If you want to do good, the usual path is charity. But what if you could run a business that helped more people than a nonprofit ever could?

Consider Zipline. They use drones to deliver blood, medicine, and vaccines to places other delivery systems don’t reach. Their drones drop medical supplies into remote regions of Africa within minutes, sometimes saving lives with every flight. It started as a straightforward idea: use drones to help hospitals stock critical supplies. But over time, it became something else—a business model for a better future.

Zipline’s approach represents a new category of altruism. They didn’t choose between profit and impact; they aligned the two. By creating a system that’s scalable and efficient, Zipline has brought life-saving deliveries to thousands who would otherwise go without. And they’ve done it as a for-profit company, using the drive and resources of a business to fuel their mission.

This might be the future of effective altruism: not organizations scraping for donations, but companies structured to improve the world as they grow. For many causes, this approach might make sense. If you want to solve a big problem, sometimes the best way isn’t to avoid profit but to harness it.