High-Impact Growth

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Oct 2026

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A podcast for social entrepreneurs, global development funders, nonprofit leaders and anyone grappling with the challenge of how to build solutions that are both immensely impactful and also achieve high-growth. Join Dimagi CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Jackson, along with co-host Amie Vaccaro as we unpack learnings from 20 years building digital solutions for global health and development, explore barriers to and opportunities for high-impact growth, and speak with industry leaders from around the world. Find us at: https://dimagi.com/podcast/

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October 21, 2026Episode 9428 min

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

October 15, 2026Episode 9359 min

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

October 12, 2026Episode 9250 min

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

September 21, 2026Episode 9155 min

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

September 17, 2026Episode 9045 min

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

August 21, 2026Episode 8952 min

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

August 18, 2026Episode 8846 min

From Embracing Complexity to Solving the Right Problems

Could a funder deploy $100 million in global health tomorrow and know where every single dollar went? Dimagi CEO and co-founder Jonathan Jackson believes verified service delivery finally makes the answer yes. In this candid mid-2026 check-in, Jon joins co-host Amie Vaccaro, VP of CommCare Growth and Strategy, to unpack a year of profound change including why Dimagi retired its longtime value "embrace complexity for impact" in favor of "solving the right problems for impact," and what that shift reveals about affordability in a post-USAID funding landscape. Jon walks step-by-step through a single Connect-enabled home visit, from opt-in push notification to real-time payment, and shares the numbers behind the platform: over 1.5 million verified visits, 200+ local organizations expressing interest, and 80 cents of every dollar reaching frontline workers, local organizations, and commodities. The conversation also explores how AI is putting program design directly into the hands of local organizations, automating roles, not people. As Jon puts it: "When you do a better job today, the system knows it and can offer you even more work tomorrow." Related Resources: Dimagi Connect – Dimagi's verified service delivery platform connecting funders with local organizations and frontline workers. CommCare by Dimagi – The open-source platform for frontline workers that Connect is built on, with a quarter million active users worldwide. GiveWell – The evidence-based charity evaluator whose request for information on post-market malaria rapid diagnostic test surveillance inspired Dimagi's AI-built Connect pilot. Steel Foundation for Hope – An early flagship funder that Amie credits with seeing Connect's potential. Kevin Starr episode of High-Impact Growth – https://dimagi.com/podcast/funders-power-to-change-the-system/ Eric Ries episode of High-Impact Growth – https://dimagi.com/podcast/podcast-eric-ries-good-companies-go-bad/ Kikapu Gardens field visit video – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MLGVhiA0YCt_NpjuF4Gveu1s3kwygD7-/view 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

August 7, 2026Episode 8756 min

Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad

What does it really mean to make a profit — and why do so many mission-driven companies eventually betray the very things that made them great? In this episode, Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, joins Amie Vaccaro and Jonathan Jackson to discuss his new book Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great . Eric dismantles the conventional definition of profit and offers a radical replacement — profit as the maximization of human flourishing — then explains "financial gravity," the unconscious pull that bends organizations toward the values of whoever holds the money, whether investors or donors. Through the origin stories of Costco and Novo Nordisk, he shows how "mission lock" structures protected both companies — in Novo Nordisk's case, preserving the research that became Ozempic and creating over $500 billion in shareholder value. The conversation closes with practical power for everyone else: a "no-courage activism" question any job candidate can ask, and why every transaction you make transmits your values. As Eric puts it: "You're not stuck in traffic — you are traffic." Related Resources: https://theleanstartup.com/ ⁠ – Eric's foundational methodology and NYT bestseller on entrepreneurship and continuous innovation. Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) – The stock exchange Eric founded to support companies built for long-term value creation. Answer.AI – The AI R&D lab founded by Eric Ries and Jeremy Howard. B Lab / B Corp Certification – The certification body behind B Corps; Dimagi was the first B Corp/PBC in Massachusetts, referenced in the conversation. Novo Nordisk Foundation – The mission-guardian foundation whose governance structure blocked the merger that would have killed GLP-1 research. 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

July 30, 2026Episode 8642 min

The Last Mile of Family Planning: Lessons from Lafiya in Nigeria

In a single program area in northern Nigeria, contraceptive use climbed from 2% to over 70%. This change wasn't caused by a new technology, but happened because of one new strategy: centering trust. In this episode, Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro sit down with Klau Pakos, CEO and co-founder of Lafiya, to unpack how their organization closes the "last mile" gap in family planning in some of the hardest-to-reach communities in Northern Nigeria. Women in these communities often already know about contraception, but too often travel hours to a clinic only to be turned away empty-handed. Lafiya's answer is the Lafiya Sisters — trusted local health workers who bring counseling and self-injectable contraceptives directly into communities. Klau shares the visceral reality of women facing extreme maternal mortality risks, walks through how Lafiya became a true partner to the government rather than a vendor with a fixed model, and explains why they resist the pull of shiny new technology until it's proven necessary. As they put it, family planning "brings the foundation for everything else", creating ripple effects across health, income, and autonomy that data alone can't fully capture. A candid, practical conversation for anyone trying to scale impact alongside government systems. Related Resources: Lafiya – Klau's organization, which trains local "Lafiya Sisters" to deliver family planning counseling and self-injectable contraceptives to underserved communities in northern Nigeria. D-Prize – A seed funding organization that awards grants to entrepreneurs testing new business or charity models that distribute proven poverty-intervention technologies Charity Entrepreneurship – An incubator program that helps founders launch high-impact, cost-effective charities. Rethink Priorities: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Lafiya Nigeria – The independent modeling Klau references, estimating Lafiya's cost per DALY averted and per maternal life saved. Sayana Press (DMPA-SC) via Pfizer – An all-in-one, self-injectable contraceptive that lasts for three months and is optimized for low-resource environments due to its lack of a cold chain requirement. https://www.fp2030.org/ - A global partnership dedicated to advancing rights-based family planning, which the Nigerian government has contributed to for over a decade. 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

July 23, 2026Episode 8549 min

Why Development Needs More Innovation, Not Less with DIV Fund

When USAID was dissolved, Sasha Gallant didn't let the work she'd spent years building disappear with it. As the former head of Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), USAID's evidence-driven innovation fund, Gallant watched stop-work orders freeze over 100 active awards overnight. Rather than let that portfolio die, she did two things: Helped mobilize more than $130 million to keep the most critical, life-saving USAID projects alive through an initiative called Project Resource Optimization , and Co-founded DIV as an independent nonprofit–the DIV Fund –to test and scale new, potentially cost-effective global development innovations. In this conversation with co-hosts Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro, Gallant unpacks why innovation funding in global development is chronically underfunded, how DIV evaluates ideas on evidence, cost-effectiveness, and potential for scale, and why the biggest wins are often "supremely unshiny": pedagogical tweaks, cheaper CPAP machines, smarter delivery models. She also grapples with a strange moment of dissonance: surviving deep funding cuts just as a new wave of AI-driven wealth approaches the sector. As she puts it, believing we've already found our best solutions is "basically giving up on human progress." For funders, innovators, and development leaders navigating a rapidly changing funding landscape, this episode offers thoughtful guidance on building a future where every dollar creates greater impact. Related Resources: DIV Fund – The independent nonprofit Sasha Gallant co-founded, continuing USAID's Development Innovation Ventures model of tiered, evidence-driven innovation grants. Project Resource Optimization (PRO) – The initiative (hosted by the Center for Global Development) that Gallant helped launch to triage and match donors to the most cost-effective USAID programs left without funding. GiveWell – The charity evaluator referenced for its rigorously vetted "best buy" list of cost-effective global health and development programs. 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