Effective Giving

Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, who are sometimes called , follow a variety of approaches proposed by the movement, such as donating to selected charities and choosing careers with the aim of maximizing positive impact. The movement gained popularity outside academia, spurring the creation of research centers, advisory organizations, and charities, which collectively have donated several hundred million dollars.

Effective altruists emphasize impartiality and the global equal consideration of interests when choosing beneficiaries. Popular cause priorities within effective altruism include global health and development, social and economic inequality, animal welfare, and risks to the survival of humanity over the long-term future. Only a small portion of all charities are affiliated with effective altruism, except in niche areas such as farmed-animal welfare, AI safety, and biosecurity.

The movement developed during the 2000s, and the name was coined in 2011. Philosophers influential to the movement include Peter Singer, Toby Ord, and William MacAskill. What began as a set of evaluation techniques advocated by a diffuse coalition evolved into an identity. Effective altruism has ties to elite universities in the United States and United Kingdom, and became associated with Silicon Valley's technology industry.

The movement received mainstream attention and criticism with the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX as founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a major funder of effective altruism causes prior to late 2022. Some in the San Francisco Bay Area criticized what they described as a culture of sexual misconduct.

History

Beginning in the latter half of the 2000s, several communities centered around altruist, rationalist, and futurological concerns started to converge, such as:

* The evidence-based charity community centered around GiveWell, including Open Philanthropy, which originally came out of GiveWell Labs but then became independent.
* The community around pledging and career selection for effective giving, centered around the Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours organisations.
* The Singularity Institute (now MIRI) for studying the safety of artificial intelligence, the Future of Humanity Institute studying topics such as existential risk, and the ''LessWrong'' discussion forum, which focuses on rationalism.

In 2011, Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours decided to incorporate into an umbrella organization and held a vote for their new name; the "Centre for Effective Altruism" was selected. The Effective Altruism Global conference has been held since 2013. As the movement formed, it attracted individuals who were not part of a specific community, but who had been following the Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer's work on applied ethics, particularly "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" (1972), '' Animal Liberation'' (1975), and ''The Life You Can Save'' (2009). Singer himself used the term in 2013, in a TED talk titled "The Why and How of Effective Altruism".

Notable philanthropists

An estimated $416 million was donated to effective charities identified by the movement in 2019, representing a 37% annual growth rate since 2015. Two of the largest donors in the effective altruism community, Dustin Moskovitz, who had become wealthy through co-founding Facebook, and his wife Cari Tuna, hope to donate most of their net worth of over $11 billion for effective altruist causes through the private foundation Good Ventures and are major funders of Open Philanthropy. Others influenced by effective altruism include Sam Bankman-Fried, and professional poker players Dan Smith and Liv Boeree. Jaan Tallinn, the Estonian billionaire founder of Skype, is known for donating to some effective altruist causes. Sam Bankman-Fried launched a philanthropic organization called the FTX Foundation in February 2021, and it made contributions to a number of effective altruist organizations, but it was shut down in November 2022 when FTX collapsed.

Notable publications and media

A number of books and articles related to effective altruism have been published that have codified, criticized, and brought more attention to the movement. In 2015, philosopher Peter Singer published '' The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically''. The same year, the Scottish philosopher and ethicist William MacAskill published '' Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference''.

In 2018, American news website '' Vox'' launched its ''Future Perfect'' section, led by journalist Dylan Matthews, which publishes articles and podcasts on "finding the best ways to do good".

In 2019, Oxford University Press published the volume ''Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues'', edited by Hilary Greaves and Theron Pummer.

More recent books have emphasized concerns for future generations. In 2020, the Australian moral philosopher Toby Ord published '' The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity'', while MacAskill published ''What We Owe the Future'' in 2022.

In 2023, Oxford University Press published the volume ''The Good it Promises, The Harm it Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism'', edited by Carol J. Adams, Alice Crary, and Lori Gruen

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