Impactfully No. 64: Maximizing every teacher's impact
This week, Ello uses AI to personalize reading instruction, Possible upends the payday loan industry, and The Sunrise Project assembles a global coalition to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Sometimes you come across a company and instantly fall in love with it. That's how I felt this week when I stumbled upon Ello – they're an edtech startup using AI to give kids more one-on-one instruction time.
My mom was a teacher, so this one hits closer to home. One of the challenges of teaching – and there are many – is that you have to teach to the majority, even when you have kids on the periphery who need more personalized attention. There simply isn't enough of you to go around.
Smaller class sizes help, but teacher shortages abound even if school districts wanted to hire more of them. That's part of why I'm excited about what Ello is building – it feels like they're equipping teachers with the tools they need to give kids the time they deserve.
If edtech isn't your thing, you'll find many more social impact job opportunities on offer this week:
Ello is an edtech startup using AI to give personalized reading instruction to kids. They recently closed a round of venture capital funding with some major players in the space, and the team's credentials are seriously impressive. If you want to build something with great people that makes a difference in a child's life, here's your calling.
- Machine Learning Research Engineer – San Francisco, CA
- Senior Creative Growth Hacker – New York, NY
Tides is a philanthropic partner and nonprofit accelerator that helps social change leaders turn their ideas into reality. They support nonprofits in a lot of ways, whether it's grant management, subsidized office space, back office support, and more. Benefits are solid across the board and include an employee assistance program through Concern – if you're not familiar with EAPs, it's like having someone on call to support whatever is going on in your life.
- Data Architect – Remote
- Senior Director, Finance – Remote
- Legal Counsel – Remote
Possible is a lending platform that provides affordable loans to people with bad credit or no credit history. If you're familiar with this industry, companies typically make their money by charging mind-boggling fees to take out a loan. Possible takes a different approach because their whole goal is to help people build better financial health. Their lending philosophy is worth a read – you'll find it on their careers page.
- Senior Data Engineer – Remote
- Software Engineer, Frontend – Remote
- Operations Associate – Seattle, WA
BoardSource helps nonprofit boards create stronger, more effective organizations that are making a real difference in the world. They support boards in a number of ways, including support for the day-to-day operations of running a nonprofit to research on nonprofit challenges and trends. What I like about this role – and the company 0verall – is that you're influencing at the highest level of leadership in nonprofits. Those nonprofits then multiply your impact through the work you've done.
- Chief Program & Strategy Officer – Washington, DC
thinkPARALLAX offers a variety of sustainability and communications services to help organizations measure, manage, and share their impact, including impact assessments, impact reporting, and impact storytelling. Jobs like the ones below are great if you enjoy the variety of client-facing work that comes with an agency.
- Senior Copywriter and Strategist – Remote
- Senior Strategist – Remote
REI – that's Recreational Equipment, Inc. – is an outdoor equipment leader and one of the most recognizable co-ops around. I wrote about co-ops a while back as a case where the business structure, not the product or service, is a source of social impact. REI is hiring for many more roles than the ones listed below, so if you resonate with the outdoors, you'll want to check out their careers page.
- Operations Lead – Marina Del Ray, CA
- Sr. Administrative Assistant – Seattle, WA
- Divisional Vice President, Store Operations – Issaquah, WA
- Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs – Seattle, WA
- Employee Engagement Partner – Seattle, WA
- Sr Manager Marketing Operations – Seattle, WA
- EHS Program Manager – Lebanon, TN
Atlassian is a software company that develops tools for software developers, project managers, and other professionals. They are one of the founders of Pledge 1% which encourages companies to give a portion of their equity, time, product, or profit to nonprofits, and one of the co-founders of Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, made headlines last year for taking partial ownership in an energy company to encourage it to go greener.
Atlassian is a huge company – if you don't see something you like below, I'd encourage you to check out their website.
- Lead Product Designer – Remote
- Front End Software Engineer – Remote
- Full Stack Software Engineer – Remote
- Corporate Finance Planning Lead – Remote
- Customer Success Intern, 2024 Summer U.S. – Mountain View, CA or Remote
- Associate Product Management Intern, 2024 Summer U.S. – San Francisco, CA or Remote
- Senior Product Marketing Manager – Remote
- Community Strategist, Agile & DevOps – Remote
- Global Recruiting Manager, Business Teams – Remote
- Manager, Customer Success – Remote
- Learning Experience Designer – Remote
The Sunrise Project is on a mission to scale social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as fast as possible. These are really unique roles in the clean and renewable energy space because you'd be working with a global team remotely, giving you more reach than usual and exposing you to climate activism around the world.
- Senior Strategist, Asset Managers – Remote
- Training & Capacity Building Manager – Remote
Down to Earth Market is for all of you who want to work in social impact but want to dip your toe in first. They run their farmers markets on the weekend on a part-time basis, so you can keep your current job and get involved in the local community at a leadership level.
- Farmers Market Manager – Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Westchester, NY
What are some of the companies you've fallen in love with as part of your job search? I'd love to hear about them – just send me a note!