Can you be a leader of an organization and publically share your personal views? Ami Dar, Executive Director of Idealist.org, is currently threading that needle after going viral for his commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Driven by a long-held desire to create positive change and inspired by the possibilities of the nascent web, Ami Dar launched Idealist.org in 1995 to bring together nonprofits and social impact professionals to maximize their potential to do good.

Over the last thirty years, Idealist.org has grown from a directory of links to become an essential resource for social impact professionals and 150,000 nonprofit organizations worldwide.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

How Ami’s multinational childhood and experiences in the Israeli army drove his desire to create change
How his post-military travel and the dawn of the internet inspired the eventual creation of Idealist.org
Why Ami says it’s vital for leaders to recognize mistakes, learn from them, and course-correct
How going viral surprised him and why he says that commenting on the Israel-Palestine war wasn’t a choice
How Ami sees Idealist Days as bridging the gap between connecting online and connecting with your community to make a real-life difference
Why saying yes and getting started, even imperfectly, is how we make change

Learn more about Ami Dar:

Idealist.org
X: @amidar
Watch Ami’s appearance on TED, "An Israeli and a Palestinian Talk Peace, Dignity and Safety"

Learn more about Mary Knox Miller:

It’s not so complicated: The Jobs To Be Done framework