Effective altruism is a movement focused on identifying the most impactful ways to help others and acting on them. It combines a research, aimed at understanding the most urgent global issues and the most effective responses, with a practical community committed to applying these insights to make a difference.
This matters because while many efforts to do good fall short, some can have an outsized impact. In fact, certain charities are up to 100 or even 1,000 times more effective than others at achieving results with the same resources.
By carefully evaluating how we can do the most good, we can dramatically improve outcomes.
Originating from academic work at Oxford University, Effective Altruism has since grown into a global movement, with tens of thousands of people in over 70 countries putting its principles into action. Their work spans a wide range of areas from distributing hundreds of millions of malaria nets, to researching the long-term impacts of artificial intelligence, to advocating for pandemic prevention policies. What unites them isn’t a single cause, but a shared commitment to using reason and evidence to maximize their positive impact.