High-Impact Growth

Dimagi

A podcast for social entrepreneurs, global development funders, nonprofit leaders and anyone working out how to build technology and organizations that are deeply impactful and can scale. Dimagi CEO and co-founder Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro host the show, drawing on more than 20 years of building digital solutions for global health and development. Our guests have taken ideas from pilot to scale, or fund the people trying to. We talk about what it takes to grow, AI on the frontline, and how funding is changing. Find us at: https://dimagi.com/podcast/

  1. 9h ago

    Coefficient Giving’s Launchpad: Seeding the Next Generation of Global Health Funds

    Billions of dollars in new philanthropic funding are expected to come online in the next few years, and Coefficient Giving wants the ecosystem ready to absorb it. Nic Lyon, Program Officer for Global Health and Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, joins Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro to explain Launchpad, a new effort to seed and scale outcome-oriented funds, each led by a single accountable general manager. Nic walks through why funds can make the work legible to new donors and simpler to back than dozens of separate projects, why Coefficient Giving is betting on individuals rather than institutions, and why every fund should have an off-ramp once its goal is met. He also shares what reviewing the proposals has been like: applications about 20% stronger than expected, where AI helped and where it showed, and why a credible pathway to $100 million or more mattered. Drawing on his early fieldwork at IDinsight and a PhD in political science at Stanford, Nic also talks about evidence generation and when a cause area needs more evidence before it is ready to fund. Related Resources: Request for Proposals: Launchpad Funds, Coefficient Giving's call for new and scaled outcome-oriented funds: https://coefficientgiving.org/funds/global-health-wellbeing-opportunities/request-for-proposals-launchpad-funds/ We're Scaling Our Global Health & Wellbeing Giving and We Want the Field to Scale With Us, the context for Launchpad: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/were-scaling-our-global-health-wellbeing-giving-and-we-want-the-field-to-scale-with-us/ Coefficient Giving's Largest Grant Ever: $276 million, co-funded with GiveWell, to the Against Malaria Foundation for bed net campaigns in the DRC: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/coefficient-givings-largest-grant-ever-276-million-co-funded-with-givewell-to-the-against-malaria-foundation/ Announcing the Health Aid Transition Fund: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/announcing-the-health-aid-transition-fund/ Related High-Impact Growth episodes: Grow the Pie: GiveDirectly's CEO on Absorbing the Third Wave (Nick Allardice): https://dimagi.com/podcast/absorption-problem-philanthropy/ and Joey Savoie: Why Grantmaking, Not Money, Is the Bottleneck: https://dimagi.com/podcast/grantmaking-bottleneck-philanthropy/ Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Coefficient Giving’s Launchpad: Seeding the Next Generation of Global Health Funds

  2. 6d ago

    Skin-to-Skin, at Scale: Ansh’s Supriya Bansal on Saving Newborns

    Kangaroo Mother Care, prolonged skin-to-skin contact between a caregiver and a small or premature baby, is one of the most effective ways to prevent newborn deaths, and one of the hardest to deliver well. Supriya Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Ansh, joins Jonathan Jackson to share how her team is bringing it into government hospitals in India, growing from two pilot hospitals to 15 district hospitals in Rajasthan, with Madhya Pradesh next. Supriya explains why Kangaroo Care is really a behavior change intervention, why Ansh's nurses ask new mothers to try it for just one day, and why she designed her pilots to look like scale from the start. She also talks about keeping quality high as delivery shifts toward government, pairing accountability with a weekly call where nurses share what keeps them going, and adding care for critically ill newborns and follow-up at home on top of the hospital model. She closes with advice for anyone looking to have more impact: keep an open mind, and get your hands dirty. Related Resources: Ansh — Kangaroo Care Scaling Grant, Rajasthan, India (GiveWell): https://www.givewell.org/research/grants/ansh-kangaroo-care-scaling-grant-rajasthan-india-december-2024  Kangaroo Mother Care (GiveWell's review of the evidence): https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/kangaroo-mother-care  Immediate "Kangaroo Mother Care" and Survival of Infants with Low Birth Weight (WHO study, New England Journal of Medicine, 2021): https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2026486  Introducing Ansh (Supriya on the EA Forum): https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hTEaKau8D4Ah3NPcu/introducing-ansh-a-charity-entrepreneurship-incubated  Ambitious Impact's charity directory: https://www.ambitiousimpact.com/our-charities  Ansh: https://www.ansh.health/ Related High-Impact Growth episodes:  Joey Savoie: Why Grantmaking, Not Money, Is the Bottleneck: https://dimagi.com/podcast/grantmaking-bottleneck-philanthropy/  Grow the Pie with Nick Allardice: https://dimagi.com/podcast/absorption-problem-philanthropy/ Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Skin-to-Skin, at Scale: Ansh’s Supriya Bansal on Saving Newborns

  3. Oct 21

    AI Chatbots in Humanitarian Crises: GOAL's Hard-Won Lessons

    What does it actually take to deploy AI chatbots safely in humanitarian response? Liz Devine, Head of the Program Technical Team at GOAL Global, joins Amie Vaccaro, Jonathan Jackson, and Dimagi's Erin Quinn to share hard-won lessons from building a multichannel chatbot during an mpox outbreak in Sierra Leone — and adapting it for cholera response in South Sudan. With over a decade in the humanitarian sector, from South Sudan to the Syria and Ukraine responses, Liz brings a rare ground-level perspective on innovating with vulnerable populations. She explains why an emergency is the worst time to build new tech, why keeping a human in the loop at key decision points is non-negotiable, and how referral pathways and safeguards keep sensitive cases from slipping through the cracks. She also offers practical advice on securing donor funding for experimental pilots despite shrinking budgets — starting with clearly defining the problem you're solving. As Liz puts it, AI can do the recommending, but people must make the decisions. A candid, practical conversation for anyone wanting to cut through the AI hype. Related Resources: GOAL Global – Irish humanitarian organization working in 13+ countries on health, nutrition, food security, and climate resilience. Twilio – Communications API used to relay and anonymize chatbot messages in GOAL's deployment. monday.com for Nonprofits – Work platform GOAL uses (via free humanitarian licenses) for reporting and analysis of chatbot data. WhatsApp Business Platform – The community-facing channel for GOAL's multichannel chatbot, supporting text, voice, and images. CommCare by Dimagi – Dimagi's leading open-source platform for frontline workers, and a tool GOAL uses. Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    AI Chatbots in Humanitarian Crises: GOAL's Hard-Won Lessons

  4. Oct 15

    Joey Savoie: Why Grantmaking, Not Money, Is the Bottleneck

    Effective grantmaking is now the real bottleneck in philanthropy, says Joey Savoie, founder of Elevate Philanthropy and co-founder of Ambitious Impact, the charity incubator behind more than 65 new organizations. After years of scarcity, a wave of new tech wealth has flipped the question for many NGOs from surviving budget cuts to what they would do with double. In this one-on-one conversation with Dimagi CEO Jonathan Jackson, Joey explains why the hardest part isn't the money, but finding people who know how to give it away well. He shares why the most honest charities often get penalized for their honesty, why your fundraising ability is your comms skill multiplied by how good your organization actually is, and why, when a whole field of NGOs starts behaving strangely, you should look at the funders. Joey also makes the case for more philanthropic funds alongside foundations, a clearer path for training the next generation of grant makers, and smarter grant application processes that cut redundant work. Whether you're writing grant applications or deciding where a suddenly bigger budget should go, this episode offers practical advice from both sides of the table. Related Resources: Elevate Philanthropy: Joey's organization, which trains funders and grantmakers to deploy capital more effectively. Ambitious Impact (AIM): the charity incubator Joey co-founded, formerly Charity Entrepreneurship, which has launched 65+ high-impact charities. Top New Philanthropic Funds – Measured Life: Joey's list of 10 philanthropic funds he thinks should exis. Increasing Our 2026 Allocation to GiveWell's Recommendations to $1 Billion – Coefficient Giving: the $1B announcement discussed in the episode. Scaling Our Impact, with Support from a $1 Billion Commitment – GiveWell: GiveWell's side of the announcement. GiveWell Opens RFI for Malaria Pilots and Research: the malaria request for information Jonathan describes, which let applicants opt in to having their application shared with other funders. Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Joey Savoie: Why Grantmaking, Not Money, Is the Bottleneck

  5. Oct 12

    Justin Steele on the Legibility Trap in Philanthropy

    Justin Steele gave away nearly $700 million leading Google.org’s philanthropy across the Americas, and he watched funding flow to the nonprofits closest to power rather than those closest to the problem. Now the founder of Kindora, a public benefit corporation using AI to help nonprofits find funders who’d actually say yes, he calls this the legibility trap. In conversation with Dimagi CEO Jonathan Jackson, Justin takes listeners inside a grant maker’s head: how a seven-person team ran a $150 million annual budget, why portfolios so often follow personal networks, and why honest feedback is so rare. They debate whether an LLM tuned on community wisdom could read a grant application more fairly than a program officer, why AI works best as a “junior staff member’s first read,” and why “not a fit” and “not competitive” are very different no’s. Justin also shares his bet on democratizing ownership of Kindora itself through a community crowd raise. Whether you’re fundraising, grant making, or building something mission-driven, you’ll come away with a sharper sense of how capital actually moves, and how it could move better. Related Resources: Kindora: Justin’s public benefit corporation. It uses AI to help nonprofits find high-fit funders, map warm connections and draft grant applications Kindora’s Wefunder Campaign: Support Kindora’s active fundraising campaign and learn more about the opportunity to invest in its mission. The Legibility Trap (EA Forum): Justin’s article on how “fund the most rigorous thinkers” can quietly favor the wrong organizations. Outdoorithm Collective: the nonprofit Justin and his wife co-founded to take urban families out into nature. Kindora began as their own fundraising tool. Incorruptible by Eric Ries: Ries’s new book on why good companies go bad, which Justin and Jon discuss. The Steve Fund: a nonprofit focused on the mental health of young people of color, and one of the grantees in the Google.org teen mental health portfolio Justin describes. Decolonizing Wealth Project: founded by Edgar Villanueva, whose “money as medicine” idea Justin cites. Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Justin Steele on the Legibility Trap in Philanthropy

  6. Sep 21

    AI Philanthropy Is Coming. Are You Legibly Excellent?

    What happens when AI philanthropy actually arrives? Jack Lewars advises donors giving up to nine figures a year — and he argues the wave of wealth expected from AI company IPOs is more locked in than skeptics think, with potentially $130 billion or more committed to charity even in conservative scenarios. In this conversation with hosts Amie Vaccaro and Jonathan Jackson, Jack explains why concentration is the real risk ("two big funders beat one twice the size"), why the bottleneck to scaling global health organizations isn't money but managing directors and chiefs of staff, and why he has no patience for scaling plans that end in “…government adoption." Drawing on his experience running One for the World and building a mid-stage global health fund — the "Series A" of the sector — Jack lays out exactly what implementing organizations should do now to position themselves: be cost-effective, be evidence-backed, be visible to intermediaries like GiveWell and Coefficient Giving. And whatever you do, don't send a cold email. Jack Lewars is the founder of Ultra Philanthropy, an independent advisory that helps major donors give for maximum impact. He advises donors giving up to nine figures a year, and is Chair of Trustees at High Impact Athletes. He writes the Funding Anthropalypse newsletter, commenting on the expected wave of AI philanthropy in 2027 and beyond. He is also the Fund Manager of the Ultra Philanthropy Mid-stage Global Health Fund, which makes strategic grants and offers hands-on technical and management assistance to bring high impact global health projects to scale. Ultra Philanthropy – Jack Lewars's independent advisory helping major donors give for maximum impact, home of the mid-stage global health fund. Jack Lewars's Substack – His newsletter on AI wealth and philanthropy, referenced throughout the episode.  GiveWell – Charity evaluator that recently received a $1 billion commitment from Coefficient Giving and made its largest-ever grant to the Against Malaria Foundation. Coefficient Giving – Major effective-giving funder discussed as a key intermediary for AI wealth.  One for the World – Nonprofit Jack led as executive director, encouraging graduates to pledge 1% of income to cost-effective global health charities. "What's Your Endgame?" – Stanford Social Innovation Review – The decade-old article on nonprofit endgames Jack references as the (only) canonical piece on scaling.  Dimagi Connect – Dimagi's verified service delivery platform, discussed by Jonathan as a way to make performance matter through fast feedback loops. Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    AI Philanthropy Is Coming. Are You Legibly Excellent?

  7. Sep 17

    Disability Inclusion in Global Development, with Dr. Victor Pineda

    Disability inclusion in global development starts with a question most teams never ask: who is your technology quietly leaving out? Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda, executive director of Berkeley's Center for Independent Living, president of the global inclusion nonprofit World Enabled, and one of the youngest delegates to help draft the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, joins Amie Vaccaro and guest co-host Erin Quinn for a conversation that moves from a Caracas classroom, where his mother was told her son could never be educated, to the floor of the United Nations, to the frontier of artificial intelligence. Dr. Pineda explains why the assistive technology of today becomes the mainstream technology of tomorrow, why AI trained on averages risks erasing the people at the edges of the bell curve, and what implementers and funders can do differently starting tomorrow: hire disabled technologists, build to WCAG AA, optimize for screen readers, demand accessibility through procurement. Underneath it all is his central claim — we already have enough knowledge to unlock human potential. What's missing isn't know-how. It's the collective decision to use it. Related Resources: Podcast hosted by Dr. Victor Pineda: The Independent: Meeting the Moment for Disability Justice available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube The Center for Independent Living (CIL), Berkeley – The world's first independent living center, founded in 1972 and now led by Dr. Pineda; the origin point for many principles later written into the UN CRPD. Pineda Foundation / World Enabled – Dr. Pineda's global nonprofit advancing inclusive urban development, digital equity, and disability rights worldwide. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – The treaty Dr. Pineda helped draft, setting out the rights and dignity of over a billion people with disabilities. Being Heumann (Apple Original Films) – Siân Heder's film of Judy Heumann's memoir and the 26-day 1977 Section 504 sit-in; TIFF opening night, in theaters November 6 and on Apple TV November 13, 2026. Protect Section 504 (DREDF) – Tracks the multi-state lawsuit challenging Section 504 regulations that Dr. Pineda references, with advocacy tools. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) – The W3C standard Dr. Pineda urges teams to build to at Level AA or higher. Positive AI Labs – Nonprofit building open datasets and evaluations to steer frontier AI toward pluralistic knowledge of human flourishing, cited by Dr. Pineda as an example of getting wisdom traditions into models before the training loop closes. Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Disability Inclusion in Global Development, with Dr. Victor Pineda

  8. Aug 21

    Grow the Pie: GiveDirectly's CEO on Absorbing the Third Wave

    Five years ago, they were mid-level software engineers. Today, they hold giving accounts larger than major foundations — and the sector they want to fund may not be ready to absorb the money. Nick Allardice, CEO of GiveDirectly and former CEO of Change.org, joins Amie and Jonathan to unpack his widely discussed article "The Absorption Problem" and what the "third wave" of philanthropy means for global development. Nick explains why the biggest risk isn't money going to the wrong place, but money sitting on the sidelines for lack of credible places to put it — and why he regularly refers major donors to other organizations to "grow the pie, not divide it." The conversation digs into the voltage drop (research suggests 50–90% of programs lose substantial impact as they scale), why nonprofits rarely ask what their total addressable market is, and how GiveDirectly is winding down complexity to prepare to move much larger sums. Nick closes with candid advice for the newly wealthy: give away 10% of your net wealth in year one, learn by doing, and don't disconnect from the joy of giving. Related Resources: The Absorption Problem by Nick Allardice The Overlooked Absorptive Capacity of Locally-Led Organizations by Jonathan Jackson and Neal Lesh The Third Wave of American Philanthropy by Nan Ransohoff Increasing Our 2026 Allocation to GiveWell's Recommendations to $1 Billion by Coefficient Giving The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale by John A. List Sign up to our newsletter⁠, and stay informed of Dimagi’s work We are on social media - follow us for the latest from Dimagi: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review and share your favorite episodes with friends.  Hosts: ⁠Jonathan Jackson⁠ and ⁠Amie Vaccaro

    Grow the Pie: GiveDirectly's CEO on Absorbing the Third Wave
See All (96)

Trailer

5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

A podcast for social entrepreneurs, global development funders, nonprofit leaders and anyone working out how to build technology and organizations that are deeply impactful and can scale. Dimagi CEO and co-founder Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro host the show, drawing on more than 20 years of building digital solutions for global health and development. Our guests have taken ideas from pilot to scale, or fund the people trying to. We talk about what it takes to grow, AI on the frontline, and how funding is changing. Find us at: https://dimagi.com/podcast/

Information

  • Creator
    Dimagi
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    96
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dimagi
  • Show Website
    High-Impact Growth

You Might Also Like