From a Side Project to a Funded Organisation: My Story and What I’ve Learned [EAGx Virtual 2024 Keynote] 

By SofiaBalderson @ 2025-07-21T11:34 (+41)

I tend to send the recording of this talk quite a lot when I’m asked to share my story about how I started Hive, so I thought for folks’ convenience I’d make it into a post so that it’s more scannable. Some of the info is a bit outdated, I tried to include updates in brackets. I included some slides to help demonstrate the point, but you can find all my slides in the resource section below.

Hi everyone, and thank you for coming to my talk! I’m Sofia Balderson, co-founder of Hive—a global community for farmed animal advocates. Hive connects people to increase their impact, and we’re best known for:

• Hive Slack – an active online space with over 3,000 animal advocates
• Hive Highlights – our bi-weekly newsletter with ~3,000 subscribers featuring the latest news, research, and impact opportunities in the movement

We also host events, make strategic connections, and curate useful resources for advocates worldwide.

In this talk, I’ll share the story of how Hive grew from a side project into a funded organization—and what I’ve learned along the way. While this is just one path, I hope it helps others navigating early-stage charity work, especially in meta animal advocacy.

Disclaimers:

• This is based on my experience building a meta charity in animal advocacy.
• My way may not be the right way - I’m just sharing what worked for me.
• My advice may or may not apply to you depending on your circumstances.
• Evaluate my advice critically.
• Building a project is hard - I’m not advising everyone to do it.
• I’ll share the link to the slides after the talk!

Talk Overview

Here’s what I’ll cover:

1. Identifying a problem you can solve
2. Testing your hypothesis
3. Getting funding—and dealing with rejections
4. Finding a team
5. Measuring your impact
6. Deciding whether to commit

1. Identifying the Right Problem

Hive started with me noticing a pain point: there was no central place to find curated, up-to-date opportunities in farmed animal advocacy.

At first, I simply shared interesting links with friends. But I was spending way too much time on it—so I turned it into a monthly newsletter. A few hundred people signed up within days. That became Hive Highlights.

Key tips:

• Do some research, but also test your hypothesis quickly
• Narrow down the problem—don’t try to solve everything at once
• Ask others for feedback, but weigh their experience carefully. I paid more attention to meta advocates who saw the value in Hive than to skeptics unfamiliar with the space.

I also found it helpful to ask myself:

• Is this an impactful opportunity?
• Do I have a unique fit?

• If I don’t do it, will someone else?

  

   

That clarity gave me confidence to proceed.

2. Finding the Right Team

Many people start projects alone, but I genuinely believe the right co-founder makes everything better.

My first co-founder, Cam, and current co-founder, Constance [edit - Constance has now stepped back from Hive and is spinning out a Hive-born project, AI for Animals, soon to rebrand to Sentient Futures], were essential to Hive’s success. With them, I had more ideas, better execution, and motivation when one of us struggled. Without them, Hive wouldn’t be what it is today.

What worked for me:

• Talk about your project a lot—at conferences, on Slack, online
• Let people try contributing first—don’t rush to offer a co-founder title
• Look for people who don’t just believe in your vision, but who consistently get things done

3. Building a Minimal Viable Product (MVP)

My first “master plan” was 16 pages long—but not very concrete. I couldn’t get funding with it, and I didn't have proven impact.

On this slide, the first picture is me writing the first Hive Highlights edition, and coming up with an idea for Hive on my kitchen table while dog sitting a lovely dog Bollie. The second picture is a screengrab of the idea write up, followed by a picture of Cam and I at at the AVA conference in LA 2023.

Then Cam and I launched our second program: Hive Slack. A space for farmed animal advocates to collaborate. Hundreds joined within days, and we’ve seen steady growth since. That MVP became Hive’s most impactful program.

My MVP advice:

• You don’t necessarily need to start a charity—trial your idea on the side
• Start small and don’t overcomplicate
• Embrace uncertainty—early on, you won’t have clarity on outcomes
• Refocus if complexity or scope creep makes things unsustainable

At one point, we launched too many projects and had to cut back. Refocusing on what worked—Hive Highlights and Hive Slack—was a hard but necessary decision.

4. Measuring Impact

At first, I had no idea how to measure the impact of community building.

Eventually, I learned to distinguish between:

• Lead indicators – Early signs of traction (e.g. number of Slack members, engagement metrics such as newsletter click-through rate or Slack weekly active users)
• Lag indicators – Concrete outcomes (e.g. jobs found, new projects started)
   

Examples of Hive’s lag indicators:

• 80+ high-impact outcomes (jobs, volunteers, grants, and spinouts) [2025 edit: now over a 100!]
• Feedback from orgs like Animal Advocacy Africa, Ethical Seafood Research and others 

• Qualitative praise from movement leaders like Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, Sharon Núñez and Jane Land.
   

  

   

• 

We now track these systematically.

5. Funding and Rejections

In Hive’s first year, we raised only $250. Enough to run the newsletter, but not enough to pay me.

So I kept my day job and ran Hive in my spare time.

My advice:

• Unless you’re CE [now called AIM] -incubated, extremely senior, or independently wealthy, start your project part-time
• Rely on volunteers (I was one for a full year!)
• Ask for pro-bono tools—a few tools gave us a free plan when I explained our situation

The turning point:
One year later, I met Constance. She’d been earning to give, and Hive helped her feel connected again. She became a very active community member, and later our seed funder (with $30K + backstop funding). Because of her fit, she later joined me as co-founder when Cam stepped down.

From there, we grew with support from Open Phil, EA Funds, and others.

6. Lessons in Fundraising

Build relationships before you ask for money

• Show your work! Give talks, post updates, start a newsletter
• Tell stories—share how you helped one person, not just stats
• Stay in touch with funders after the grant

Learn to cope with rejections—they’re not personal

I used to get crushed by rejection. Now, I expect it. I reflect, iterate, and keep going.

Keep in mind that:

• Rejections are inevitable
• Rejections don’t necessarily mean you should give up right away, but eventually it may
• Rejections are not personal
  • Give yourself a day or two to process the rejection emotionally
  • Then, leave ego at the door and intellectually engage with the info
• It gets easier to accept rejections with time

7. Deciding Whether to Commit

When deciding to go full-time, I asked myself:

• Do we have any lead or lag indicators?
• What’s our counterfactual impact—would Hive happen without me?
• Can I financially sustain myself for at least 8 months?
• What’s the worst-case scenario—and could I live with it?
   

We set an early stopping point: if we didn’t meet our impact threshold after 8 months, we’d wrap it up. That gave us space to work without fear.

And it worked.

But it’s also okay to walk away. If your project isn’t working or you’re not the right fit—changing your mind is not failure. It’s wise.

Q&A section:

Q: How did you identify your high-impact outcomes?

Sofia:
Great question. Especially with side projects, you might not know what your impact indicators will be at the start. My advice: pay attention to how people react.

At first, I just got thank-you messages—people telling me Hive was useful. That was nice, but not enough. So I started asking follow-up questions:

• What exactly did you find useful?
• Did it lead to anything concrete?

Eventually, people told me things like:

“I found a paid opportunity through Hive Slack—and it was the fastest I’ve ever gotten a job.”

That’s when I began tracking impact in a spreadsheet. Now we use Airtable and classify outcomes like:

• Jobs
• Volunteer roles
• Funding
• Projects launched

We’ve now logged over 80 high-impact outcomes.
 

Q: Can you explain “scope creep” and how you handled it while growing Hive?

Sofia:
Oh, we definitely fell into this trap early on! Cam, Constance, and I were so excited about community building that we kept brainstorming and launching new initiatives—probably 10 at once.

Thankfully, two of our advisers (with 10+ years of experience) reviewed our strategic plan and said:

“This is way too much. You need to cut 90% and focus on the one thing you do best.”

It was painful to scale back, but absolutely worth it. If you’re a small team with limited funding, focus so much it feels uncomfortable. That’s how you build something strong.

Q: How many hours were you putting in as a volunteer, and how did you manage your time?

Sofia:
The newsletter took about two full days to plan initially, then 1 day/month to publish. Promotion was a few extra hours per month.

When we launched Hive Slack, it started at just a few hours a week. But as it grew, moderation demands increased—it soon became 5, then 10, then 20 hours/week.

Eventually I was working evenings and weekends. I don’t recommend that! But I had support from my partner and co-founders, which helped. My advice:

• Track your time
• Refocus if it’s taking over your life
• Delegate or simplify wherever possible

Q: How do you find volunteers or co-founders—beyond just joining Hive Slack?

Sofia:
Start by talking about your project—constantly. Go to conferences. Post progress updates. Give talks. You never know who might be interested.

With Cam, we already knew each other, but our collaboration started during a retreat where we brainstormed together and came up with the Hive Slack concept.

Also, work publicly—post on LinkedIn, share updates regularly. People who resonate with your mission will start reaching out.

Q: What kinds of jobs help build the skills and credibility to start a nonprofit?

Sofia:
My previous role at Animal Advocacy Careers helped a lot. It was a small meta charity, so I learned how to measure impact and operate lean.

If you’re early in your career:

• Volunteer at or work for a similar org
• Learn by doing—but be thoughtful about your potential impact and risks

That said, even with relevant experience, it still took a year to build Hive’s reputation. So don’t expect a fast track just because of your resume.

Q: How do you keep Hive Slack alive and impactful?

Sofia:
It takes a lot more work than people think. Communities don’t run themselves. At first, you face a cold start problem: no activity means no engagement.

What helps:

• Share relevant, high-quality content
• Improve onboarding
• Evaluate and prune channels regularly
• Promote Hive to bring in new members
• Moderate lightly but consistently (though our community is very kind!)

Q: How do you help people decide between joining an existing org vs. founding something new?

Sofia:
I don’t encourage people to start their own org unless they have a very strong personal fit.

Starting a charity is hard. You wear many hats. You deal with funding challenges. You’re responsible for others’ salaries. Even if it looks glamorous, it’s often emotionally and logistically draining.

If you're not sure:

• Volunteer or work at an existing org first
• Build skills
• Then evaluate whether founding makes sense for you

Q: Have you experienced tension between what you want to do and what funders want to fund?

Sofia:
Honestly, we’ve been lucky. Our major funders—Open Phil, EA Funds, Navigation Fund—have supported our vision and encouraged us to focus on quality over quantity.

The best advice I got from Cam was:

“Never do what a funder tells you to do unless you think it’s the right thing to do.”

Funders have rarely said, “Do X and we’ll fund you.” If we get a rejection, it’s usually about alignment, not because we’re not doing enough.

Q: What platform would you recommend for running a community like Hive Slack?

Sofia:
Slack worked well for us because our audience—mostly professionals—was already using it for work. It was frictionless.

In general, test your assumptions. Don’t build around what people say they want. Focus on what they actually use.

Slack worked for us, but you won’t know what’s effective until you launch something small and see if people engage.

Q: What are your next steps for Hive? What are you excited about?

Sofia:
We’ve probably reached saturation in Western countries—about 70% of active farmed animal advocates in the West are on Hive already.

So now we’re looking at Asia, Africa, and Latin America—regions where factory farming is rising and the movement is less connected.

We’re launching an ambassador program to help build Hive’s presence in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. I’m excited, but also aware it’ll be challenging.
 

Q: How do you handle operations with a small team?

Sofia:
We currently have about 3.5 FTE, and a contracted operations specialist who handles bookkeeping and finance. We used to have a fiscal sponsor, but now we manage things ourselves with some help.

Right now, it works. But as we grow, we may need more dedicated ops support. For now, we keep it lean and lightweight.

Resources

• Slides
• My podcast episode on How I Learned to Love Shrimp talking about starting Hive
• My post about what my job was like very early on building Hive
• 15 things I wish I knew starting out in animal advocacy 
• Charity Entrepreneurship resources
• Kickstarting for Good
• Accountability coaching (pro-bono) and free mental health support

Want to get more support for your project or get in involved in farmed animal advocacy?

• Join Hive Slack, ask for help in #help-requests and DM Kevin Xia or myself
• Subscribe to Hive Highlights newsletter (Submit your own news and updates)
• Reach out to me anytime: EA Forum DMs, Hive Slack DMs, LinkedIn