Imagine an alliance of ambitious idealists who believe awareness isn’t enough. Imagine an organization that empowers small groups of pioneers to make a historic difference. Imagine a movement of builders, taking on the world’s most neglected challenges, and persevering until they accomplish their goals.

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“That’s the dream we started with, in the summer of 2023”, writes our co-founder Rutger Bregman. “We agreed that the world needs way more talented people to take on the world’s most pressing problems. To make pandemics history, end factory farming, fight the tobacco industry, safeguard our democracies — and these are just a few examples.”

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In our 2025 Impact Report, we share the latest on how far we’ve come since then.

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You’ll read about our Moral Ambition Fellowships, which received over 1,400 applications in just two years and are already starting to transform careers and impact fields. You’ll learn how we’ve built a global community of over 20,000 ambitious idealists, all coming together to find ways to amplify their impact. But, you’ll also hear about the tough lessons we’ve learned along the way, including challenges related to our pitch, expansion, and the current political climate.

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Read the full 2025 Impact Report, or continue reading for a shortened version.
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Transformative fellowships

Our Moral Ambition Fellowships are designed to move talented professionals into fields where they’re urgently needed. We recruit ambitious mid-career professionals, give them the financial security to step away from their old jobs, and embed them in high-impact organizations working on some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

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Learn more: Read our cause area explainers

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So we started with a simple, provocative pitch: “We’ll pay you to quit your job and make a lasting impact.” 

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It struck a nerve. Over two years, more than 1,403 applicants responded to our call, allowing us to be highly selective and place outstanding candidates in tobacco control and the food transition.

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With that level of ambition came a clear responsibility: to deliver a truly transformational experience. 

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Fellows rated the program 6 out of 7. Even more telling, the organizations hosting them rated our fellows an exceptional 9.4 out of 10, reflecting both their professional quality and the value they brought to the field.
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The impact is visible on the ground. During their Food Transition Fellowship, Katrien Martens and Marin Vandamme built unprecedented coalitions around a more sustainable mix of plant-based, animal, and novel proteins. Their work grew into The Protein Project, now expanding in Brussels to influence European food policy by connecting protein transition to economic competitiveness, farmer prosperity, self-sufficiency, and health.

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In tobacco control, Joachim Verheyen testified before Moldova’s Parliament just months into his fellowship, contributing to the passage of stricter tobacco laws. He and fellow alumnus Alexandre Nedeltchev went on to found Impact Unfiltered, a Brussels-based organization pushing for stricter European tobacco regulation. And Erin Roman, drawing on her background in economics, became indispensable at Smoke Free Partnership and was appointed Director in 2025 — one of the most influential roles in European tobacco control.

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Learn more: Meet our Fellows

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Crucially, the impact endures. 16 of the 22 fellows from our first cohort remain active in their new fields, continuing the work long after their fellowship ends. That’s the result we’re after: not one-off placements, but long-term commitments to solving the world’s most urgent problems.

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In September of 2025, the second cohort of European fellows started the program. They will complete the fellowship at the end of March 2026, when we will recruit the next cohort of fellows (including eight candidates for our new global Tax Fairness Fellowship). 

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A global community

Moral ambition takes people finding one another, across borders and backgrounds. 

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In just a short time, we’ve built a global community of 20,000 members in more than 140 countries, united by the belief that our talents and resources should be used for the greater good. Around the world, members are volunteering to host events and bring others together, from New York to Nairobi. 

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The response shows how widely this message resonates. But even more powerful is what happens next: people discover that moral ambition isn’t just for a select few. With the right support and encouragement, many are willing to take meaningful action, even if they don’t upend their entire lives overnight.

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At the heart of this community is the Moral Ambition Circle program. Circles bring together small groups of six to eight people who meet regularly to explore their next step toward greater impact. So far, more than 1,400 participants have joined Circles, starting thoughtful, personal journeys to align their values with their actions.

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Those journeys take many forms. Annemiek Janssens left her job to gain hands-on experience through volunteer roles in East Africa before joining Taimaka, a nonprofit treating malnutrition. Peter Powell, after selling his company, joined a Circle and went on to found the AI for Impact Collective, connecting skilled software developers with morally ambitious organizations.

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For both, the turning point came during a Circle conversation, when peers asked a simple, confronting question:

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What would you do if you truly followed your values?

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Lessons learned

Like any ambitious project, ours has come with important lessons — some learned the hard way.

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Not everyone can or should quit their job 

Early on, we expected more immediate career switches. Instead, we learned that the pressure to “go all in” can overwhelm people who are still exploring their direction. Meaningful change often unfolds in stages: testing ideas, building confidence, and gradually moving toward greater impact. Our updated Circle program now reflects this reality, offering multiple pathways to action and supporting people wherever they are on their journey.

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Read: No, You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job. Here Are 5 Ways You Can Have an Impact.

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Europe and the United States require fundamentally different approaches

While we anticipated some variation, we underestimated just how distinct the ecosystems are; from talent pipelines and job markets to funder expectations and institutional pathways. This insight led us to rethink our U.S. strategy, including the development of university-based fellowships like the Harvard Fellowship, tailored to the realities of the American context.

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Civil society needs support — urgently 

Across regions, civil society organizations are under increasing pressure, which directly affects how easily fellows can continue their work after a program ends. Strengthening these organizations isn’t just about placements; it’s about the health and sustainability of entire fields. Providing talent, continuity, and long-term support is essential if we want durable progress on the world’s most urgent challenges.

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What’s next

The lessons we’ve learned are already shaping what comes next. 

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One clear direction is our work at universities. In late October 2025, we opened applications for the Moral Ambition University Fellowship at Harvard, marking the start of a broader effort to rethink what ambition looks like at the world’s most influential institutions. For decades, places like Harvard have funneled extraordinary talent toward ordinary goals — optimizing for margin more often than meaning. In 2022 alone, 58 percent of graduates entered consulting, finance, or tech. Our fellowship flips that logic. From 121 applicants, 12 Harvard juniors will be selected and receive a $15,000 stipend to spend their summer working on urgent challenges like climate change, inequality, and safe and ethical AI. 

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The premise is simple, but radical: when you pay talented people to do good, they will. Harvard is our proof of concept, and the first step before expanding to other universities.

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Learn more: University Fellowship at Harvard

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Another example is Profit for Good. Following a conference that brought together over 200 business leaders committed to donating up to 100 percent of their profits to effective charities, our co-founder Julia van Boven began exploring the potential of turning this momentum into a standalone movement, together with Peter Singer. In 2026, Profit for Good will spin out as an independent organization, dedicated to redirecting profit where it can do the most good.

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These initiatives reflect a broader shift in how we think about scaling impact. Over the past two years, we’ve seen promising results, but we also recognize that lasting change can’t be built by one organization alone. Increasingly, we see The School as a launchpad: developing proven models and enabling our community of entrepreneurial talent to take them further.

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We believe we’ve laid the foundations for a movement capable of delivering real progress on some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Now, it’s time to build.

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Read the full 2025 Impact Report on our website now, or learn more about how you can support our mission.

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