Impact Tuesdays
The latest from humanitarian and early impact-careers coach, Daniel Higgins
Hey Everyone!
Welcome to your weekly dose of Impact Tuesdays, your go-to roundup for students and recent grads ready to launch a career that matters.
Each edition, I’ll share 4 quick wins, fresh tools, and real-world lessons to help you move from “just thinking about it” to actually building your impact career. Expect practical tips, honest reflections, and a few shortcuts I wish I’d known when I started out.
Something new with me
Worried about landing a job or internship?
First ever deep dive:
“Alternative Ways into the Humanitarian and Development Sector”
Getting into the sector has never been as difficult for recent grads. Scanning through Linkedin and applying for whatever comes up is not going to get you anywhere.
But then what to do?
Come find out this Friday 25th July, 8:00 CET. (Yes, a morning session!)
Join us as we get inspired about alternative ways people have managed to kick down the entry barriers into the sector.
Learn how to:
- manipulate funding structures and project cycles to land a job.
- get the inside scoop on upcoming jobs before they are posted.
- funding your own position.
- completely side-step the competition.
- alternative employers that you didn’t think about.
- case examples on alternative ways into the sector.
It’s all sneaky sneaky stuff that you need to know if you are serious about advancing your career.
Sign up is just 5 Euro (38 DKK) and your contribution goes directly to producing more helpful content for the community.
Something cool for you
Certificates Galore
If you’ve not got a few certificates in your back pocket, then now is the time to level up.
They won’t set the world on fire, and doing a 3 hour intro to agricultural food chains won’t land you a specialist position. BUT it definitely does not hurt when you are trying to build a coherent profile as a professional impact worker.
If you don’t know them then here’s a few sites where you can get impact specific certificates:
DisasterReady
Free courses and certificates
Topics: Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), Sphere, safeguarding, MHPSS, etc.
Humanitarian Leadership Academy (Kaya Connect)
Free; courses from Save the Children, ICRC, UN, etc.
Topics: Humanitarian essentials, child protection, MEAL, localization
PHAP (Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection)
Free and paid; includes certificate tracks
Topics: Protection, humanitarian law, principles
Bioforce Institute
Paid, some free
Topics: WASH, security, project management, logistics
bioforce.org
Sphere
Free online learning on Sphere Handbook standards
Reliefweb
The training sector has all sorts of courses and certs posted
Training Opportunities (Online courses) | ReliefWeb
Check out those sites to see if there is something that speaks out to you.
Certificates can be a great way to build credibility to a skill, fill in a gap that you otherwise don’t have experience with in a CV application, and to show that you are knowledgeable about the basic fundamental principles of being a humanitarian.
Next week, I’ll send over some of my fav courses.
Something useful you might not know
Taking Advantage of Donor Funding Cycles
If you’ve ever noticed grant calls bloom at the same time every year, you’re catching a glimpse of the donor’s internal clock.
Picture a giant fiscal countdown in every foundation and government agency. As the clock ticks toward year-end, program officers scramble to lock in budgets, renew multi-year strategies, and push out every last cent before it disappears back into the ether.
Yes, you have to give unspent money back at the end of the (programme) year.
So sync your project timeline to that rhythm and your ideas feel tailor-made; miss it and you could be stuck watching the parade from the curb for another twelve months.
How to use it to your advantage.
Kick off partnerships and sketch your proposals long before grant season hits. Keep a polished, ready-to-go concept on standby so that when mid-year reallocations surface, you can tuck your project onto their desk while everyone else is still brainstorming. By syncing your start and end dates with the donor’s reporting calendar, you dodge the no-cost–extension headache and stay firmly on their A-list.
Master the cycle and your brilliant idea won’t just gather dust—it’ll land real money and hit the ground running.
Still confused about what the hell I am talking about? Come to one of our sessions and learn more.
Quote from the sector
“It’s not about giving bread to orphans. It’s about building a bakery that can fit an orphanage and sell bread in the city.”
— Chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen
Interested in hearing more?
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