Moral ambition can seem like it’s all about big moves: passing laws, founding NGOs, or reshaping careers.

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But amidst these attention-grabbing headlines, there’s a quieter force at work: the simple act of gathering. And while it may not sound revolutionary, history shows us that change often starts in small rooms, with nothing more than people meeting and ideas being shared together.

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In 1980, Candace Lightner lost her 13-year-old daughter to a drunk driver. Then, at her kitchen table in Fair Oaks, California, she gathered a few friends to take action.

From that small circle grew Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Within three years it had more than 400 local chapters and over 2 million members. Through persistent campaigning, MADD helped pass laws in Congress that lowered the national blood alcohol limit from 0.10 to 0.08, pushed for ignition-interlock devices, and drove a cultural shift around drinking and driving. Since then, alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States have fallen by more than 50%, saving an estimated 400,000 lives.

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The lesson here? Big change often starts small. That’s why we created Member Meetups: the next step in building a truly global movement. These gatherings are how moral ambition spreads — events by the community, for the community, where ideas turn into action.
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Empowering our community

Our community has grown rapidly: thousands of members, dozens of countries, and new people joining every week.

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In short, our community is outgrowing our team. We can’t be in Helsinki, London, New York, Mumbai, and Kigali all at once. And yet, members keep reaching out with a simple but powerful question:

“Can I host my own meetup for members of the moral ambition community?” 
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For us, this is a no-brainer. One small gathering can connect a policy-driven activist with a brilliant coder, and together they design a new tool to cut carbon emissions. One evening of conversation can lead to the formation of three new Circles, each with 6–8 people starting to explore how they can start tackling urgent problems like climate change, global health, or failing democracies. One connection can inspire someone to switch careers entirely, dedicating their life to solving one of the biggest challenges of our time.

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These events don’t need us to direct them: the initiative, ownership, and energy come directly from the community. We will support — by publishing a Member Meetup Guidebook and posting events on our platform — but our community members are already proving they can create impactful gatherings on their own.
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Blasting Unstoppable

For Merja Turpeinen, a sustainability communications expert from Finland, hosting a Member Meetup was never just about an event. 

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Merja was channeling a feeling that had been building inside her for years: a collapsing worldview, overwhelmed by everything happening around her. 

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“Oh my god, doesn’t anyone see what’s happening here?” she recalls. 

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Merja started by simply reaching out to others, building a network of people who shared her feeling of being overwhelmed. Then, she joined a Moral Ambition Circle, which gave her even more: for the first time she met people who carried the same urgency and determination to leave the world better than they found it.
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"I never felt so connected, so united in my struggle to take action."

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Organizing a larger gathering for the moral ambition community in Helsinki felt like the natural next step for Merja and the others in her Circle. “There must be so many people who feel something should be done, but don’t know where to start,” she told us. “When you’re alone it’s difficult, but bringing people together makes it easier to begin.”

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The night itself exceeded all expectations. The meetup was fully booked in no time, every seat filled, and every conversation buzzing with energy. For Merja, the real success wasn’t the smooth program or the innovative touches, it was the feeling in the room. “I had never felt so connected, so united in my struggle to take action,” she reflects.

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The impact was also tangible: during the meetup itself groups began laying the foundations for their own Circles. Within days, new Moral Ambition Circles were already starting in other Finnish cities. What began as one evening of connection has grown into a national network of people ready to carry the flame further.

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Merja reflects: “Looking around that night, seeing people light up and realize they’re not alone… and then watching them take the first concrete steps towards new circles, that was incredibly exciting. I went home blasting Unstoppable by Sia.”

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Cross-pollination

Meanwhile in London, Sahil Shah was trying a different approach. Sahil is the co-founder of Tipping Frontier and Say No to Disinfo, and had already started his own Moral Ambition Circle. Still, he was missing something: a sense of connection with the broader movement.

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That’s why he started gathering. At first it was small: intimate meetups of ten to twelve people from two different Circles. “I called it cross-pollination,” Sahil laughs. “Getting people out of their silos to see and support what others are working on.” If someone in one Circle cared deeply about climate change and someone in another shared that passion, he wanted them in the same room to inspire direct action. These early meetups became lively networking hubs, sparking new collaborations.
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"It was an experiment, but the energy in the groups was amazing."‍

The positive response encouraged him to grow. At the third meetup, open to anyone in the London community, around 25 people joined. To give the event more structure, Sahil introduced breakout groups around themes such as climate change, AI safety, and global inequality. Participants self-selected into the topics that mattered to them, leading to focused and practical exchanges. “It was an experiment,” Sahil says, “but the energy in the groups was amazing.”

One of the most exciting outcomes of the larger event was the creation of an entirely new Circle. In the course of the meetup’s subgroup discussions, a cluster of attendees interested in tackling economic inequality found each other. They hit it off so well that they decided to form a dedicated wealth inequality Circle then and there. Sahil is now advising this newly formed group, helping suggest tractable project ideas in the inequality space and sharing lessons from his own experience.

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‍When missions align

The stories of Merja’s and Sahil’s events show the same truth: when people come together around a shared mission, impact follows. Circles grow, new initiatives begin, and people leave feeling less alone and more energized to act.

They could not have done this alone. In Helsinki, Merja and her team hosted the event at the House of Science and Hope. The venue’s mission of environmental and social progress aligned perfectly with the meetup’s goals, so they were thrilled to host the gathering at no cost. For catering, instead of traditional coffee and sandwiches, they partnered with a startup called ResQ Club. Through the ResQ app, attendees could pick up surplus meals from local restaurants on their way to the event — meals that would otherwise have gone to waste. In effect, everyone’s dinner that evening was a rescued one. “It was such a perfect fit,” Merja recalled with a smile.

In London, Sahil partnered with the London Interdisciplinary School, a new university built on the belief that the world’s toughest problems cannot be solved by one discipline alone. Its focus on collaboration across arts, sciences, and humanities made it the perfect backdrop for a meetup where people were cross-pollinating ideas and projects. “Forget Classics,” one recent article about the university noted, “these students are studying to save the world.”

These choices are not incidental: when you seek out organizations that share your mission, you don’t just find a venue. You find partners in purpose.
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Introducing: Member Meetups

The challenges we face — from climate collapse to rising inequality and threats to democracy — are too big for any single government or organization. But imagine thousands of motivated people, across the world, each creating spaces where changemakers can connect and act. That’s the vision behind Member Meetups: small gatherings with the potential for massive impact.

To make this real, we’re building infrastructure that empowers members to lead. Starting with the new Member Meetup Guidebook: a resource that offers practical steps on choosing a venue, shaping an agenda, and linking your event back into the wider movement. It also shares stories from pioneers like Merja and Sahil, so no one has to start from scratch.

The invitation is simple: start gathering. Whether it’s ten people in a café or fifty in a community hall, what matters is getting started. Each gathering expands the movement’s reach — and together, they’re how moral ambition begins to move on its own.
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Want to host a Member Meetup in your own city?

Start by sharing your interest with us. The Member Meetup Guidebook is available to everyone in Module 3 of the Circle Program. If you are ready to organize your own meetup, we’ll post and share your event as long as you meet a few simple criteria — like showing affinity with moral ambition (for example, through the Circle Program).

To help organizers further, we’re proud to partner with The Social Hub, whose mission to create spaces for meaningful connection and positive change is fully aligned with ours. They generously agreed to share their locations across Europe, making it possible for our community members to come together, share ideas, and shape a better world.