What happens if you decide to start a charity? | Karolina Sarek & Nikita Patel

Karolina introduces Charity Entrepreneurship (CE), an organization dedicated to helping found and mentor new effective charities. Learn about the nonprofits CE has launched through its annual Incubation Program, and about the process of starting up and growing. Hear stories about the challenges and successes that a typical charity entrepreneur could face. Finally, discover how you can start your own career as a charity entrepreneur through the 2021 Program.

Karolina is co-founder and Director of Research at Charity Entrepreneurship. There, she creates a research agenda and processes and leads the research team, aiming to find and compare the most evidence-based, cost-effective and neglected interventions in multiple cause areas. She also serves as a Fund Manager at the EA Animal Welfare Fund, and as a board member and consultant for various nonprofits and think tanks. Before Charity Entrepreneurship, she co-founded an organization to improve the impact of nonprofits and social enterprises; worked on measurement and evaluation; and was a researcher for IBM and the Jagiellonian University (JU). At the age of 22, she became a university teaching fellow, lecturing at JU’s Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Nikita discusses the reasons she and her co-founder decided to start a flour fortification charity in India. She describes an ‘average’ day in a charity start-up and explains some of the highlights and challenges she has faced personally, as well as organisationally, during her time starting a charity.

Nikita is the CEO and co-founder of Fortify Health. She previously worked in global health communications at Malaria Consortium.  She’s also worked as Research & Outreach Intern at the Centre for Effective Altruism, and Project Manager at Voenna Rampa Refugee Camp in Bulgaria. She graduated from University of Oxford with a BA in French and German, and is interested in animal welfare, mental health and tackling modern slavery. She enjoys cooking, language-learning, hiking and cycling.

Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.