It’s one of those questions that hang quietly in the background of a lot of meaningful work.
You want to create change. You want to build something that matters, something that helps people, shifts systems, and leaves a legacy.
But at the end of the day, you still have to pay rent. You still have to support your team. You still have to build something that lasts.
So, is it really possible to do good and make a living?
Can you build impact and stay financially sustainable?
Or do you always have to choose?
That question is at the heart of so many NGO founders' realities.
And that is exactly the kind of question we ask on this episode of Unboxing the Future.
A few weeks ago, we asked Matthias Treutwein, co-founder of Enpact, to dare to answer it.
We handed him our white box — the Box of the Future — and challenged him to pull out one card at a time, each bearing a question that would force honest reflection.
No scripts. No safe answers. Just the will to explore what the future of NGOs, impact entrepreneurship, and international cooperation from Europe to the Global South might really look like.
The result was an unfiltered and honest conversation — realistic about the challenges, but still focused on all the optimistic possibilities and future paths.
Matthias walked us through the realities he has lived: the tension between mission and survival, the mistakes institutions keep making, and the real moments of impact that do not always fit into reports or KPIs.
There’s growing awareness that traditional aid systems are flawed, overly bureaucratic, slow to adapt, and often disconnected from those they’re meant to serve.
Matthias has seen that up close. His work at Enpact puts him in constant conversation with local entrepreneurs, development funders, and public institutions. What he’s learned is that the most effective solutions often come not from the top down, but from the people living the problems, the entrepreneurs, builders, and creators inside emerging ecosystems.
But here’s the catch: the people doing this work still need to survive. They need money. They need support structures. They need room to grow.
And yet, many of them, and the NGOs that support them, remain locked in cycles of short-term grants, donor-driven KPIs, and burnout.
That’s what makes this conversation so urgent: We’re asking what it would take to design a future where doing good is not only possible, but sustainable.
Impact can’t just be measured in KPIs — Matthias reminds us that real success sometimes looks like two people meeting in a program and building a life together, not just a new job created or a milestone ticked off.
Sustainability means saying no sometimes — to donors, to governments, even to good ideas that don’t fit the mission.
The Global South is a source of innovation — From mobile banking in Kenya to grassroots accelerators in Egypt, Matthias highlights how necessity often drives the most creative solutions.
The system needs reform — Especially around how nonprofits are allowed to earn money. Right now, many NGOs are penalized for thinking entrepreneurially — even when that thinking could make them stronger.
At its core, this episode isn’t just about NGOs. It’s about how we rethink power, money, and purpose in a world that’s evolving fast. It’s about how we stay true to what matters, while staying afloat.
Because if we want to build systems that last, we can’t keep separating doing good from doing business.
We need new questions. New models. And above all, new conversations.
This one is a start.
🎧 Listen to the full episode on Spotify
📺 Watch it on YouTube
💬 Got thoughts? Let us know, we’d love to hear how you’re navigating the tension between mission and sustainability.
We also make these conversations happen live, with you, with all of us.
That is why we are hosting a special live Unboxing event at Enpact HQ in Berlin on June 4, featuring Matthias Treutwein and Alicia Combaz.
Alicia Combaz, founder and CEO of Make.org, an organization reshaping democracy and civic engagement across Europe, using AI as a main tool to give citizens a real voice in political decision-making.
Enpact and Make.org operate in different spaces but have the same mission.
One focused on entrepreneurship and development, the other on democracy and participation.
Both are working to empower people, to shift systems, and to rethink how lasting impact can be built and sustained in an increasingly fast-changing world.
In their own ways, Matthias and Alicia are confronting the same core question we started with: can you create real impact, and still make a living?
And their answers share something vital, a belief that the answer is yes, as soon as we are willing to rethink how we do things.
But this will not be a passive panel discussion.
At Unboxing the Future, the audience leads the show.
You will get the chance to ask your own questions and shape the conversation in real time.
This is an open dialogue between builders, dreamers, and doers who are asking the hard questions about the systems we live and work within.
🗓️ Date: June 4, 2025
📍 Location: enpact HQ, Berlin
🎟️ RSVP here
Take part in the conversation, come to the release events, suggest topics, meet the guests
