: Feb - Apr, 2027 (exact dates TBC)
Application Deadline
Applications to our program are open until March 22nd.
APPLY NOWplease note that we only accept applications through the link provide
Want to learn more?
We are hosting a series of online information sessions - about the program, our research, and what it’s like to found your own organisation - that we encourage you to attend to learn more in the run-up to the application deadline.
Not sure if you’re the right fit? The best way to find out is to submit our initial application form, which is designed to help you explore your fit with our program as well as the non-profit entrepreneurship career path.
