The origin of Flow for the Future
It’s a rainy Thursday in August and Flow for the Future’s website is about to be launched. This marks a big milestone for us as we begin to put ourselves out there. As the founder of this project, I have seen it evolve so much since I first came up with this ambitious idea several months ago. And now we are inviting you to be part of it all. As scary as this is, we want to make sure that we share our growth with you. This blog is a space for you to find out more about us and our journey to founding this social enterprise.
But why start a charity? I hear you ask. Well, it all started back in November when I started the Arete Fellowship at my university, which is a course run by Effective Altruism. If you haven’t heard of EA before, I highly recommend you dive into some of their articles, their work is incredibly interesting and important. It’s a movement based on the principals of using evidence and reason to work out the best, most effective ways to use resources do maximum good in the world. Our reading covered concepts such as the scout mindset and scope insensitivity, which made me realize just how much I cared about worldwide injustices, even though I cannot possibly empathise with others in proportion to such a vast scale. This emphasises the importance of impartiality to allow us to prioritise everyone’s wellbeing equally, even when we only come into contact with a fraction of these people day to day.
Towards the end of our program we were introduced to 80,000 hours, an organisation associated with EA that applies its principles to career choice. The name demonstrates how many hours the average human will dedicate to work in their lifetime, reflecting also the potential for that time to be valuably invested. By working on important problems, building high value skills and prioritising impact over salary, prestige or lifestyle, we can build more purposeful lives and increase our contribution to society.
It is also ideal to end up doing something that you are passionate about, because your enthusiasm will make your 80,000 hours more enjoyable and make you want to spend more of them. Entrepreneurship has always been an interest of mine, so when I found out that being a charity founder is one of the most impactful careers, it immediately got me thinking.
Effective Altruism places focus on problems that are large in scale, neglected and solvable, so this is where I started when considering how I was best positioned to make the most of my resources. I chose to focus on widescale issues such as period poverty, the climate crisis and mental health because I could see significant overlap that would allow me to address multiple issues at once. I then also identified a gap in the market for low-cost, eco-friendly, health-conscious period products. I came up with a business model to address this issue, suggesting it was also solvable.
Over months of extensive market research I refined my idea and assessed both demand and feasibility. I pitched my business plan, received some funding and began to gather a team. And just like that Flow for the Future was born.
The great thing about starting something new is that, as it expands, it opens up opportunities to others to get involved or even become inspired to do their own thing. I can't wait to see how our volunteers and community members may benefit from being a part of this movement, which I hope will offer chances to gain new skills, meet new people and develop new ways of thinking.
By building our identity openly and with full transparency, we hold ourselves accountable to our promise that every decision we make will be in the interest of most effectively using our resources to achieve our mission.
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All the best
Laura