A philosophy called effective altruism encourages people to do the most good they can for one of their important goals in life.Altruists make good decisions about which charities to support.While many people donate to charities on the basis of an emotional response, effective altruists rely on rigorously screened evidence to select charities that use money effectively and provide programs that produce resultsSome effective altruists will choose high income jobs and live modestly in order to have more money to give to good causes.Others will apply their special talents to improve the performance of a charity, to scientific research in a field in which a breakthrough could do tremendous good, or perhaps for being an advocate for effective altruism.Many effective altruists consider helping people in extreme poverty to be the most effective way they can do good, but others are concerned with climate change, with reducing the suffering of non-human animals, and even with the extinction of intelligent life on our planet.Learning more about how to be an effective altruist may be the best step you can take if you want to amplify the impact that you have on the world.
Step 1: You have the potential to make a big impact if you pursue a career in that field.
Some effective altruists choose jobs that provide the highest wage because a high income allows one to donate more money to effective charities and have a greater impact.Investment banking, computer programming, hedge fund management, and engineering are some good options to consider.You will be able to make a bigger impact with your donations if you work in a high wage job.You can rise into a decision making position in the government, such as a position with the World Bank.If you move up in the ranks, you will be able to make decisions about how money is allocated, which will allow you to get a better idea of the cost-effectiveness of a budget.Someone with research experience may be suited to the emerging field of prioritization research.Researchers conduct research to figure out which interventions are the most beneficial.
Step 2: Don't choose career options that are lower impact.
Your total impact on the world will be small, so steer clear of careers that seem like they will help people.Altruists may gravitate towards helping professions, but they may not be able to make the biggest impact in the lives of others.
Step 3: Take into account the impact your income may have on your life.
If a job seems like it will allow you to help others, compare your impact in a low wage helping career to that of a high wage career.You may only be able to donate $5,000 per year over the course of your career if you earn $50,000 a year.If you earned $150,000 a year, you can donate half of it, which would make a lifetime contribution of $2,250,000.The amount of money donated to the most effective charities could have a much more significant impact on the lives of many people.For more effective altruism career advice, check out www.80000hours.org.
Step 4: It's a good idea to live modestly.
Some effective altruists do not want to work for the highest wage that they can make in order to have a lavish lifestyle.Altruists live modestly even though they earn a high wage.It is up to you to decide what a modest lifestyle will be like for you, but many of the effective altruists that Singer discusses live on a small fraction of what they make.Matt Wage, an outstanding philosophy student who turned down an opportunity to study for a doctorate at Oxford University in order to take a job on Wall Street, is one of the most influential effective altruists that Singer describes.He donates more than $100,000 a year to charities.When a couple's annual income was $40,000, Singer describes them donating 1/3 of their income at first, and then increasing their donations until they donated half of the income to charity.The couple used public transportation and rented part of a house to keep their cost of living down.
Step 5: Take a pledge to give what you can.
Going forward with intentions to live modestly and donate large amounts of money to charity may require some external motivation.You can make a commitment by taking the pledge at GivingWhatWeCan.org.You will be expressing your intent to contribute 10% of your income to charities if you take this pledge.Singer suggests in his book The Life You Can Save.The suggested percentage starts off lower than at GivingWhatWeCan, but increases as your income increases.Singer discusses the psychological toll of earning money only to give it away.For some people, making their commitment public helps them keep going.
Step 6: To determine how many lives you can save, research charities.
The impact that your donation will have is one of the central considerations for determining whether or not to give to a charity.If you want to maximize your donation, you should look for charities that will benefit the most people.For example, Singer presents the ethical dilemma of whether to donate $1,000,000 to a charity that will provide a life-saving surgery for a pair of conjoined twins, or donate the money for the vaccine that would benefit thousands of children.More lives would be improved and prolonged by donating the money to the charity that would provide the vaccinations.It is important to consider the impact that a donation will have on the lives of people, which sometimes requires going beyond the numbers.If you had to choose between donating $100,000 to a museum or a charity that cures poor people of blindness, there is a clear choice.The impact of saving someone from a lifetime of blindness is more beneficial than a nicer museum experience for thousands of people.
Step 7: Don't give donations based on emotion.
Many charities use emotional appeals to get people to give money.The money that goes to these charities does not always provide tangible benefits, so using emotional appeals to get donations is often effective.Before you give money to a charity, make sure you consider the impact that your donation will have on one charity compared to another.According to Singer, you may have a strong emotional response to a charity that is asking for donations to train guide dogs for the blind.You should consider the dollars and cents of your donation.It costs about $40,000 to train a guide dog in the US, but it only costs $20-$100 to prevent someone from going blind as a result of trachoma.If $40,000 went to the guide dog charity, it would improve the life of one person, but the same amount could prevent between 400 and 2,000 people from going blind.
Step 8: You can use effective charity evaluation websites.
Ensuring that your money goes to the charities that do the most good is an important part of being an effective altruist.Use all of the tools at your disposal to figure out whether or not a charity uses its money well.GiveWell.org is one of the best ways to research and evaluate charities, even though Singer recommends several websites.GiveWell looks at the way that charities spend their donations so that you can see how much goes to those in need as well as what your donation will provide.GiveWell identifies interventions that have been proven to be effective in addressing a particular problem, such as providing bed nets to prevent Malaria.The Against Malaria Foundation is one of the charities that GiveWell investigates.If you're not sure where to start, the LifeYouCanSave.org and GivingWhatWeCan.The Against Malaria Foundation is one of their recommendations.To find out about the most effective animal welfare charities, you can check out Animal Charity Evaluators.The LifeYouCan Save.org has an impact calculator.The calculator will show you how the most effective charities will use your donation.
Step 9: Don't go to charity evaluation websites that give limited data.
Some charity evaluation websites provide more than others.Charity Navigator is not an effective way to evaluate charities because it doesn't give enough information about how charities use their money.Singer notes that the website may be helpful in warning potential donors away from charities that use only a small percentage of their donations to benefit their cause, for most charities, the information provided by this website does not help donors to determine whether or not a charity uses its money effectively.One might be inclined to go with the charity that dedicates 92 percent of its revenue to programs if given the choice.The decision wouldn't take into account which programs are more effective.It would be impossible to know if the charity that dedicates 70% of its revenue to programs is making a bigger impact without more data.
Step 10: Tell your friends about your favorite charities.
You should encourage others to support effective charities after you start.Spreading the word about charities that have a large impact on people's lives will lead to more donations for those charities and more lives saved as a result.You can use social media to spread the word about charities.Share information about charities and encourage others to donate through your social media posts.Share data with your friends about how effective charities are helping people.
Step 11: Consider a vegan diet.
Some effective altruists have adopted a vegan diet in order to reduce the harm caused by factory farming.Meat, milk, and eggs are not vegan products.Raising animals contributes more to climate change than the entire transport sector, so it makes sense to adopt a vegan diet.
Step 12: Donate part of yourself.
Donate blood, bone marrow, or aKidney to prolong the lives of others.Some effective altruists see donating blood, tissue, and organs as an important aspect of doing the most good that they can.Donate blood is an easy way to help others.There are blood drives happening in your area.Donating bone marrow can be more difficult to do.It used to be necessary to have anesthesia and donors experienced some pain in the days that followed the procedure.Most donors give stem cells, which is painless and similar to donating blood.It is a much bigger decision to donate a kidneys than it is to live with one.