Hearing that your dollar could go 100 times further overseas really struck me. Of course, if I could help a hundred times more people, I wanted to do ...
Grace Adams
Management consultant turned champion for effective giving
What is effective altruism?
Effective altruism aims to find the best ways to do good, and put those findings into practice.
Effective altruism is about using scientific evidence and careful reasoning to find the best ways to help others, and putting those findings into practice. It's both an ongoing research project and a global movement of people working to do good.
If you want to have a positive impact, there are countless actions you could take, so how should you use your limited time and resources? Some ways of doing good are vastly more impactful than others, so if you choose carefully, your efforts can make a real difference.
People inspired by effective altruism tend to focus their efforts by asking: How big is the problem compared to others? Which problems can we make meaningful, concrete progress on? And what are the most effective ways of doing that? People in the movement work on a wide range of issues and often disagree about what matters most, but share a commitment to finding the best ways to help others.
Effective altruism includes both research and practice. Researchers work out the most effective ways to approach problems, drawing on scientific evidence, philosophical reasoning, and cost-effectiveness estimates. This process helps people decide both which problems to work on and which approaches to take. This has led people inspired by effective altruism to work on a diverse range of issues, from combating global poverty to reducing catastrophic risks from AI.
Want to learn more about effective altruism?
What effective altruism isn't about
Effective altruism isn't just about donating money
Giving to high-impact charities is one of many ways to improve the world. People apply these ideas through a wide range of actions, such as directing their careers toward pressing problems, conducting scientific research, advocating for policy change, and founding new organizations.
Effective altruism isn’t about just one topic
People come to different conclusions about which problems are most important to work on. People inspired by effective altruism work across many different areas, including (but not limited to) combating global poverty, reducing animal suffering, improving decision-making, and mitigating catastrophic risks from pandemics and artificial intelligence.
Effective altruism isn’t defined by any single organization or individual
Effective altruism is not a single nonprofit, club, or centralized institution, and no individual leader or public figure defines or speaks for the whole movement. It is a decentralized global network of independent organizations, researchers, student groups, and local communities shaped by tens of thousands of people around the world.
Effective altruism isn’t a set of moral rules or fixed answers
Because tackling global challenges involves deep practical and ethical uncertainties, people often come to different conclusions on how they should use their time and resources. Effective altruism doesn’t say how much you should contribute or what causes you must prioritize.
Is effective altruism too demanding?
Does it neglect systemic change?
Does it neglect systemic change?
EA
Stories
How do people apply these ideas in their lives and careers?
Meet software engineers, social workers, researchers, teachers, non-profit founders, and more who have been inspired by the ideas of effective altruism.
Watch their stories
What does effective altruism involve in practice?
Effective altruism is not an organization you can join, but a movement based on a set of ideas, and people interact with it in different ways.
Some people use the principles of effective altruism to decide where, or how much, to donate(↗) to charity. Others research which problems to work on, and which solutions are most effective. Many people explore how they do the most good(↗) with their career(↗). There are local groups where people discuss effective altruism. And thousands of people attend conferences(↗) to watch research presentations, attend meetups, and connect with other people exploring how to best help the world.
There are also many organizations inspired by effective altruism. Here are some of their accomplishments:
AI Safety
>10,000 people
trained in AI safety, governance, and biosecurity
(BlueDot Impact)
Global Health & Development
>900M people
protected from malaria through insecticide-treated bednets
(Against Malaria Foundation)
Animal Welfare
>2,500 cage-free commitments
Sparing millions of chickens from living in severely cramped battery cages
(Open Wing Alliance)
Global Health & Development
>$1 billion in cash transfers
To over 2m people living in poverty, across 15 countries
(GiveDirectly)
