Richard Sedlmayr, co-founder of the Agency Fund, on Achieving Social Impact Through the Power of Human Agency

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What does it look like when social impact efforts recognize the importance of people’s own capacity to make choices and take action in their lives? In this episode, Richard Sedlmayr, co-founder of the Agency Fund, explores how human agency functions as a meaningful driver to achieve social impact.

Richard explains how the Agency Fund supports ideas and organizations that expand individuals’ access to information, options, and tools that help them navigate their circumstances more effectively. This perspective examines how people understand their environment, interpret opportunities, and decide on pathways forward.

Drawing on their work with partners such as Rocket Learning in India, Richard highlights how parents and caregivers can be supported to take an active role in early childhood development, and how practical guidance and community engagement can translate into improvements in learning and wellbeing.

This episode offers a clear, balanced look at how human agency can serve as a valuable dimension of social impact — one that recognizes individuals not as passive recipients of aid, but as active participants in shaping outcomes in their own lives and communities.

About Richard Sedlmayr

Richard Sedlmayr is the Co-Founder of the Agency Fund. He serves as Chair of the Agency Fund’s board and guides the organization’s strategy and growth. He has advised philanthropists for over a decade, allocating resources to universities and nonprofits as part of the evidence-based policy movement. His research expertise spans behavioral science, development economics, and financial economics. He has a PhD in Public Policy from Oxford, where he specialized in the behavioral design of cash transfer programs.