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Dillon Bowen

Picture yourself vacationing in a developing country in the hills overlooking the coast. One day during your stay, a devastating typhoon hits, leaving hundreds of people without food, water, or shelter. Fortunately for you, you’ve not been affected by the storm. You’ve got a cozy little cottage which is high on a hill and well stocked with everything you need. The destruction on the coast has made it impossible for you to travel down the hill, but you can still help by giving money to the relief effort, which is already under way. Do you have an obligation to help?

If you’re like most people, you answered ‘yes’.

Now picture yourself sitting at home. One day, your friend, who is vacationing in a developing country in the hills overlooking the coast, calls to tell you about a devastating typhoon which has just hit, leaving hundreds of people without food, water, or shelter. Fortunately for your friend, he’s not been affected by the storm. He’s got a cozy little cottage which is high on a hill and well stocked with everything he needs. During the call, he shows you a live audiovisual stream of the destruction on the coast in real time. You can help by giving money to the relief effort, which is already under way. Do you have an obligation to help?

If you’re like most people, you answered ‘no’.

Why? In both scenarios, these villagers are not assumed to be your friends, relatives, or community members. In both scenarios, the villagers are equally in need of your help, and you are equally capable of helping. In both scenarios, there are just as many other people who can help in the same way you can. And yet, twice as many people believe that they would be morally obligated to help in the former scenario compared with the latter[1].

The only salient difference between these two vignettes is one of physical proximity. In the first case, the villagers are suffering near to you, and in the second, they are suffering far away. This experiment demonstrates an important feature of our psychology: People who are physically distant appear less morally important.

Intuitively, physical proximity matters. But should physical proximity matter? Our responses to these two scenarios demonstrate a cognitive bias, in the sense that geographic displacement is not the sort of thing we think we should care about when we give it a moment’s thought. For instance, imagine that a charity solicitor asks you for a donation to, say, feed starving children. It would be quite odd, to put it mildly, if you responded with, ‘Well, that depends. How far away from me are these children you’ll be feeding?’ This just doesn’t strike us as an appropriate question to ask.

At first, the physical proximity bias might seem like merely a curious feature of our psychology - that is, until you recognize the enormous amount of human misery for which it is responsible. 

Since you began reading this article, a child has died from malaria. By the end of this year, more than half a million children will have died from malaria[3]. These tragedies are entirely and easily preventable by the actions of those in the developed world. At the individual level, already 1,000 people have pledged at least ten percent of their income to fighting malaria and other causes of extreme poverty with Giving What We Can. If another 100,000 followed suit, we could eradicate malaria in the next fifteen years[4].

 At the government level, the same feat could be accomplished for just 0.2% of the annual US federal budget[5].

Why aren’t we doing this? A large part of it has to do with the fact that children don’t die from malaria where we live. They die far away, in Africa, where their suffering and the suffering of their mothers and fathers seems unimportant. Never mind their nationality - if hundreds of thousands of children under the age of five were dying in the US, we would find 100,000 people willing to donate to help them. We would increase the federal budget by 0.2% to help them. But instead, these children live thousands of miles away from us, and so we don’t experience the same level of empathy that would otherwise drive us to save them. This is the power of the physical proximity bias.

People perform acts of altruism every day. When I talk about ‘altruism’ in this context, I’m not talking about acts of kindness towards family, friends, or community members. The sort of altruism I’m interested in involves some personal sacrifice for the sake of people you will probably never know or even have the chance to meet. This could be anything from holding the door for a stranger to donating a substantial portion of your personal wealth to charity. But there are many problems with our altruistic behavior. And there is no more stark an illustration of these problems than the fact that we in the developed world will continue to allow hundreds of thousands of children die from malaria despite it being well within our power to save them.

Already I’ve alluded to my diagnosis of the root cause of these problems - our failure to notice and overcome moral biases. Physical proximity is just one of a host of obviously morally unimportant factors which nevertheless influence our altruistic behavior. Other examples include the race and country of origin of those in need. Presumably, the goal of our altruistic behavior is not to help those who happen to be close to us, or who happen to be of the same race or to have been born in the same country as us. Take a moment to think about what the purpose of altruism actually is. The answers will vary somewhat based on cultural differences, but almost everyone tends to converge on a single, core ideal - to improve the lives of conscious creatures by as much as you possibly can.

When you first hear this, it seems like a strikingly obvious idea. For example, if I donate $100 to charity, and I have the choice between donating to a charity which can save 2 children from starvation or 20 children from starvation, I ought to choose to save the 20. This intuition is shared almost universally. As Joshua Greene - a leading researcher of moral psychology at Harvard - once told me, never has he run an experiment in which a subject said anything like, ‘Saving more lives? Why would I want to do that?’.

The reality is that we are faced with these choices all the time. 

Every dollar we donate to charity, or that our governments spend on the public good, can do more or less to improve the lives of conscious creatures depending on how it’s spent.

 However, when helping others, the question of how much good our money is going to do often doesn’t cross our minds. We see people in need, feel a strong visceral desire to help, and donate to the cause. End of moral calculus. Rarely do we ask ourselves how much good the same amount of money could have done had we donated it to, say, the Against Malaria Foundation, ranked as the most effective charity in the world by GiveWell.

At present, most people are ineffective altruists, whose generosity is at the whim of moral biases, and whose kindness ends up giving less help to fewer people than it otherwise could. The problem is not that resources are too scarce. We’ll have enough food, water, and energy to sustain humanity for the foreseeable future[6]. The problem is not even that we need to give more. Private contributors in the US alone donate enough money end extreme poverty[7]. The problem is that we need to give more effectively.

In the domain of morality, objective thinking saves lives.

 So how can we learn to make altruistic decisions more objectively? Before answering this question directly in my next post, I want to draw an analogy between how we think about morality and how we think about economics. When it comes to altruism, our objective - or at least, one of our most important objectives - should be to improve the lives of conscious creatures to the greatest extent that we can. When it comes to economics, our objective is to increase our personal wealth to the greatest extent that we can. Both are plagued by myopic cognitive biases, which impede our ability to achieve these aims. But the two domains are strongly disanalogous in that, in the case of economics, we have largely learned to identify and triumph over our biases. Perhaps the methods by which we’ve overcome our economic biases can overcome our moral biases as well.

Musen, Jay. "Moral Psychology to Help Those in Need." Thesis. Harvard University, 2010. Print., as described in Greene, Joshua David. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us and Them. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.

 WHO. N.p., Apr. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Zelman 2014 (Zelman B, Kiszewski A, Cotter C, Liu J (2014) Costs of Eliminating Malaria and the Impact of the Global Fund in 34 Countries. PLoS ONE 9(12): e115714. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115714) predicts $8.5 billion will be needed over the next 15 years to eliminate malaria. Calculations assume those pledging 10% of their income have an average yearly nominal income of $50,000, which is fairly typical in developed nations.

The US federal budget in 2015 is $3.9 trillion (National Priorities Project. 

"Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go."

 National Priorities Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015., “Federal Spending”).

"Water, Food, or Energy: We Won't Lack Them."

 Practical Ethics. University of Oxford, 22 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

 (Giving USA. "Annual Report on Philanthropy." Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. ) reports that private contributions from US donors amounted to $335 billion in 2013. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.50 a day - which 1.2 billion people now do. Assuming their income is normally distributed, we could simply give them enough money to put them above the extreme poverty line for $330 billion annually.

The Economics of Morality

Larissa Hesketh-Rowe

A brilliant discussion has been taking place in the Effective Altruism community recently about the idea of 

 of all the different ways we all support 

. There are so many different ways we can all be involved in Effective Altruism and spreading the word to the wider public. Fundraising for effective charities is an ideal way of doing both. All you need is passion and time.

According to Just Giving the average fundraising page 

Donated to effective charities this could mean 354 people treated for 

 and other neglected tropical diseases , around 88 

 nets protecting two people for 3-5 years or 

Better yet, fundraising is the perfect reason to talk about why you’re fundraising. Talk to other people about your brilliant cause and why you’re supporting it. Tell people why their sponsorship will have such a huge impact because of the effectiveness of the charity you’ve chosen.

Not only are you raising money but also awareness.

The only question is: what if you can’t run for more than five minutes or your baking could poison someone? Never fear: you just need to find your niche.

We’re here to introduce you to your favourite fundraising partner. Your perfect way of promoting. We are all different. Today you discover yourself as a fundraiser. Read the profiles of our variety of fundraisers or suggest your own and find out if you're a Glutton for Punishment or a Creative Canvasser. A Foodie Fundraiser or an Academic Altruist.

Today you find out: what kind of fundraiser are you?

Some people support charities for the warm glow effect, but you do almost the opposite. A good fundraiser for you needs to be earned and that means valiant battles and bravely facing humiliation. We’ve all got those friends who would gladly pay to see us suffer so bring it on!

If you laugh in the face of pain or embrace embarrassment you're a Glutton for Punishment.

Raise awareness about how half of the world has less than $2.50 for food each day and spend a week hungry by living on the same yourself for five days. Turning the experiment into a fundraiser is a great way to start a conversation about poverty and raise money to help.

Demonstrate the challenges facing millions in developing countries to friends and family by getting sponsored to live on just 30 litres of water for three days – the average amount of water available to people in the developing world to use for drinking, washing and cooking.

This one can be quite the adventure. There are a couple of different versions. Either you and your fellow fundraisers are abandoned in the middle of no where with no money or supplies and have to race back to base or you simply have to get as far as possible from your starting location without any funds.

 plane tickets to Dubai! The brilliant thing about this challenge is that it is all about persuading members of the public of the value of your cause so that they’ll fund your trip.

It’s the perfect way to raise awareness, especially if you achieve some headline grabbing distances! Here are some 

Standing on scorching hot coals sounds like a stroll in the park for you - but your adoring donors will be impressed enough to donate.

When did you last go running? You’re running right now? Wow that’s multitasking.

How do you feel about beating personal bests, hiking up mountains, or flexing your muscles by battling through obstacles?

If your fundraising comes the sweatier the better, or you think the best way to raise money is by making supporters go “wow I could not do that, if you don’t die in the process I’ll give you some money” then you are an Olympian fundraiser.

Get your trainers and your sponsorship sheet out and get to the next race 

http://therunningbug.co.uk/events/running-events-home.aspx

If you have no fear (including of being set on fire or given electric shocks) check out the ultimate obstacle course. Challenge your fitness to the extreme. Even your enemies would probably sponsor you for this!

Could you conquer the Three Peaks, cycle 300 miles to Land's End or even trek through the Sahara or climb Kilimanjaro? Action Challenge helps you find life changing challenges. Not only are these once in a lifetime opportunities for you but big events can raise big cash.

Phew! Just reading about running a marathon tires you out. Who has time for all that training? Outside? In the rain?

No, no much better to sit down indoors and have some fun for charity.

If you like your fundraisers warm and cosy you're a Sofa Supporter.

Hire out a room or invite people over and charge a small entry fee. Turn monopoly money into real money for effective charities.

Create your own home cinema or hire a pub and projector and hold a film night for family and friends. You can sell tickets, popcorn and drinks. For added points consider some Effective Altruism videos as trailers like 

Hire a pub or play at home. Nominate a quiz master and set a theme. Consider including a poverty statistics or effective charity comparison round. Some of the entrance fee goes to the winner but the real winner is your effective charity.

 early in our children by getting them involved in their own fundraisers. These are all fundraisers you can organise that children would love to attend and that parents will donate to. You’ve got to admit those cute little faces are hard to say no to.

Invite your children's friends to face painting, 

, ring toss, coconut shy or giant jenga. All the fun of the fair at home whilst fundraising for children across the world.

If you work in a school, or could speak very nicely to someone who does, why not nominate them to wax their legs, get soaked with water guns or dress up as a clown for the day? What child wouldn’t want to see that?

Organise an extra school play so more children get a chance to take part and charge the parents entry. You can find scripts to act out 

You can craft a butterfly with icing, you design your own hair clips and handbags and all your friends get beautiful handmade gifts.

If your friends are always begging you to make something for them and everyone wishes they had your artistic flair then you're a Creative Canvasser.

Use your talent as a force for good and design a:

“Shopping without the hangover”. Save money for your 

, reduce waste and raise money for effective charities at the same time by organising a clothing swap or “swish”. If you admire your friends outfits, invite them to bring their unwanted clothes, pay a small fee and browse the rails for the latest fashion find. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. One woman’s oversized outfit is your next stylish stunner. It’s like charity shopping but for an effective charity.

Put your skills on stage and promote local designers by organising a fashion show. You can add an environmental or ethical 

 using recycled or ethically sourced materials.

Put your talents to good use and encourage your friends to do the same. Make handmade gifts to sell to friends and family. Christmas decorations near Christmas, personalised photo frames for birthdays or heart-shaped jewelry near Valentine's Day to have even more impact. Add hand made cards to go with every occasion and ask if you can set up a stand in your office or speak to the local council about a street stall.

All this work is making you hungry. No need to stop for lunch when you combine good grub with good causes.

If you like your donations to be delicious you're a Foodie Fundraiser.

A civilised way to make a difference. Work with a local wine merchant. They get promotion and new customers and you get a percentage for charity and an audience with whom to discuss the issues of the day.

Have you got a budding Blumenthal in your midst? Spice up dinner with friends by turning it into a competition. They can pay for their meals like a meal out and raise money for nutrition for people in Rwanda for example.

Everyone loves a summer BBQ! Charge for entry or per item and donate the profits.

Advocacy to recruit other fundraisers can be as important as fundraising itself, perhaps more effective if two people are inspired to fundraise for every one event you do. Why not combine the two and organise an academic activity that teaches people about effective giving and raises money?

If you know a lot about QALYs and DALYs and avidly follow leading researchers then you're an Academic Altruist.

These are the perfect combination of advocacy and fundraising. Host a debate between two charities and invite people to attend for a small fee. At the end of the evening the audience vote on which charity should receive the money raised. Not only does this raise money, but it also encourages others to think about how they choose charities to donate to.

Raise awareness about the effects of climate change on those in poverty () and encourage others to action by organising a day of green activities. Get sponsored to go without meat, do others’ recycling, go litter picking or walk to work.

Invite a guest speaker from an Effective Charity, meta-charity or research institute to discuss new finding or challenge the audience on our modern moral obligations. You can boost fundraising by combining it with a raffle or selling refreshments.

You've been fundraising for years and now you've reached whole new heights. You’re the queen of spreadsheets, king of two do lists and project manager extraordinaire. You’re so effective you fundraise in your sleep!

What kind of fundraiser are you?

d'Arcy Lunn

Greetings from the Protection of Civilians (PoC) camp in Bentiu, Unity State northern South Sudan. I’m here working with UNICEF South Sudan as a communications specialist for the polio eradication program.

That paragraph should suggest that Giving What We Can is a natural and almost automatic fit for me. But I’m happy/sorry to say I am a new recruit to Giving What We Can.

In the past 15 years I have dedicated my time and energy working towards the end of extreme poverty. My goal is that anyone born anywhere will have access to a life like the one I am fortunate enough to have, and which over a billion people today still don’t have.

give not out of sympathy or charity but through empathy and justice

the lottery of having food, water, shelter, education, health and security should not be decided by where you are born

One of the reasons it has taken me a while to make a financial declaration of my global poverty ambitions is that I have largely been a perpetual volunteer. I still spend most of the year not earning money. But this should not be an excuse, especially as I set myself the enriching pursuit of being the best humanitarian I can be.

I will always have more than the people I aim to serve and support.

 It is a privilege that I can afford to volunteer, work, or be in their country, either out of my own pocket or on an organized program. I don’t have to financially support my own family and community in Australia or make any sacrifices to my lifestyle (let alone my own well-being) - as I see people doing on a daily basis here in South Sudan.

But here’s the secret that I already knew but didn’t convert into dollars…

The more I give of my time and efforts, the more I receive in learning, sharing, experiences, perspectives and more. I feel filthy rich from my learning and experiences in the past 15 years in over 70 countries around the world. It feels good to commit at least 10% on any money I earn regardless of my accumulated wealth (or lack of it over a year), adding my value to the world, and increasing my effectiveness as an active global citizen, including financially.

If anyone should already know this it should me, as I connect with great people doing great things in difficult circumstances on a daily basis. I know donations translate into the vaccine that went into the elderly woman’s mouth today so she can escape catching cholera this rainy season; to train tireless home health promoters to deliver important and new messages on routine immunisation; to allow mothers to access health facilities to give birth; and also to the folks from UNFPA who lead a graphic but significant discussion with community leaders on gender based violence. None of these programs would happen without support from UN agencies, NGO’s, local Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and now committed donors like me and hopefully you!

I’m fortunate in my life that I gain from giving in many ways, but I also don’t have other responsibilities. 

If you are giving what you can, know that it has a significant part to play in reaching a world without extreme poverty

My time with UNICEF in South Sudan is close to an end and for the next six months I will be back on the volunteer trail doing the other form of giving (and receiving) that I love: advocacy, education and global awareness presentations. I will be travelling from the Middle East to Australia via Turkey, the Balkans, Europe, Central Asia and SE Asia on a global citizen presentation tour called 

. I will be sharing personal choices, decisions and actions that have a positive impact on people and the planet. I hope to create teaspoons of change and advocate for Giving What We Can as a very significant teaspoon of change.

I thank Giving What We Can for providing the platform, ignition and support for me to commit on a financial level. Anyone, anywhere can also share in the gift of giving and all the receiving that comes from it - so be sure to check it all out by exploring the Giving What We Can 

Giving Is Receiving

Owain Johnstone

 considering when you might want to pursue systemic change rather than marginal change. In this post I'm going to take a closer look at that.

A system's key elements are: a group of actors (with some interests in common), their interactions, and the outcomes that result from those interactions.

A single actor can be part of more than one system at once, and systems can change over time. They can also vary in size.

Consider the 'donating to charity' system ( the example I discussed in my last post). Its actors include donors, analysts, and aid recipients, and the main outcome of the system we're interested in is how much money gets to the recipients.

A marginal approach to change in that system would simply try to increase the amount of money donated (perhaps by taking a job as an investment banker and earning to give).

A systemic approach to change here might try to suggest that the money should be going to a different set of recipients – maybe by arguing for a new metric against which to assess charitable effectiveness.

If successful, this systemic approach would change a parameter of the system (who the recipients are), which is a potentially powerful way of changing the system's outcomes.

But when should we pursue marginal change and when systemic?

Blog

The Economics of Morality

What kind of fundraiser are you?

Giving Is Receiving

When is systemic change a good idea?

Giving What We Can needs your support — only 5 days left to close our funding gap

Giving What We Can hosting Skype with Against Malaria's Rob Mather

Becoming an Effective Altruist

An update on the effectiveness of Deworm the World Initiative (DtWI)

Announcing the Giving What We Can Global Poverty Essay Competition ($2000 in prize money): ‘Where should we donate to do the most good?’

Effective Altruism means Effective Inclusion