Effective Altruism

Effective Altruism is a project aimed at finding and implementing the best ways to help others. It functions both as a field of research—dedicated to identifying the world’s most pressing problems and their most effective solutions—and as a community of practice focused on applying these insights to do good. The project emphasizes that while many well-intentioned efforts fail, some interventions are dramatically more effective than others. For instance, certain charities can help 100 or even 1,000 times more people with the same resources compared to others. This means that by carefully analyzing the most impactful ways to help, we can achieve significantly more in addressing the world’s greatest challenges. Formally developed by scholars at Oxford University, Effective Altruism has since spread to over 70 countries and is practiced by tens of thousands of people. Inspired individuals have contributed to initiatives ranging from funding the distribution of 200 million bed nets, to conducting academic research on the future of artificial intelligence, to advocating for policies that could prevent the next pandemic. Rather than being united by a single solution to global problems, they are driven by a shared mindset: seeking unusually effective ways to help, so that their efforts generate unusually large-scale impact.