E4C Impact Projects

Impact Projects advance the sustainability objectives of mission-driven organizations. We match brilliant global talent to specific challenges in short-term projects in three areas: Design, Research, or Workflows. E4C provides expert management, mentorship, training, and oversight through our Fellowship program.

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E4C has 10+ years of experience offering targeted technical expertise to advance partners' impact goals.

We leverage a global pool of high-quality early career engineers, architects, and scientists passionate about social impact to meet Impact Project deliverables.

E4C's far-reaching online platform and social media presence, with over 70,000 members and approaching 1 million followers, enables us to amplify and promote our partnerships for powerful co-branding.

E4C simplifies the process of acquiring technical talent by handling the logistics of recruitment, contracts, Non-Disclosure Agreements, training, and a performance-based payment structure. We also provide Fellow management and technical support ensuring project success.

A World of Change

Technical Ingenuity Advancing Sustainable Development

E4C Impact Projects create global change.

15

SDGs

185

Projects

49

Countries

106

Partners

Design For Good

A sustainable future depends on innovative product design. We connect exceptional talent to design projects such as needs assessment, market research, concept generation, testing, and go-to-market strategy.

Impact Research

We match skilled researchers to investigate critical sustainable development questions, combining engineering and global development perspectives. Types of projects include landscape analyses, interview-based studies, and large dataset analysis.

Advancing Workflows

We secure technical talent to improve system workflow processes to help organizations achieve their impact goals. Types of projects include template development, software integration, and process strategy development.

Latest Impact Projects

See how recent E4C Impact Projects are transforming global communities.

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E4C Sponsor Since 2010 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 Autodesk Foundation
E4C Sponsor Since 2023 Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI)
ASME India Pvt. Ltd.
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Habitat for Humanity
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
E4C Sponsor Since 2022 Siegel Family Endowment
E4C Sponsor Since 2022 Arizona State University (ASU)
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 Pennsylvania State University
E4C Sponsor Since 2022 University of Dayton
E4C Sponsor Since 2023 Engineering Change Lab – USA
E4C Sponsor Since 2024 EPRI
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 University of Missouri
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 Chemonics
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 VIA Global Health
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 Colorado School of Mines
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 The Ohio State University
E4C Sponsor Since 2021 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 Institute of Food Technologists
Engineers Without Borders Australia
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 Australian National University
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 American University of Beirut
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 Huawei Technologies
Villgro USA
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 Autodesk
E4C Sponsor Since 2020 MAPLE Micro Development
E4C Sponsor Since 2019 Norwegian Refugee Council
E4C Sponsor Since 2019 UN Habitat
E4C Sponsor Since 2023 Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technologies (CAWST)
Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT Madras
E4C Sponsor Since 2019 Think-it
MIT D-Lab

Impact Project FAQs

Below are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding E4C Impact Projects.

We accept applications for Impact Projects year-round, although may require additional details once our we begin our dedicated call for projects.

Requests are due by November 1st – if you want to be considered but will not be able to submit your request by then please let us know through the same form and we may be able to accept your request later.

We begin reviewing applications in October and selected projects are confirmed by the end of November. We then work with the chosen organizations to define detailed Fellow profiles for recruitment. Our team matches the best E4C Fellow candidates to your project by mid-April. Projects commence in May.

Impact Projects align with our yearly Fellowship Program that runs for ~5 months from May to the end of September. You will receive approximately 18-20 hours of support per week over this period.

Impact Projects cost $18,000 per five-month project with one early-career technical professional supporting your project part-time as an E4C Fellow.

This fee covers Fellow training and stipends, as well as costs associated with talent recruitment, onboarding, training, project scoping and management, promotion and dissemination of publicly-facing outputs promoting the work.

Cost-share pricing is available where appropriate, such as for organizations that are entirely founded, based, and operating in the Global South – If this is of interest, please request a project and we will get back to you.

Travel for E4C Fellows as part of your project can be considered at an additional cost.

Most of our portfolio organizations self-fund their Impact Project, either directly or through an outside sponsor. We are open to supporting joint funding applications led by organizations seeking to partner with us, but funding must be secured before our project application cut-off to be considered for the upcoming Impact Project cohort.

Where cost-share pricing is offered, E4C redirects some of our other funding to cover part of the cost of your project, while you fund the other part of the cost.

We have very limited capacity to offer projects pro-bono, but do consider this when funding permits.

Impact Projects provides your organization with the support of a trained E4C Fellow aligned to your project and carefully selected from a global pool of high-quality technical talent.

By pairing you with an E4C Fellow we are able to offer our projects more affordably than a typical consultant’s pricing for a similar output. We achieve successful outcomes for your project by giving each Fellow management, mentorship, training, and guidance from E4C’s project success team.

Collaborating with E4C on an Impact Project also contributes to the development of the future workforce, equipping Fellows for success on your project and beyond.

1. Requests should include an impact-focused project with some degree of definition that can be completed by an early-career professional engaging for ~20 hours per week from May – September.

2. Proposed projects should align to one of E4C’s project categories (Design for Good, Advancing Workflows, Impact Research).

3. It is helpful if the project proposal includes some guidance on what you believe would make for a good candidate to support your project (e.g., mechanical engineer, someone with Revit experience).

4. Preference is given to organizations who are able to cover their project cost, whether that is in full or their portion for a cost-share pricing.

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