How do you decide what charities to support? We already struggle to decide how to spend our own money. We tend to spend more impulsively than we would like and not enough of us step back to plan how to allocate our own resources. History has shown us that effectively allocating resources is a rather difficult problem. Pushing the decision of how to spend money down to those spending it was the way capitalism approached a solution. We have been hugely successful in wrenching billions out of poverty and the world is changing for the better. That said, we still have huge unsolved problems and portions of the world who have far more than they need and others who don't have enough. How should those with enough to give away think about doing that? We don't trust Governments as effective allocators of resources. Like politics, sometimes charities can become about pet causes, and we worry that the best communicators or most persistent campaigners get the money rather than those who are best at the job.
I am one of those noisy people. I am happy to put effort into fund raising and try balance this against shifting people's giving away from cause that are important to them. I hope that some of my silly fund raising antics cause people to give more than they otherwise would have. Otherwise I am wasting my and their time and just manipulating where money goes. Peter Singer is the philosopher best known for his thinking on the subject of effective altruism, so part of my year end reading will involve his book 'The Life You Can Save'.
I am one of those noisy people. I am happy to put effort into fund raising and try balance this against shifting people's giving away from cause that are important to them. I hope that some of my silly fund raising antics cause people to give more than they otherwise would have. Otherwise I am wasting my and their time and just manipulating where money goes. Peter Singer is the philosopher best known for his thinking on the subject of effective altruism, so part of my year end reading will involve his book 'The Life You Can Save'.
He has also done a TED talk on the subject of effective altruism and he points to some good sources. I have also added another talk on giving directly which a friend yesterday donated to in lieu of a charity I was actively promoting.
1. Giving What We Can - How much should you give?
Toby Ord set up an organisation to research effective altruism and answer some of the tougher questions that surround it like cost effectiveness, giving without excess sacrifice and the relationship between income, happiness and giving.
2. 80,000 hours - How to make a difference with your career
Many people want making a difference to be a priority in how they choose their career. This organisation was set up in order to create a global, evidence-based conversation about the world's most pressing issues. Interestingly, for some, the most effective altruistic career may be in banking or finance if the earning power that gives you allows you to make a bigger difference than you would have otherwise.
3. GiveWell - Which charities are the most effective?
GiveWell is dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of their analysis in order to help donors decide where to give. Individual donors are the largest source of altruistic funding (>100 times the Gates Foundation and >5 times all other sources combined). GiveWell aims to provide research and conversations to help direct these resources effectively. The four charities they recommend are:
- Against Malaria Foundation
- GiveDirectly
- Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
- Deworm the World Initiative
4. Giving Directly - Send money directly to the extreme poor
Giving directly is showing itself to be one of the most cost effective and high impact ways of making a difference. It is a great example of technology allowing us to cut out a lot of the waste by using money transfers to the mobile phones of those most in need. Although we may think otherwise, they are in the best position to know what will make the biggest differences in their lives. No committee in a distant country needed. No research papers. No central planning.
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