Whatever the news says, hope, generosity and good people still make it worth showing up for impact-driven work
I like to hope that my efforts at work mean each day ends better than it started. This is not a lofty goal. A good day is just one more positive message out, one more beautiful thing made, one more skill passed on. One more day’s income generated for my team. Hardly a moonshot. But it’s tangible.
Three careers, three shots at impact
Perhaps you, too, left university wanting to “make a difference”. (Did you come up with a way to say that in job interviews without sounding corny? Please share, if so.) I thought my best shot at impact would be as a policymaker, so I joined the diplomatic service and became a civil servant. The idea was to shape systems from the top, to stalk the corridors of power. This 10-year journey took me from London to the United Nations, European Union and African Union headquarters, where negotiations were a fine art. And it took me to Syria, observing protests where the call for change was met with bullets. I was on the ‘donor side’, evaluating proposals and sitting on boards.
Then as a social entrepreneur, I wanted to build solutions from the ground up. Every step forward was a battle against inertia, absurd policy environments, and scepticism. I thought that the “double bottom line” of impact and revenue, would save my concept from donor dependence and government agendas. It sounds so neat, but it was much harder than I thought.
For a lived example of resilience through change, When the ground fell away shares what closing a mission-driven organisation taught us.
Then came AMS, a comms studio for nonprofits. This career pulls from everything that came before. It’s a business that runs like an NGO. It’s a communications agency that cares as much about serving tiny grassroots organisations, as enormous UN agencies. (Don’t get me started on how nuts that business model is – I know!) We are part of policy campaigning, resource allocation, proposal writing and evaluation (on both sides of the door!), and the whole range of communications and marketing functions, including fundraising. I also consult for charities and purpose-driven leaders, and help design training and acceleration programmes. I sometimes think of this as my “those who can, teach” career. My job is to convert what experience I have into leverage for impact – meaning, I try to help other leaders to meet their impact goals. And if you’re looking at where leadership already flourishes, Women are already leading civil society is worth a read.
The mess we’re in
“Impact” has never been an easy career choice. And in a year marked by escalating crises and shrinking aid budgets, many in the nonprofit sector feel overwhelmed. Official development assistance from major donors fell by over 7% in 2024, its sharpest drop in six years (OECD figures). The global humanitarian funding gap now exceeds $32 billion, leading the UN Relief Chief, Tom Fletcher, to call for a humanitarian “hyper-prioritization” or “a triage of human survival”. OCHA’s hyper-prioritised appeal for $29 billion to reach those in most urgent need represents just 1% of what the world spent on defence last year. This definitely begs the question: how have we got our priorities so wrong! So busy protecting ourselves, we forget to protect others.
“Secure, multi-year” programmes are being paused or cancelled, with tangible impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. We have been working with a couple of nonprofits who are now seriously in need of urgent new funding sources. Good stuff, necessary stuff will stop happening in people’s lives without this cash. I am not worried about AMS – we’re nimble, and we’re ready to help at whatever scale our clients need us. And I am in favour of change in the over-stuffed, northern-centric “development industry”. But I am not on board with essential programming coming to a halt unexpectedly and affecting people’s lives. How would you like it if your doctor’s surgery closed because their bills were not being paid? Or the school dinners your kids depend on got cancelled? Or worse: nobody came to help you when you fled your home amid drone strikes or gunfire.
This is horrifying. That aid and humanitarian budgets can be slashed overnight is one of many signals that our social architecture needs radical fixing. We need to think much bigger about reform, and start setting aside real energy, talent and resources for responsible globalism. I’ve worn a hole in the rug as I pace about trying to make sense of that puzzle.
Why show up, then?
There are, though, some trends that give me hope.
Generosity is on the agenda, even amid social retrenchment. In 2024, charitable giving in the United States reached a record $592.5 billion, marking a 3.3% increase from the previous year after adjusting for inflation. Corporate donations also increased by 6%, and large individual donations, or mega-gifts, totaled $11.72 billion, up significantly from the previous year. People give more when they have more: the evidence shows that a robust economy makes us more generous. So sound national and international governance and economic management is also good for nonprofits. The rising tide really does lift all boats.
Secondly, social enterprise is on the rise. Mine may have closed in the pandemic, but many others are succeeding. There are an estimated 10–11 million social enterprises worldwide, generating approximately $2 trillion in revenue annually and creating nearly 200 million jobs. About half of these enterprises are led by women, significantly outpacing traditional business sectors in terms of gender representation. In LMICs and MICs, social enterprises are increasingly addressing systemic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and environmental degradation.
Third: people. Kindness is becoming systemic. Even with limited resources and unclear futures, the calibre of people drawn to this sector continues to amaze me. I work with designers in Damascus, strategists in Kampala, youth leaders in Beirut – people who could do anything, yet choose to do this. (Our team video calls are a well of gratitude – it is adorable.) In a time of overwhelming complexity, organisations we work with are leaning into empathy, care, and responsibility, in their teams and their community services. Mental health is taken seriously.
Those values aren’t just abstract — they’re embedded in the way we operate, as outlined in our AMS code of conduct.
And, overall, if you’re alive today, you’re part of the luckiest generation in history. The world is at our fingertips; as a species, we have never been smarter, more connected, or enjoyed our health for longer. Spreading those benefits more equitably is a great reason to keep showing up.
It might not be revolutionary. But it’s real. I’ll take it, one day at a time.
If this resonates, perhaps the takeaway is simple: impact work is still worth showing up for, even when the headlines feel bleak, because hope, generosity and good people are real forces in the world and they shape what happens next.
If you’d like support communicating your mission with clarity, care and confidence in uncertain times, you can explore our communications support and get in touch to start a conversation.
