Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Sarah Pomeranz of Consultants for Impact Is Helping To Change Our World
Encouragement is more powerful than you think. When people are job searching, it can feel like the world is saying “no” over and over again. A rejection here, an ignored application there, it adds up fast. As career advisors, we’re just one person, often a stranger, but we have an enormous power to restore someone’s faith in themselves. A simple, well-timed conversation can be the difference between someone giving up and someone pushing through. I’ve seen it happen over and over again: someone walks into a call discouraged, feeling like they’re not good enough, and walks away with renewed confidence, not because we changed their resume, but because we reminded them of their own value.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Pomeranz.
Sarah Pomeranz, the 27-year-old CEO of Consultants for Impact, leads an ambitious nonprofit dedicated to helping consultants from firms like McKinsey tackle society’s most pressing challenges. Recently names a 2025 Rising Star by Consulting Magazine for her leadership excellence, she started her career as a strategy consultant at Accenture. While in college, Sarah founded Sulis, a patent-holding social enterprise that earned her recognition as one of the Top 3 American Student Entrepreneurs.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I studied social justice and business in college, which often put me in classes where I was the only person from the other discipline. I relished these moments because I believe some of the best innovations emerge at the intersection of seemingly disparate fields. Even at 18, I recognized that business is the lingua franca of our time; it’s the nexus of power and decision-making. If you don’t understand markets and economic incentives, making large-scale, systemic change becomes significantly harder. At the same time, when I look back at some of the most transformative societal progress of the 20th century, civil rights, public health advancements, gender equality, so much of what was achieved was driven by broad social movements. I wanted to study both disciplines to understand what each could offer the other and how their combination could drive even more effective change.
This perspective led me to co-found Sulis in 2017, a social venture that used solar-powered water sterlization tech to improve access to clean drinking water in India. At the time, millions of people across the country were at risk of diseases linked to unsafe water, including those that caused severe swelling, chronic illness, and, in some cases, life-threatening infections. Sulis aimed to provide a simple, affordable solution, one that we hoped would cut waterborne disease rates in half and drastically improve millions of lives.
The common thread in my career has been a belief that more of us should be wildly ambitious about what we can achieve in our day jobs over a 40+ year career. I started out by tackling one of the biggest public health issues of our time, lack of clean water, which set a high bar for what meaningful work could look like. Now, I focus on helping others take similarly bold steps in applying their skills to the world’s most pressing challenges.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
In the early days of running Consultants for Impact, we hosted a series of weekend retreats that felt a little like a mix between a think tank and summer camp. The attendees were a group of deeply thoughtful, immensely ambitious consultants who were grappling with some of the biggest questions of their careers: What do I believe are the world’s most pressing problems, and how can I best apply my skills to tackle them?
Some of my fondest memories are from those late-night, dorm-room-style conversations, sitting on couches, cross-legged on the floor, debating everything from catastrophic risks to global health interventions, sometimes over a bottle of wine, sometimes over a pile of Post-it notes filled with career ideas. The best part is, these weren’t just theoretical discussions; they were the beginnings of real career shifts. One attendee who stayed up with me until 2 a.m. mapping out their options is now the Organisational Impact Specialist at Malaria Consortium, helping scale interventions that save lives from one of the deadliest diseases in human history. Another spent a retreat wrestling with AI governance questions and is now literally writing policy for the EU AI Act, perhaps one of the most consequential pieces of legislation of the decade.
It’s humbling to know that these moments, conversations that started over cups of coffee or during a spontaneous hike between sessions, helped shape decisions that would go on to impact entire industries and global issues. And what’s even more exciting is knowing these are just two stories among many. Those early retreats weren’t just about career transitions; they were about building a community of people who would push each other to aim higher, think deeper, and commit to solving the world’s toughest problems in ways none of us could have predicted back then.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Looking back at our early days, it’s amusing how basic a lot of my worries were. I used to lie awake stressing over every little detail: Will attendees at our event have enough food? Will the name tags be clear enough? These small anxieties consumed so much mental energy that, in hindsight, could have been better directed elsewhere.
My bigger mistake, though, was how I approached problem-solving. I instinctively treated every organizational challenge as if the answer was already out there, hidden in the right article, waiting to be uncovered in an expert’s advice, or solved by adopting best practices from a well-run organization. I assumed that if I just spoke to enough smart people, I’d find the perfect playbook for how to build a service like ours.
Over time, I realized that while expert input is immensely valuable, no amount of research can replace actually testing ideas, piloting programs, and seeing firsthand what works. The most useful insights often haven’t come from reading case studies but from trying things myself, seeing what resonates, what flops, and iterating from there.
This shift in mindset changed everything. Instead of waiting to uncover the right answer, I started treating everything as a work in progress. We launched pilot programs with the expectation that they’d evolve, collected feedback constantly, and embraced the idea that the best way for us to learn is by doing.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
Think about the biggest challenges humanity faces over the next 10 years: preventing future pandemics, protecting democracy, reducing risks from nuclear war, ensuring basic human rights, and survival needs of a growing global population, just to name a few. We need an A-team working on these problems and that that A-team should include some of the brightest strategic thinkers, many of whom are currently employed at places like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain.
Yet, if you talk to people at these firms, you’ll hear a common refrain: They want to work on problems that truly matter, but they don’t know where to start. After speaking with over 500+ consultants, we’ve seen the same challenges come up again and again — Which global problems are really the most urgent? Which organizations are doing the best work? How do I narrow down my options? And when is the right time to leave? Many consultants entered the field for the learning and fast-paced environment, but when they start thinking about applying those skills for good, the sheer number of possibilities can be overwhelming. Without clear guidance, it’s easy to stay put, delaying the transition or never making it at all.
At Consultants for Impact, our mission is simple: help strategy consultants transition into careers solving the world’s most pressing problems. Our entire team is made up of ex-consultants, so we know firsthand the long hours, intense expectations, and the seemingly impossible challenge of finding the mental energy to chart a new course. That’s why we designed our programs specifically for consultants — with an understanding of their time constraints, ambitions, and needs. We provide 1:1 career advising, personalized introductions, and role-matching — connecting consultants with the highest impact organizations tackling global challenges. The world’s best employers, from a societal impact perspective, reach out to us every week, asking, “Who can I hire?”
When we first met many of our members, they were overworked, burned out, and struggling to find meaning in projects that don’t align with their values. Now, they’re shaping U.S. biosecurity policy, directing funding to transform food systems, and leading organizations at the forefront of AI risk mitigation.
The world desperately needs leaders who can think strategically under pressure, analyze complex problems, and collaborate across disciplines. That’s exactly what we help our 1,500+ members do — place their skills where they can make the greatest impact.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
When I first met Deep Dhillon, he was at a professional crossroads. As a former Boston Consulting Group Project Leader, he had spent years mastering strategy and operations, but his true passion lay elsewhere. He was determined to dedicate his career to ending the suffering of millions of factory-farmed animals. The only question was: how?
We sat down for a one-on-one conversation, and together, we mapped out the possibilities. Could he launch a high-impact startup? Raise funds for existing players? Drive change through governance and board leadership? Deep was eager to explore every promising avenue, but he needed a plan to test these options in the real world. So, we built one.
With our support — strategic guidance, warm introductions, and a community to lean on — Deep embarked on a journey of discovery. He completed the ProVeg startup incubator for alternative proteins, took steps toward securing funding for his own venture, and joined the board of Faunalytics, a pioneering research organization in animal protection.
At every stage, we checked in. “What’s your career hypothesis? What are you learning?” Deep carefully weighed his options, reflecting on where he could have the greatest impact. Then, the perfect opportunity emerged: a Managing Director role at Mercy For Animals, one of the most strategic and influential organizations in the field. For Deep, this wasn’t just a career move — it was a transformation. The long hours spent on projects that didn’t align with his values were behind him. Now, every hour of his work is dedicated to what he truly cares about: building a future where animals are no longer subjected to suffering.
Deep’s journey is a testament to the power of the right support at the right time. And for us, it’s a reminder of why we do what we do.
What are the three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
1 . Recognize that, above a certain level of privilege, your career is a reflection of your values.
We spend the majority of our waking hours working, yet we rarely discuss career choices in the same way we talk about voting, recycling, or donating. But above a certain level of privilege, once your base level financial needs are met, where you choose to invest your time and skills is one of the biggest levers you have to shape the world. If we encourage our friends to take small steps toward a better world like voting, why not encourage them to take the biggest step: aligning their careers with their values?
The good news is that making an impact doesn’t have to mean sacrificing success, financial stability, or intellectual curiosity. There are real pathways to doing meaningful work that are also fulfilling and sustainable, and we need a cultural shift that normalizes and celebrates using one’s talents for the greater good.
2 . Teach career strategy from a problem-first perspective.
Too often, career planning is framed around personal success rather than global challenges. But what if we flipped that? What if, instead of asking, “What job do I want?” we asked, “What problems most in need of solving and how can I help?” The tragic truth is, some of the world’s most consequential problems are deeply underserved, and even small contributions can have an outsized impact. If we taught people to view career decisions as an opportunity to create the world they want to live in, society as a whole would benefit from the drive, talent, and ambition that already exists.
3 . Build safety nets that empower people to take risks in service of high-impact careers.
One of the biggest barriers to meaningful career transitions isn’t a lack of willingness, it’s a lack of financial flexibility. Many people want to pivot into more impactful work but simply can’t afford to take three months to scope out a new venture, pursue an additional degree, or explore alternative career paths. This is where policies like universal basic income (UBI) or transitional funding could be game-changers. We’ve already seen this in action: cash transfer programs in developing economies and COVID-era stimulus checks in the U.S. have provided people the breathing room to launch projects they otherwise wouldn’t have, upskill, or transition into better-aligned careers.
If we want to unlock more impact-driven talent, we need to mitigate the very real financial barriers, such as college debt and high childcare costs, that force people into default lucrative career paths. By providing greater financial flexibility, we can empower individuals to take calculated risks, explore higher-impact opportunities, and maximize their contributions that we all benefit from.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is about being the first to step into uncertainty, taking on challenges that others might avoid. Picture a group running through a dense forest — the person in front is the one hitting the spiderwebs, clearing the way for those behind. That’s leadership in its rawest form: not just forging ahead, but making it easier for others to follow.
But leadership isn’t just about taking the first step — it’s about making sure others know how they can take it too. Many people do important, high-impact work but keep their stories to themselves, whether out of humility or a reluctance to draw attention. The result? Missed opportunities for others to learn, be inspired, or replicate that impact. Leadership means not only acting on your values but also sharing what you’ve learned so that others don’t have to start from scratch.
It’s easy to think of leadership as simply being in charge or making big decisions. But to me, it’s about taking on the work that no one else is doing, even when there’s no clear roadmap. And once you’ve made progress, it’s about making that path visible for others who are ready to walk it.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 . Good intentions don’t guarantee good results.
This should be obvious, but a lot of people, especially in the nonprofit and public sector world, assume that if the mission is strong, then the work will be impactful. That’s not how I see it. I take a page from The Lean Startup and treat every project like a hypothesis. What does success look like? How will we measure it? What’s the backup plan if it doesn’t work? As an organizational leader, I get 360-degree feedback from our team, board, and advisors twice a year. Our organization invests heavily in measurement and evaluation for every project we run, because in the end, having an impact is not about what we hope will work, it’s about what actually does.
2 . Many career plans fall apart after one hard question.
One of the most common mistakes I see is when career plans contradict themselves. I recently spoke with someone who was determined to work on ensuring a safe societal transition to transformative artificial intelligence (TAI). They believed TAI was almost certainly arriving within the next five years, but their plan was to spend the next seven in grad school. When I pointed this out, they realized their approach didn’t align with their own sense of urgency.
This kind of misalignment happens more often than people think, and the fix is simple: ask yourself, Is this actually the most direct and effective way to get where I want to go? If one question can unravel your whole plan, it’s probably time for a rethink. That’s why getting external feedback on your career plans, even when they’re still loose ideas, can be so valuable. A fresh perspective can help you catch blind spots before they turn into wasted time.
3 . Don’t mistake your foot in the door for the destination.
Many early-career professionals treat landing a strategy consulting job as the finish line when it should really be the starting point. The people who get the most out of their (typically brief) time in consulting are the ones who walk in with a plan — not just for what they want to do after consulting, but for what they want to learn, who they want to meet, and how they want to grow while they’re there.
If you’re interested in the circular economy, prioritize supply chain projects. If you want to work at a foundation as a grantmaker, push for due diligence work to build your analytical skills. The common advice for new joiners is to “stay open to anything,” but I disagree. The people who truly thrive are the ones who balance flexibility with focus — who stay adaptable while being intentional about what they’re optimizing for, even if they’re still figuring out the specifics.
4 . Your career is part of your life, not separate from it.
I’m a big believer that careers cannot just be about maximizing impact or prestige, they have to be sustainable in the context of your actual life. Too often, professionals, whether they lean heavily towards climbing corporate ladders or or extreme altruism, pursue career paths that look good on paper but don’t fully account for their personal realities. Paying off your MBA loans matters. Moving home to care for a sick parent matters. Avoiding burnout matters.
The best career decisions aren’t just about “What’s the most impressive or high-impact job I can get?” but rather, “What’s a path that allows me to do meaningful work and sustain it in the long-term?” The people who make the biggest impact over time are the ones who build careers that support both their ambitions and their lives, not ones that force them to choose between the two.
5 . Encouragement is more powerful than you think.
When people are job searching, it can feel like the world is saying “no” over and over again. A rejection here, an ignored application there, it adds up fast. As career advisors, we’re just one person, often a stranger, but we have an enormous power to restore someone’s faith in themselves. A simple, well-timed conversation can be the difference between someone giving up and someone pushing through. I’ve seen it happen over and over again: someone walks into a call discouraged, feeling like they’re not good enough, and walks away with renewed confidence, not because we changed their resume, but because we reminded them of their own value.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire one movement, it would be a movement to make “beta testing” your career the norm — where career experiments become as common as internships, but shorter, more intentional, and focused on helping people transition into high-impact work.
Right now, most career exploration is limited to internships, networking, and big irreversible leaps. Internships are mostly for students. Networking provides secondhand insights, but not real experience. And too often, people only realize a career path isn’t right after they’ve spent years getting there. The result? Brilliant, talented people stuck in default career paths — not because they lack ambition or motivation, but because they didn’t have the chance to truly explore their options before committing.
What if quick, low-commitment career experiments became the norm for professionals at all levels — especially those considering transitions into high-impact work? Imagine if:
- Before switching industries, you shadowed someone in the role for a week to see if the day-to-day work actually aligns with your skills and interests.
- Before launching a nonprofit, you ran a one-month pilot project to test whether your idea truly solves the problem you’re trying to address.
- Before enrolling in a costly master’s program, you worked on a short-term consulting project in that field to see if the degree is actually necessary.
- Before leaving a corporate job for impact work, you took on a weekend side project for a nonprofit or policy group to experience the work firsthand.
The impact? More people making career moves based on real-world data, not guesswork. Fewer wasted years in the wrong roles. More talented professionals finding their way into critical fields like food system transformation, ending extreme poverty, emerging tech policy, where the world desperately needs more capacity.
We already test-drive cars before buying them. We run A/B tests before launching products. Why aren’t we doing the same with our careers, especially when the stakes are so high? By making career prototyping a norm, not an exception, we could help thousands of people transition into work that doesn’t just pay the bills, but actively makes the world better. This movement wouldn’t just change individual lives, it would channel untapped talent into solving the world’s most pressing problems, faster and more effectively.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One quote that has guided me for years is from Albert Einstein: “It’s high time that the ideal of success should be replaced by the ideal of service.”
Early in my career, like many others, I optimized for traditional success — high-achieving roles, fast promotions, and external validation. But over time, I realized that the most meaningful work isn’t about just climbing any ladder, it’s about ensuring the ladders you chose to climb are leaning against the right wall. Whether it’s helping someone reimagine their career, challenging default thinking, or creating spaces where people can make transformative decisions, I’ve found that serving through helping others unlock their full potential has led me to a far greater sense of achievement than any title or accolade ever could.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
The first person that comes to mind as someone I’d love to sit down with is Esther Perel. Her work on interpersonal relationships, identity, and human psychology is fascinating, and I think there’s a huge, underexplored overlap between her insights and how people think about their careers, purpose, and transition periods. Careers, like relationships, are shaped by expectations, our own, our families’, and society’s. They involve risk, identity shifts, and sometimes even grief when letting go of one path for another. I’d love to hear her thoughts on what really drives people to take the leap into something new, what holds them back, and how we can reframe career choices in a way that feels more expansive rather than paralyzing.
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This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Thank YOU so much! So much of our work is fueled and informed by the people we get to speak with, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] with feedback, requests, or questions!
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