2026 Impact Ops Fellowship

Who it’s for

Participants typically:

• Own responsibility for operational effectiveness across teams and functions
• Have a mandate to “do more with less” without burning out staff or adding overhead
• Are already experimenting with AI, but want clearer judgment about what’s worth adopting and where to invest time and resources
• Are expected to lead AI adoption internally, even without formal training in systems thinking or automation

The focus

The Impact Ops Fellowship is centered on applied operational work rather than theory or generalized AI coaching. Each organization starts with a real, high-priority operational problem that they see as a good candidate for tech-enabled automation, and ends with a functional prototype and a roadmap for deeper implementation.

The emphasis is on:

• Making workflows explicit and improvable
• Using AI and automation to reduce friction and get quick wins
• Developing playbooks for reasoning through opportunities for automation
• Building internal capacity so that orgs make the jump from “experimenting” to “fully operational” with respect to internal use of AI

Structure

The Fellowship employs a ‘reverse curriculum’: session topics are derived from the problems the cohort is actually wrestling with, and fellows help steer what gets covered based on what they most want to learn. Cohort 01’s sessions:

What’s included

Expert facilitation

• Dedicated facilitation by Nick Barr, founder/CEO of Sattva 3x founder (VC-backed, nonprofit, and bootstrapped) · former product leader at Khan Academy · coach and strategic partner to mission-driven organizations
• Ongoing guidance on real, in-flight operational challenges

Peer exchange

• A trusted group of peers facing similar constraints and decisions
• Space to compare approaches, share workflows, and pressure-test ideas
• Emphasis on practical learning rather than presentation

Applied programming

• Two 60-minute 1:1 deep dives for hands-on coaching and debugging
• Templates and resources focused on mapping and improving real workflows
• Examples drawn directly from real nonprofit operational contexts
• Skillshares from Nick’s trusted network demonstrating examples of expert AI use

Outcomes

By the end of the fellowship, participants should expect:

• A fully implemented workflow automation that solves a concrete operational problem at your organization
• A clear V1→V2→V3 roadmap showing what you’ve built, what comes next, and how to scale impact
• Fluency to spread AI capability within your team and across the organization
• Vetted tool recommendations so you don’t waste time evaluating every option
• A peer network of fellow operators facing similar constraints who can be thought partners beyond the fellowship

Early feedback from Cohort 01 (still in progress!)

In one word: Inspiring. Expansive. Thought-provoking. Valuable.

What has the Fellowship unlocked for you?

“Pivoting our project from contract automation to employee onboarding automation. The fellowship helped identify a higher-leverage problem to solve.”

“Really thinking about the architecture of what we’re building, as we think about the infrastructure and scale of the systems.”

“It’s very helpful to have the regular time for inspiration/reminders and as a forcing mechanism to prioritize building things alongside all the other urgent things happening at any moment in time.”

“Prioritized building! Also my team seeing and hearing me engage in this way has really pushed them to do the same thing which has been fun and great to see.”

Investment

$3,800 per organization

Early bird pricing: $3,000, ends Aug 31.

Covers participation for up to two team members.

This is offered as a focused alternative to one-off consulting or generic trainings. The Fellowship is grounded in a sustained, applied community of practice.

Is it a fit?

The Fellowship is a good fit if…

• You are coming with a real operational problem to solve There is no preset curriculum; the fellowship is shaped around participant use cases and day-to-day needs
• You can dedicate ~10 hours per month This includes learning new tools and experimenting with new approaches to operational efficiency
• Your organization has already decided to prioritize AI adoption Questions of impact and ethics matter, but they are not the primary focus of this fellowship

The Fellowship is not a good fit if…

• You are not a decision-maker at your organization The fellowship is designed for leaders making function- and org-wide calls on AI investment and workflow design
• You are completely new to AI The program assumes baseline familiarity and moves quickly into workflow automation (including agents)
• You cannot realistically prioritize time for learning and experimentation Without that investment, adoption and impact will be limited

Want to learn more?

If this fellowship sounds relevant, and if you have additional questions, I’m happy to chat. You can book an intro call here.