Making a Difference
A free online course designed to empower you to drive meaningful impact.
Making a Difference teaches evidence-based approaches to address pressing global challenges in fields such as Global Health & Development, Animal Welfare, Climate Change, Biological Risk, and AI Risk.
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Course level
Introductory
Time to complete
8 weeks,
2 hours a week
Prerequisites
Just a passion for making
a positive impact
What You’ll Walk Away With
What you’ll gain from this course isn’t just knowledge — it’s a new way
of thinking about how to help.
Analytical tools for evaluating the impact of possible interventions
Frameworks for prioritizing impactful actions
Decision-making methods from multi-disciplinary perspectives
Concrete opportunities in promising cause areas
What We’ll Cover (and Why)
In the last two centuries, humanity's average wealth has increased tenfold, while at the same time, child mortality has fallen tenfold. Yet, hundreds of millions of people still earn less than $2 a day, animal cruelty is worse than ever, and risks from climate change, pandemics, and artificial intelligence appear to be on the rise. Many of us care about these issues, but can we do anything about them? This interdisciplinary program will provide you with a collection of practical tools from economics, public health, behavioral science, ethics, exact sciences, technology, the life sciences, and more to help you achieve a positive and significant impact. From the small decisions we make every day, through the initiatives we choose to support, to our most significant life choices, such as what career to pursue, relying on evidence and analytical methodologies can help you drive a change you believe in. Our program is divided into two courses: The first, Making a Difference Ⅰ: Evidence-based Impact, focuses on the foundations of cost-effectiveness, measurement, evaluation, and key questions around who to extend our compassion and concern towards. We’ll also explore some of the causes and opportunities with the strongest evidence for impact. The second course, Making a Difference Ⅱ: High Stakes, explores tools for prioritization and assessment when there’s limited information and the stakes are extremely high - including risks to the survival and prosperity of human civilization.
Making a Difference I – Evidence-based Impact
In this lesson, we’ll explore our unique ability to impact thousands of lives, examining some of the most impactful interventions in history, but also see how some interventions can even cause harm. We'll see why data and evidence matter – and set the stage for the course ahead.
Main themes:
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How using data and evidence can inform our decision-making and
help increase our impact by orders of magnitude -
Common biases and misconceptions that undermine our ability
to help others -
Considering the consequences of our actions, alongside other
moral considerations
In this lesson, we’ll acquire preliminary tools to explore “what works?” and learn the importance of cost-effectiveness, measurement, evaluation, and feedback. We’ll also dive into our first cause area: Global Health.
Main themes:
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Measurement and evaluation
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Cost-effectiveness analysis
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Marginal cost-effectiveness and diminishing marginal returns
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Quantifying impact in Global Health
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Global Health
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Two pillars of decision making: facts & values
Who deserves moral consideration – or our personal concern? How has the answer to this question evolved throughout history? In this lesson, we’ll explore these questions and dive into animal rights and how to act effectively in this cause area.
Main themes:
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The Drowning Child thought experiment
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The Expanding Circle of moral concern
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Understanding the state of animal welfare
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Measuring the welfare harms suffered by animals
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Animal Welfare
In this lesson, we’ll explore advanced decision-making tools for navigating real-world complexity and uncertainty. We’ll gain a more nuanced understanding of what impact means and dive into the cause area of Global Development, with concrete opportunities to make a difference.
Main themes:
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Counterfactual thinking, opportunity cost, replaceability, and uncertainty
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Expected cost-effectiveness, and risk aversion
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Getting high-quality evidence: controlled trials and RCTs
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Global Development
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The challenge of prioritizing promising interventions
Making a Difference II – High Stakes
From nuclear weapons and epidemics to climate change, artificial intelligence, and violent cosmic events, numerous risks have global catastrophic consequences. In this lesson, beginning the course's second part, we will focus on areas with less conclusive evidence but higher stakes and potential impact. We will also start addressing cause area prioritization using a systematic framework.
Main themes:
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Global Catastrophic Risks (GCRs): Anthropogenic and
non-anthropogenic -
Assessing the risk from GCRs
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The inter-cause prioritization challenge
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The ITN framework: Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness
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Promising interventions & opportunities in GCRs
In this lesson we will deep-dive into the field of climate change. We’ll understand why many see this problem as the most important challenge of the 21st century. We will also utilize this discussion as a case study for making impact-focused decisions, initiating new projects, and prioritizing real-world interventions under significant uncertainty and complexity.
Main themes:
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Understanding the state and possible trajectories of Climate Change
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On the importance of expert opinion
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Choosing between climate interventions: a case study
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Climate Change
In this lesson, we will explore biological risks and pandemic preparedness and response. We'll focus on worst-case scenarios — disease outbreaks severe enough to pose global catastrophic risks. Additionally, we will introduce analytical tools for estimating with scarce evidence and apply them to assess biological risks.
Main themes:
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Understanding Biological Risks - both natural and man-made
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Assessing the scale and extent of Biological Risk
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Prioritization and assessment with limited empirical data
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Pandemic prevention, detection and response
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Biological Risk
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a field that’s moving so rapidly that it’s hard to follow, let alone predict. While AI shows great promise, it's crucial to acknowledge the complexities and responsibilities that its advancement brings. In this lesson, we’ll examine the potential harms AI can cause, both immediately and in the long term, and discuss strategies for mitigating these risks.
Main themes:
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Understanding Artificial Intelligence: a crash course
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Risks from current and future AI
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Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
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Existing work on AI safety and security
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Promising interventions & opportunities in Artificial Intelligence Risks
How do you choose a career path with significant positive impact, and successfully follow through? In this lesson we will learn tools for analyzing the impact of different career paths, while examining which ones are a good fit for you personally. We’ll also discuss key insights that can help advance your career regardless of what field you’re in.
Main themes:
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Does money = happiness?
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The makings of an impactful career
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Finding a good fit
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Paths to impact: direct work, research careers,
professional services -
Career capital
Get a Taste of the Course
The following is an excerpt from Lesson 1, titled Introduction to Making a Difference.
Is Goodwill Enough?
To make a positive impact in the world, you need goodwill. We assume that since you are here with us, you have a lot of goodwill! But, is goodwill enough?
Meet the Course Creators
Sella Nevo
Lecturer and Co-Course Creator
Sella Nevo is the director of RAND’s Meselson Center, dedicated to reducing risks from biological threats and emerging technologies. He is also a Venture Partner at the VC firm Firstime, which invests in climate startups, and is on the advisory board of ALLFED - the Alliance to Feed the Earth In Disasters.
He previously led the Karmel group at Google Research, which developed the Google Flood Forecasting Initiative, which provides flood forecasts and warnings globally, alongside several other humanitarian and environmental efforts. He also co-founded an impact-focused career advising nonprofit and taught Applied Ethics and Information Security at Tel Aviv University.
Dan Lahav
Lecturer and Co-Course Creator
Dan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pattern Labs - an organization dedicated to securing advanced technology. He also co-founded Impact Focused Education, which aims to develop an effective educational path for engaging in large-scale high-impact work.
Beyond that, Dan co-created and taught academic courses on topics such as Applied Ethics, received TAU's "Outstanding Lecturer Award" (thrice), co-authored an AI paper that was featured on the cover of Nature, won IBM’s ‘Outstanding Technical Achievement Award’, and was crowned Best Speaker of The World at the World Universities Debating Championship where he holds the all-time personal ranking record for a non-native English speaker.
What Learners Are Saying
“By far the most interesting course I took. It gave me tools for informed decision making in my career and in investing my resources (hopefully) more effectively“.
“Even after the course ended, I see how it affects my decision making and professional development, as well as leading me to new career opportunities and meaningful volunteer work“.
Ready to Make a Real Difference?
Join for free, learn at your own time, and start your path towards making a difference.
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The Making a Difference program was developed and produced by Impact Focused Education, in collaboration with the Dean of Online Learning at Tel Aviv University.
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Contact us at contact@impactfocusededucation.org
© Copyright Impact Focused Education 2025. Impact Focused Education is a project by Dan Lahav and Sella Nevo.