Self-Confidence and Climate Charity Entrepreneurship

An interview with Aoife O’Leary

I’m a coach who supports ambitious, mission-driven women to develop their self-confidence and accelerate their impact, without burning out. In this interview series, I talk to women about their careers to uncover mentorship-style advice they’d share with folks wanting to pursue similar paths.

In this post, I share an edited version of my conversation with Aoife O’Leary. Aoife founded and leads Opportunity Green, (a Giving Green top climate non-profit) that uses law and economics to solve international climate issues. She studied Law at Trinity College Dublin and Columbia Law School and Economics at Birkbeck. Before founding Opportunity Green, she worked in climate law for about a decade.

Katie: You got into environmental law almost ten years ago — how did you go from studying to where you are now?

Aoife: I wanted to be a human rights lawyer in secondary school, and I studied law with that goal. But I discovered that if you’re going to earn any money while you qualify — literally just enough to pay rent — you need to work at a commercial law firm. Most firms rejected me because all the college courses on my CV were on human rights and climate policy, but one took me on. My firm did a lot of wind farm deals. That’s when I realised that climate change is a human rights issue, just with science, and I knew this was my ‘thing’. I always planned to leave once I qualified, and that’s what I did.

On ambitious impact & self-confidence

Katie: Do you have a mission or a moral framework? How did you decide to focus on human rights and climate issues?

Aoife: I’ve always wanted to help others. My parents were teachers and strong lefties, and my grandad was in the trade union movement. They taught me that I could do anything, but that it was most important to do something meaningful.

I started an Amnesty International group in school and coerced my friends into writing letters to free prisoners during lunch — I was clearly super annoying as a teenager!

I think I was attracted to law because it’s a universal standard that we don’t have anywhere else. We all have our own morals and we’re imposing them on each other, and law is a reflection of those. There are treatises on what is a moral principle vs a universal principle. It involves hard and fast rules.

Katie: How did you handle the doubt and uncertainty when you were first founding Opportunity Green?

Aoife: I spoke to a number of senior people I respected about my plan, and almost all of them, apart from two notable exceptions, were incredibly supportive. They were like, “Great, go for it! What can I do to help? Do you need an endorsement?” Those external validating comments made me think, okay, maybe I can do this. I also knew I could fall back on being a consultant if it didn’t work out. 

I’d worked in a really toxic environment previously, where I was essentially told that I was terrible at everything. I kind of knew that wasn't true: I was like, “ I have a first in Economics and Law; really, everything I do is terrible?” That experience made me realise that senior people can be awful, and maybe I could do a better job. Weirdly, my negative experiences helped me through the worst moments because I thought, "I can do at least some of this."

Katie: You have a certain level of confidence, audacity and self-belief that I think a lot of women don't have. Where did that come from?

Aoife: It's hard to say. My upbringing was really supportive. We discussed politics at home, and I was always encouraged to have an opinion. I’ve always been a bit of a nerd and did really well in university. I can look at the reality of situations and think, “Okay, this thing is imperfect, but I’ve done these other things in my life — I can do this.” I know many women who struggle with that.

Going through a tough breakup in 2018 also helped. After crying in the toilets every day, sending an email with a typo doesn’t seem like a big deal in comparison. Life is short, so just put yourself out there and try to do what you want! 

Katie: That makes sense. In a recent interview with Sofya Lebedeva, she said that she takes a scientific approach to taking risks — she does something a bit outrageous, assesses the outcome, and realises it’s not that bad. It sounds similar to your approach of looking at the facts and making decisions based on that.

Aoife: The more senior I get, and the more other senior people I meet, the more I realise many of them aren’t that impressive. Are they there because they’ve been there a long time? Are they there because of merit or priviledge? We put these unrealistic standards on ourselves. At Opportunity Green we have a 4-day week, and that’s been great for my perfectionist streak. It forces me to get things done without stressing over them.

Advice for charity entrepreneurs

Katie: Is there any advice you’d give to women who are thinking of setting up nonprofits?

Aoife: It's good to set up a support system. It can be informal, but having friends or colleagues to sense-check things is valuable. 

Katie: Kind of like an advisory board?

Aoife: Yes. I’ve got several people, mostly women, who in the early days would help with things like rereading my emails before they went out. 

But also, don’t put any stock in the advice of people you don’t respect. Some people told me, “Oh, you’re crazy, you shouldn’t leave a well-paid job like that, it’s impossible to set up an NGO, funding is so hard.” But when I look back, those people weren’t who I wanted to be or looked up to. There will always be naysayers, so you have to consider, “How respected are they? What have they done in their careers?”

Katie: Do you have any other hot takes on mistakes you see other women making? 

Aoife: I think a lot of us women have opinions we’re not willing to say publicly. Men often just say whatever, which I don’t think is great either, but there’s a happy medium: women could be more opinionated and not censor themselves so much. Just say it, or just do it, it’ll probably be fine!

Katie: Yeah, I come across many women who have opinions, but something holds them back from actually sharing them, and that seems like a real shame. 

Self care as a founder & CEO

Katie: How do you manage your energy and take care of yourself?

Aoife: I’m extraordinarily lucky; I’ve never been too stressed or anxious about work. The 4-day week has been helpful for this. When we switched, I spent a week questioning every single task I did: asking ‘do I need to do this, or can I delegate it?’ I realised I could delegate about 50% of the tasks.

Ultimately you have to set your own boundaries, and that can be difficult. At Opportunity Green our policy is, the only way your manager will know if you’re overworked is if you put up your hand and say that; don’t just overwork yourself without talking to anyone. Particularly women often have a perfectionist tendency and can be reluctant to ask for help.

Developing a supportive organisational culture

Katie: Tell me about Opportunity Green's culture. It seems quite unique and you have a strong vision for what you’re building there.

Aoife: As I said, we have a 4-day week. We also offer 26 weeks of paid parental leave for everyone. We always put salaries on job ads: I’ve been underpaid before because there was no salary on the ad, so I had no idea what the range was, but when there was a salary, I always managed to negotiate more. 

We have a blind application process, so we don’t see names when reviewing CVs. We have a great, passionate team, and I feel it’s my duty to treat them well. I’ve learned a lot from negative experiences: even in one of my first jobs I had in my notes app ‘things my manager has done that I will never do’, so I’ve clearly been a manager-in-waiting for a long time!

One of my favourite comments recently was, “Aoife never expects more of anyone else than she would do herself, and you know she’s got your back.” That’s the culture I want to foster.

Katie: How do you balance a supportive workplace culture with impact effectiveness?

Aoife: It helps to be clear about our theory of change and consistently question it. We have quarterly impact meetings where everyone shares impact stories from their projects. A lot of our work is about changing policy, and you rarely hear about it when a policymaker changes their mind based on something you told them, but when you do, you bank that win.

You have to constantly ask yourself ‘what’s the most impactful thing?’ I’ve always been quite good at figuring out what that is. Another priority is making sure we have enough funding to keep paying everyone’s salary — we can’t make an impact if we don’t have the funding to continue to exist.

Future ambitions

Katie: How ambitious are you? What are your longer-term career goals?

Aoife: I'm pretty ambitious — hopefully for the greater good, not just for me! I’ve always had a ten-year plan in the back of my mind. For a long time, I didn’t realise that starting Opportunity Green was my next plan, but it was something I’d talk about with friends over drinks: “One day, I’ll start my own NGO, and it’s gonna be great!” 

Now that I’ve done it, I have lots of plans for what I want to achieve at Opportunity Green in the next few years. But also - now I’m working closely with funders - I want to reform philanthropy.

Basically, I just want a billionaire to give me his money directly — and let’s face it, it probably will be a him — so I can set up my own giving organisation and change how it’s done. I love my donors, but there’s a real power dynamic between the people with the money and the people doing the work. Not many people have run an NGO and then moved to the philanthropic side, but I think it gives you a unique perspective. So I’m ambitious in that way: part of me is always thinking about the roadmap, about what’s next.

Thanks to Amber Dawn Ace for helping me write this up. Want more posts like this? Subscribe here! And if you’re looking for help to accelerate your career trajectory, schedule a free coaching consultation call with me here.