Organisations that do important/meaningful work?

In tech, I'm a huge fan of Stripe. I could talk for a long time about why, but it all comes down to: I like what they do, how they do it, how difficult it all is, and the impact it has on the world. I also believe there are some truly good people at the helm.

In NPOs, the EFF and ACLU also do some pretty important and meaningful work. But it's all pretty law-oriented.

Do you want to maximize your impact? I think it's probably most important that you pick something you are truly passionate about, something you know a lot about or can easily learn a lot about, and where you will be able to have an outsized impact compared to just any person who would fill that role.

I believe that a good and impactful UX engineer at Microsoft probably has a much more of a positive impact on the world, as a whole, than a demotivated red cross volunteer. Food for thought.

I work for a small web dev company that focuses a lot of their work on progressive political campaigns, nonprofits, and higher education. I absolutely love my job, and it's the perfect balance of feeling good about what I'm doing and getting paid well for it. This is the second web dev company I've worked for with this focus. I specifically request to work on projects that I have a passion for (recent example being an organization that promotes sexual education for teens in my state). I'm always a more engaged employee when I care about the client and their mission. :)

You might find 80,000 Hours useful :)

I am a big fan of GiveDirectly, they are my go-to charity because they are efficient and transparent and their model is very simple.

There's the civic tech community. I'm only familiar with Code for America and specifically, the associated volunteer network to that, but it might be worth looking into.

I’m in a similar position. Right now it looks like the direction I’ll be going in is that of Spaceballs 2. But at some point I will need a long term position that can keep me happy. That will either be my own small company (the prospect of 100% or 50% equity sounds pretty good) or something that is doing objective good in the world.

Maybe look into conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy

Or companies that help other companies be more sustainable like Ricardo Plc.

You said you're not passionate about anything, and that's okay. Maybe just think about the types of things that you think would make a positive impact on the world, then think about (or search) the types or organizations that are working towards making that happen. You take that further and see what or any industries are popping up (or changing the way they do things) to support those organizations. That's sort of how I found Ricardo. I was looking to move some of my stocks into what I felt were "greener" endeavors, so I started thinking about shipping companies or transportation companies that might be developing more sustainable solutions. From there I went to who are the companies supplying these companies. I came across Ricardo somewhere in there, and even though they weren't exactly what I was looking for, they ticked a lot of the boxes. A lot can be found by a general search, followed by more refined searches once we have a name for what we are looking for.

If you want to work for a government contractor, several Department of Energy sites host large cleanup missions for remediation for radioactive waste that in some cases dates back to the Manhattan Project. Fixing that is definitely something which makes the world a better place.

@archevel I think I've felt somewhat of what you have felt. CAUTION: Be careful what you wish for!

In late 2019 I was impacted by a lay off from a large, for-profit multinational company. (I really, really loved the company, the IT group itself was ok, but my specific team was not great at all.) Up until that point, I worked my entire professional career (over 20 years!) only at for-profit corporations (almost all of them mid- to large global sized corporations). So, i figured, "hey, I'm tired of the rat race, big corp just laid me off...why not work for a small, non-profit!?!" I was seeking something to nourish my soul. So i got a job as director of digital strategy for a well-known non-profit that has over 1800 autonomous "franchises"/branches around the world...In essence, they all fly under a certain brand/banner, but run fully autonomously; so very much a small, org. On top of this, this job was a pay cut to another job offer that i got (in the for profit world), because again, I was trying to find a job with more purpose, and less rat race. This March 2021 has been my 1 year anniversary with this job...and this job is probably the biggest mistake of my professional career! Not only does half the org mistake me for the IT guy to fix their Outlook (which is sad because the org pays an IT MSP for exactly that function!)...but the other half of the org plays silly, bureaucratic, political games like its late 80s/early 90s. I originally thought that this org behaved the way that it did because it was thrown into disarray by the pandemic like so many other orgs...But, no, this org has apparently been awful well before the pandemic. Maybe other non-profits operate better...but, for me, I'm going to look for another job, and back in the for-profit world. I think in order to nourish my soul, i will simply work for a for-profit company that is not too evil, and then simpy donate money, and volunter my time for non-profits that feel like they are good (even if they're run awfully, at least if i only volunter and not work there, maybe that will be enough to help some people, and make me feel better). So, my cautionary note: careful with looking into the non-profit world because it might just operate like the for-profit world but at lower pay levels.

(I do not want to divulge the name of my non-profit employer, but if you @archevel have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them...simply ping me via matrix: https://matrix.to/#/@mxu:matrix.org )

Have you come across the Corporate Equality Index? https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index

I currently work at Flatiron and I think our overall mission is pretty amazing. It feels good that our software isn't about "engagement" - we want medical professionals to spend as little time in the software as possible while still having the software provide value. A lot of the tech is mundane (though a small amount of it is very cutting edge too), but the mission is what keeps me going.