The nonprofit industry has been growing exponentially over recent years but Effective Altruism programs have found a way to add an element to the historic practice of charitable giving.
The movement focuses on charitable giving guided by data meaning they measure where the most impactful organizations are and what causes need the most attention from a statistical standpoint.
The effect altruism approach has reached a handful of peaks that have amounted in bettered lives and helped established communities globally. Accomplishments like raising over $10 million dollars in funds for direct cash transfers to individuals living in impoverished countries are just an example of this movement’s collective impact Effective Altruist programs work in coherence to deliver amongst the values of this movement through their philanthropy. All programs that support this vision practice core beliefs like open-mindedness, critical thinking and global empathy in route to scale change to a larger level and measure the difference being made. A few organizations under the effective altruism movement include:
GiveWell
Started in 2007, GiveWell specializes is on identifying the most promising causes and charities to donate to. GiveWell is a part of the effective altruism movement and it’s been majorly effective in putting finances and useful attention towards notable causes with productive organizations. In August 2014, GiveWell announced “Open Philanthropy Project” for exploration of more speculative causes. The Open Philanthropy Project is the collaborative bridge between GiveWell and Good Ventures, a philanthropic foundation founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife.
Giving What We Can
Founded in November 2009, Giving What We Can is a community of people interested in maximizing the good they can do implement in emerging markets specifically for global poverty. GWWC largely banks on the research done by organizations like GiveWell that evaluate the actual effectiveness of nonprofits.
80,000 Hours
80,000 Hours is a UK-based organization that conducts research on careers with positive social impact. The name represents the 80,000 hours a healthy person will work in their career lifetime.
The group emphasizes that the positive impact of choosing a certain occupation should be measured by the amount of additional good that is done as a result of this choice. It considers indirect ways of making a difference, such as donating via your job’s salary, but direct giving is still a focus of theirs as well. 80,000 Hours is run by the charity the Centre for Effective Altruism. There are more effective altruist organizations to fill the roster and each has contributed to the amazing accomplishments that this movement stands by.
It’s hard to believe that such a community of nonprofits only began a few years ago but the positive impact has reached very monumental goals. Over $350 million dollars pledged to evidence based global poverty interventions via GWWC. GWWC, in efforts with SCI, also helped deworm over 4 million school children by way of funding through their platforms. GiveWell and Against Malaria Foundation provided financing for over 1 million bed nets to protect against malaria in needing places.
These causes have been identified by effective altruist supporters as global problems that need positive change and this movement allows such organizations to do said things at a massive level. With such large donations for direct impact, the change being implemented is clearly being scaled to a more macro approach.
These achievements are thanks to the many effective altruism teams across the world. The community includes the founders of Paypal and Skype; over 20 companies and a global network of prestigious educational communities – including students and professors students from institutions such as Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, Oxford and Stanford. Effective altruist organizations have done a spectacular job standing behind a vision of impactful giving to the most needing causes and collaboratively they’ve done that at a bigger scale.
