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Julian Hazell

The tools and knowledge needed to be impactful are sitting right in front of us. But without enthusiasm, we might not use them.

Why we're in the best position to do good in history

Imagine an altruistic person from 200 years ago. How much good could they realistically do if they put their mind (and heart) to it?

For starters, they likely lived in extreme poverty like 90% of others at the time.

 And even if they were in the top 10%, two things would stop them: they probably wouldn’t know what the biggest problems were outside of their immediate surroundings, and they probably wouldn't have any way of making progress on these problems even if they did know what they were.

Yet compared to just 200 years ago, we’ve made extraordinary progress on our ability to help others, but today’s donors often don’t take full advantage this opportunity. That’s a huge problem. Luckily, we can solve it by recognising that we’re in a better position to do good than any generation before us, and then taking action.

Today's technology gives us a unique advantage

Today, most people (who have access, mind you) take advantage of modern technology without hesitation.

It goes without saying that when we see doctors, we expect them to use medical practises that are the culmination of hundreds of years of scientific progress instead of snake oil. As a result, we now live 

 on average than people from previous generations.

When we want to reach people, we call or text them instead of sending letters that could take months to receive. Our entertainment options have also widened far beyond the limits of what past people could imagine. We have instant access to a practically endless library of high-quality music created by artists from around the globe, and it costs only a few dollars per month for a subscription. I wonder how long people in the 1800s would’ve had to save up to go to the opera, if they even liked opera music in the first place?

Much like how technology has substantially improved medicine and entertainment, it has also improved our ability to help others. Despite this, most people aren’t aware of how much technology has enabled us to make an extraordinary difference. Yet precisely because of this lack of awareness, we have an unbelievable — dare I say exciting — opportunity to do good in the world that previous generations didn’t. We just need to capitalise on it.

Technological progress in manufacturing and electronics has done wonders for making things cheaper, faster, better – you name it. In 1968, a Baird 703 television 

 when accounting for inflation. Today, it would be seen as strange to buy a clunky, black-and-white TV from the 1960s for £5,700 when flatscreens are available for a fraction of the price.

Charity is no different, though at face value it can sometimes be hard to tell. Unless we pay careful attention to how effective our donations are, it isn’t necessarily clear whether we’re donating to a charity that operates like a Baird 703 or one that operates like a 70-inch 4K LED flatscreen. It can be disappointing to think that some charities might not provide much value, but I think it can be empowering to instead think about the ones that 

 is an exciting and worthwhile pursuit, especially now that technology has made it so much easier for us to fund them. I’m constantly amazed that I can use the internet to send resources (sometimes 

 to the beneficiary) around the world instantaneously and inexpensively. Thanks to the internet, I have instant access to hundreds of thousands of different charities. That is a remarkable technological achievement – imagine how envious altruists from the past would be. They would have no realistic way to send resources across the globe quickly, cheaply, and safely.

But we do. We just need to use our knowledge to take advantage of it to the fullest.

While cumulative scientific progress has taught us a lot about how to help others effectively, donors don’t always take full advantage of this knowledge. Some 

 suggests that only about 1 in 3 donors do any research before donating, and only 3% of donors give based on the relative performance of charities.

We have much better knowledge about what things work to improve peoples’ lives — or promising leads that might have huge pay-offs — than people did in the past. For example, we know that long-lasting insecticide-treated nets that prevent malaria are an effective way to save lives and improve wellbeing. Previous generations did not know this, which would’ve severely limited their ability to do much good (taking a stab in the dark, perhaps they would’ve tried medical leeches).

Of course, we know better: various charity evaluators, such as 

, exist to help us figure out which opportunities to do good are the most promising. This expert knowledge is immensely valuable, and it’s sitting out in the open for free, practically begging for us to apply it. Beyond the fact that most people 

 centuries ago, they also wouldn’t have had access to a group of professional researchers and grant-makers that meticulously comb through studies, reports, and data to find the most effective charities out there. So even if they could send money, they probably wouldn’t have any decent idea where it should go.

What’s more is that there is way more wealth around today than there was in the past. Basically everyone lived in poverty back then, so there wouldn’t have been nearly as many opportunities to improve wellbeing by donating to others.

Inequality is awful, but it gives us an opportunity

Beyond technology and knowledge, previous generations before us would be envious if they could see how prosperous our world is today. We managed to eradicate smallpox — a disease that killed 

 people in the 20th century alone — because of our improved understanding of immunology. The share of 

 in the world has skyrocketed since the industrial revolution. Median incomes have even 

 as well. Many goods that were once luxuries – think cell phones, televisions, and music players, among others – are becoming ubiquitous due to advances in computing power, manufacturing processes, and scientific knowledge. Put plainly, our world is vastly richer than it was in the past, by any measure.

Not so fast though — not everyone has felt these gains. The world might be incredibly rich, but it is also incredibly unequal. Over 600 million people still live in extreme poverty, and hundreds of thousands of children die each year from 

, a disease we know how to prevent. Climate change poses a disproportionate threat to those who live in low-income countries.

Given substantial levels of wealth inequality between countries, people in high-income countries can often do more good by donating to people who have very little to begin with. Take for example, Burundi, a small landlocked country in sub-saharan Africa with a 

 the fact that things cost less overseas. Could you live on $731 per year? I couldn’t, and it’s an injustice that millions of people have no choice but to live on that kind of income when we have the means to help them.

You might wonder: How can anyone live on such little money? Surely they’d die? And the answer is... they do. At least, they die much more regularly than those of us who live in developed countries do. Even though average life expectancy in developing countries has skyrocketed over the last few decades, in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa it is only fifty-six years, compared to over seventy-eight years in the United States. – Will MacAskill, 

We can do much more good by focusing on those with little to begin with. But do we actually do that in practice? 

 of more than 6,000 donors in over 100 countries found that donors mostly support organisations located in their own countries, even if recipients in other countries would benefit significantly more from the donations. Even though we can readily help these folks, we tend to focus on problems that are nearest to us.

If the scale of this chart looks insane to you, that's because it is insane.

It seems that technology, knowledge, and wealth are necessary (but insufficient) ingredients for solving inequality and extreme poverty. These ingredients place us at a crucial moment in history; one where living conditions are awful for so many, yet one where we have the tools to radically change the state of the world for the better. To spark this change, we need to add enthusiasm to the mix.

The tools and knowledge needed to be impactful are right in front of us, sitting in plain sight. But without enthusiasm, we might not grab hold of them. I understand the feeling of helplessness and cynicism that can arise in light of the uncountable injustices that plague the world.

My ask is that you resist those feelings. If there’s one thing I want you to walk away from this piece with, it is a sense of optimism, paired with a conviction that you can play a bigger role in solving these pressing global problems than nearly anyone else in history.

We take its gifts for granted: newborns who will live more than eight decades, markets overflowing with food, clean water that appears with a flick of a finger and waste that disappears with another, pills that erase a painful infection, sons who are not sent off to war, daughters who can walk the streets in safety, critics of the powerful who are not jailed or shot, the world’s knowledge and culture available in a shirt pocket. But these are human accomplishments, not cosmic birthrights. ― Steven Pinker, 

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Never before has the power to improve the world been distributed so broadly. On average, 

$4,500 donated to a highly effective charity

 can save someone’s life. This amount isn’t trivial, but it is a reasonable aspiration for many of us in high-income countries to reach (and exceed).

The person whose life could be saved will grow up to be loved by others, will love others themselves, and will have hopes and dreams that are unique only to them. A donation made to a highly effective charity can give them a chance to experience life's joys, mysteries, complexities, rewards, marvels, and quirks. It might be the best $4,500 you ever spend, and I bet altruists of the past would wish that they could have the same opportunity you do.

Drops in the bucket can feel inconsequential because of the sheer number of difficult problems the world faces. But they can mean the world to someone out there. Those very drops could be the ones that save someone’s life, or make life better in general for many. When thinking about what you should do, don't dwell too much on the daunting size of the bucket. Focus on the opportunity you have to fill it.

That opportunity excites me, and I hope it excites you too.

If you’re excited about this opportunity, check out our:

. We think that taking a giving pledge is a powerful way to commit to doing the most good you can do with the resources you have.

, which answers the key questions about effective giving and includes the latest effective giving recommendations so that you can do the most good with your donations across a wide range of causes.

Luke Freeman

Effective Giving Day 2021: Maximising your charitable impact

 around the world where a panel of effective giving experts will be available for a Q&A. This is the introduction video, links, and transcript accompanying those events.

In this post you can learn about how to do the most good with your charitable donations, and hear the latest updates from charity evaluators and expert grantmakers.

Have you ever helped someone in need? Then you know how good it can feel. But good feelings and good intentions don't always produce the desired outcomes.

Like charities. There are millions of them to choose from and the choice matters, because lives are on the line. Depending on the one you pick, you could do a little good or a lot of good -- and with some choices, you can actually cause harm.

So how can you make the best choice? How can you be sure your donation will have the impact you want, and trust that your generosity isn't wasted?

Giving What We Can is a community of thousands of like minded people who are ready to help you maximise your charitable impact. We can help you find the most pressing problems and then identify the most impactful charities working to solve them. We provide the support, community, and information you need at every stage of your giving journey, whether you're just getting started, or want to make effective giving a meaningful part of your life.

We would love you to join us. Together, we can make the world better for all its inhabitants, for generations to come.

If you want to do the most good with your resources then it can help to start by identifying what it is that you value, what resources you have, and what the world needs.

You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't value happiness. In fact,many people within the effective altruism movement think that we should be trying to increase the amount of happy lives in the universe. This is often articulated by looking at the number, duration and quality of lives.

If you value happy lives, you also need to consider whose happiness you value, and by how much. For example:

Do you just care about people like you, or do you care about all humans alive today, wherever and whoever they may be?

Do you just care about the people living right now, or do you care about our descendants, and the kind of lives they may have?

Do you just care about humans, or do you also care about other animals: from pets to farmed or wild ones?

At Giving What We Can we recommend trying to have a wide moral circle: to value many lives without prejudice. You can often have much more impact by helping those whose needs tend to be unfairly ignored.

Another important value for you to consider is certainty: do you need to be convinced by concrete results or are you happy with 

having greater uncertainty but a chance at creating an extraordinarily big impact

How much you value certainty will significantly impact the best approach for you to maximise your charitable impact.

Different causes will benefit more or less from different resources. We have many resources that we can apply to important causes, such as our money, careers, volunteering time, and our social and political capital. Today we're looking at how to do the most good with your charitable donations.

Once we know what we value and the particular resources that we can personally apply to doing good, we need to match that up with what the world actually needs. We need to find the most pressing problems where our resources can have the greatest impact.

This is where a three-factor cause prioritisation framework that is frequently used within the effective altruism community can really help.

A problem's higher priority, the bigger, the more easily solvable and the more neglected it is.

Bigger is better, because we've got more to gain if we do solve the problem.

More easily solvable is better because it can solve the problem with less time or money.

And most subtly, more neglected is better, because of diminishing returns. The more resources that have already been invested into solving a problem, the harder it will be to make additional progress.

You can learn more about this cause selection framework and the causes that score well on it at 

After choosing a promising cause to support, we are ready to select an outstanding charity working in that area.

To ensure that every donation does as much good as possible, it's important to support charities that are cost-effective. In other words, we should try to determine which charities can accomplish the most good with the resources we give them. We want "the best bang for our charitable buck".

These charities are likely to: be supported by strong scientific or theoretical evidence, be cost-effective, and have room for more funding.

We go through charity selection criteria in great detail at 

, but fortunately there are two promising ways to rely on experts who have done the work for you. We recommend you use charity evaluators and expert grantmakers.

Choose individual charities: using charity evaluators

Charity evaluators assess charities based on how effectively they use donations. We particularly recommend following the advice of 

, which evaluates charities working on global health and development, and 

, which evaluates charities working on animal advocacy.

 was founded to help donors find and support the nonprofits where donations will save or improve lives most per dollar.

"This is the exact position I was in back in 2006. I was a young person, was very fortunate to have money to give away and felt like it was impossible to figure out where to give and be confident that I was having a big impact on the world. And so GiveWell now gives donors the ability to put those good intentions to work and use that money to have a big impact on people's lives."
Elie Hassenfeld -- Co-founder & CEO, Givewell

Research is the core product at GiveWell. It's what we put out in the world to share with donors to help guide their giving,

GiveWell spends over 20,000 hours each year looking at academic studies to figure out which programs are the most promising, connecting with organizations that implement those programs to figure out which are the most effective at doing so and ultimately bringing all of that together to come up with a short list of recommendations that we think can help people the most per dollar donated.

They try as much as possible to put numbers to the effectiveness of their giving efforts.

Since 2007, GiveWell has directed more than $700 million dollars to its recommended charities --- taking zero fees for themselves along the way. And because these donations reach effective organizations, more lives are saved from malaria, more kids are treated for parasitic worms, and more children receive vital nutritional supplements.

Like many people, you love animals. When they're suffering you want to help them. Unfortunately, many different kinds of animals need help: from abandoned pets to endangered elephants.

Most of us have limited time and money and it's hard to know where to start in order to make the biggest difference for the most animals. It's important to think strategically.

Say you have $100 to donate or five hours of your time to volunteer. What if spending time and money on Project A helps five animals but spending the same time and money on Project B helps 100 animals? The more impactful choice is pretty clear but how do you know which projects will help the most animals?

 come in: they do the research for you. Using their free resources you can discover the best ways for you to help as many animals as possible. Whether you're a volunteer or a donor, visit 

 and they'll help you be the best advocate you can.

Funds are easy for donors and highly effective. They help donors pool their money together to find outstanding giving opportunities that are evaluated by expert grantmakers and trusted charity evaluators.

Using a grantmaking fund is similar to using an investment fund instead of trying to pick which individual stocks will be the best investments. The fund distributes your donation among multiple grantees on the basis of expected impact.

GiveWell and Animal Charity Evaluators both have funds that regrant to their top charities -- this is a great option for donors who value more certainty alongside expert advice. We also recommend other funds that make more bespoke grants, such as 

 -- these are great options for donors who take a '

' to giving so that they can have higher expected-value.

 helps donors to maximise impact across the four key cause areas:

You choose your allocation across the funds, donate with cash, crypto, or stocks and then these expert-led funds regrant your donations to where they'll have the biggest impact.

EA Funds is trusted by thoughtful donors around the world, and tax-deductible in the UK, USA and Netherlands.

 gives you as an individual the opportunity to maximise your positive climate impact. This year they've spent over 1,000 hours finding the best opportunities for climate philanthropy and navigating a quickly changing landscape.

As a fund, they're able to act quickly: when Biden won 

they directly deployed over $1m to our top charities

, enabling the top charities to engage with the incoming administration; and just last month they greenlighted a PR grant within hours, 

allowing a major report launched at COP26

They're able to incubate new organisations too: last year they did this with 

, an innovation think tank which we think has the potential to largely increase Europe's contribution to global decarbonisation.

They're also able to act boldly and adapt to this changing landscape: this year they're making a multiple year globalisation grant for the 

, enabling new programs in China, India, Africa and Asia-Pacific where emissions are rising and a large part of our climate future will be shaped.

Individually evaluated charities and grantmaking funds are a great way for most donors to give effectively. However, it doesn't end there. Next we're going to highlight two other innovative approaches to maximising your charitable impact.

Every great charity had to start with a small donation. One of the ways to have a huge impact is by leveraging your donation and supporting organisations that are small and underfunded and might be potentially the next most-impactful thing.

, or these massive organisations that are having a huge impact; at the beginning, funding them would have been extremely high leverage (giving them the ability to expand and grow and eventually have the massive impact they have today).

 is an organisation that focuses on creating organisations with this sort of potential. They do substantial research to brainstorm top ideas and then dig deeper into them to see whether they're implementable and tractable.

They scour the globe for talented individuals who can come together and in a 2 month program match up with each other, balance each other's skill sets, and eventually found a fantastic charity. Then they give them a bunch of support, whether that's logistical support, mentorship, or a seed grant.

They've founded 18 charitable organisations that have received over $1 million funding from Charity Entrepreneurship and several million dollars more from other charitable organisations.

They think that supporting early-stage organisations as a whole has a unique potential to leverage donations in a way that is hard to get anywhere else. This sort of innovative approach, a 

Blog

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