Spreading EA to non-First World nations to take advantage of people’s preference for helping their own country. Lots of both rich and poor in BRICS these days.
Spreading EA to institutions and governments. I know CEA advised the UK government but I haven’t heard much about other governments or corporate giving (although I realize that only about 5% of donations come from business, with most of the rest being from individuals). Although I realize a critical mass of individuals probably needs to be reach before institutions start to change.
Spreading altruism by counteracting it’s opposing forces, mostly the high priority people put on dominance and conspicuous consumption. For example, if people become less materialistic than they can give more. Moreover, if a culture judges others less for “living simply” than it would allow people to give more without facing social consequences. There actually is a “minimalist” movement occurring these days. Some popular websites are devoted to it. Spreading minimalism would help EA.
Bringing more religious people onboard. If people see others at their church giving effectively than they will consider it as well. Many, many, religious people would only consider giving to charities of their own faith, and will never change. Recognizing this, why not strive to make Christian, Muslim, etc, charities more effective or start new effective religious charities?
On (1), I’m not convinced about spreading EA to developing nations is something effective altruists are currently equipped to do—the idea is currently most popular in the most elite universities, and its popularity diminishes significantly at mid-range universities. Among random wealthy individuals, it has some popularity but not a huge amount. It seems unlikely that developing nations are the best location for this kind of idea to gain a critical mass of support. However, I think there is a way to fulfil people’s preference for helping their own country. People who emigrate from developing to developed nations often send funds back home to relatively poorer family and friends. The overhead for such transfers can be reduced by software. One example of this, Wave, was founded by effective altruist Lincoln Quirk.
By ‘spreading effective altruism’ do you mean ‘setting up charities doing effective work’ into developing countries? Because if so, it seems to me that spreading effective altruism as an idea throughout such countries by getting donors to support their own country might counteract spreading cosmopolitanism.
The Global Priorities Project is based out of the University of Oxford, a politically prestigious position affording the CEA the ability to get access to policymakers faster than other organizations might get access to their own governments.
I believe the very wealth and prosperity in nations which allows those nations to be more altruistic may be also the same forces which generate consumerist preferences in those nations. So, on a society-wide scale, spreading minimalist values might be on uphill battle. Still, on a more local level, among the people each of us knows personally, and who we’re in touch with as a movement, we can provide a solid front showing individuals being more minimalist like each of us individually, normalizing minimalism in our own communities.
Rossa Keefe-O’Donovan is a former researcher for Giving What We Can, and is currently studying a Ph.D. in development economics. I met him at the 2014 Effective Altruism Summit. We discussed that at some future point effective altruism may be able to affect changes in wide-scale organizations such as the Who Health Organization for a leveraged impact. The same could be done for large religious charities such as Red Cross, Red Crescent, or World Vision. One problem I foresee is that some religious charities may be more devout, zealous, or dogmatic about the work they’re doing. Thus, even if this is the case for a large religious charity which holds lots of potential for leveraged impact, it may be impracticable to convince them to change their tactics.
To affect religious people, it might take religious effective altruists. They could start organizations bridging effective altruism with their own religious communities, hold dialogues between effective altruists and their communities, and they could spread awareness. This may convince, for example, a Christian, or Muslim, to start a Christian, or Muslim, effective altruist organization, or to donate to an already existing effective charity.
**By ‘spreading effective altruism’ do you mean ‘setting up charities doing effective work’ into developing countries? Because if so, it seems to me that spreading effective altruism as an idea throughout such countries by getting donors to support their own country might counteract spreading cosmopolitanism.
Most Second World nations probably wouldn’t have the most effective interventions at helping humans, you’re right. But look at India and China, both countries have hundreds of millions in extreme poverty as well as millions of people with money to spend. I would think that having an EA organization in each of those countries that evaluated domestic charities, gave talks at universities, and sought out and promoted people earning to give to the media, would have a huge impact. Development expert Mal Warwick estimates there are 5 million organizations in the world helping the poor, mostly in the poor countries themselves, so the odds of India and China each having extremely effective charities would be very high in my estimation. And that’s not to mention that people in those countries can also donate to INGOs with operations in their own country. (I know both these countries already have charity evaluators but I haven’t been able to find out whether they are GiveWell or Charity Navigator types. The Indian one has an English website but it is currently down.)
**I believe the very wealth and prosperity in nations which allows those nations to be more altruistic may be also the same forces which generate consumerist preferences in those nations. So, on a society-wide scale, spreading minimalist values might be on uphill battle.
I don’t think minimalism would be received as weirder than being a serious EtGing, so it doesn’t make sense to me to write it off so quickly. There are already minimalist blogs with hundreds of thousands of unique monthly visitors – maybe if CEA gets in touch with them they will like EA and promote it on their blogs, in their books, and so on. The people reading minimalist books and websites would be more open to EA than the general public, I would presume. Also, an EA could make a minimalist website that focuses on minimalism with the odd mention of EA/EtG so as to get visitors that find the simple life interesting but don’t like to be preached to about donating more.
**Thus, even if this is the case for a large religious charity which holds lots of potential for leveraged impact, it may be impracticable to convince them to change their tactics.
Institutions in general are very slow to change, especially large ones, but I think that the non-profit sector can only ignore evidence-based interventions and effectiveness evaluation for so long. It’s like with the environmental movement. In the 90′s, environmentalism wasn’t as big, but in the 2000′s the public’s expectations have changed and now most companies have to at least claim they are sustainable just to stay relevant.
**To affect religious people, it might take religious effective altruists.
I think the only way EA will grow among a religion is if people see others in their religion doing it. A trickle will grow into a stream. I don’t think EA has any true weaknesses, I really believe that (as a philosophy, not as a movement), so it seems like just a matter of time before religious people start earning to give, donating more based on evidence, etc.
Tip: in the future, for commenting, if you want to show a paragraph, or unbroken portion of text, quoted, preface it with the “>” symbol without any spaces between it, and the first word.
I misunderstood you on what you meant by promoting some sort of effective altruism in developing countries. I understand now. I agree spreading effective altruism throughout China, and India, would make lots of sense.
Effective altruist Kristian Ronn and his friend have launched an effective altruist organization launching a project aimed at helping anyone figure out how to decrease their negative impact on the world. It’s called Normative], and it’s in a contest to be funded. I’m unsure if it’s non-profit, or for-profit. Click here to vote for it.
Institutions in general are very slow to change, especially large ones, but I think that the non-profit sector can only ignore evidence-based interventions and effectiveness evaluation for so long. It’s like with the environmental movement. In the 90′s, environmentalism wasn’t as big, but in the 2000′s the public’s expectations have changed and now most companies have to at least claim they are sustainable just to stay relevant.
By all means we should still try. I think you’re right.
We already agree that it’s religious effective altruists who will likely cause effective altruism to grow greatly among different religions. I’m glad you’re so optimistic. I sincerely believe there isn’t much wrong with effective altruism either. It might be the first antifragile social movement I’ve ever been part of.
Spreading EA to non-First World nations to take advantage of people’s preference for helping their own country. Lots of both rich and poor in BRICS these days.
Spreading EA to institutions and governments. I know CEA advised the UK government but I haven’t heard much about other governments or corporate giving (although I realize that only about 5% of donations come from business, with most of the rest being from individuals). Although I realize a critical mass of individuals probably needs to be reach before institutions start to change.
Spreading altruism by counteracting it’s opposing forces, mostly the high priority people put on dominance and conspicuous consumption. For example, if people become less materialistic than they can give more. Moreover, if a culture judges others less for “living simply” than it would allow people to give more without facing social consequences. There actually is a “minimalist” movement occurring these days. Some popular websites are devoted to it. Spreading minimalism would help EA.
Bringing more religious people onboard. If people see others at their church giving effectively than they will consider it as well. Many, many, religious people would only consider giving to charities of their own faith, and will never change. Recognizing this, why not strive to make Christian, Muslim, etc, charities more effective or start new effective religious charities?
On (1), I’m not convinced about spreading EA to developing nations is something effective altruists are currently equipped to do—the idea is currently most popular in the most elite universities, and its popularity diminishes significantly at mid-range universities. Among random wealthy individuals, it has some popularity but not a huge amount. It seems unlikely that developing nations are the best location for this kind of idea to gain a critical mass of support. However, I think there is a way to fulfil people’s preference for helping their own country. People who emigrate from developing to developed nations often send funds back home to relatively poorer family and friends. The overhead for such transfers can be reduced by software. One example of this, Wave, was founded by effective altruist Lincoln Quirk.
Yeah, I was thinking it would be down the line, as well.
By ‘spreading effective altruism’ do you mean ‘setting up charities doing effective work’ into developing countries? Because if so, it seems to me that spreading effective altruism as an idea throughout such countries by getting donors to support their own country might counteract spreading cosmopolitanism.
The Global Priorities Project is based out of the University of Oxford, a politically prestigious position affording the CEA the ability to get access to policymakers faster than other organizations might get access to their own governments.
I believe the very wealth and prosperity in nations which allows those nations to be more altruistic may be also the same forces which generate consumerist preferences in those nations. So, on a society-wide scale, spreading minimalist values might be on uphill battle. Still, on a more local level, among the people each of us knows personally, and who we’re in touch with as a movement, we can provide a solid front showing individuals being more minimalist like each of us individually, normalizing minimalism in our own communities.
Rossa Keefe-O’Donovan is a former researcher for Giving What We Can, and is currently studying a Ph.D. in development economics. I met him at the 2014 Effective Altruism Summit. We discussed that at some future point effective altruism may be able to affect changes in wide-scale organizations such as the Who Health Organization for a leveraged impact. The same could be done for large religious charities such as Red Cross, Red Crescent, or World Vision. One problem I foresee is that some religious charities may be more devout, zealous, or dogmatic about the work they’re doing. Thus, even if this is the case for a large religious charity which holds lots of potential for leveraged impact, it may be impracticable to convince them to change their tactics.
To affect religious people, it might take religious effective altruists. They could start organizations bridging effective altruism with their own religious communities, hold dialogues between effective altruists and their communities, and they could spread awareness. This may convince, for example, a Christian, or Muslim, to start a Christian, or Muslim, effective altruist organization, or to donate to an already existing effective charity.
**By ‘spreading effective altruism’ do you mean ‘setting up charities doing effective work’ into developing countries? Because if so, it seems to me that spreading effective altruism as an idea throughout such countries by getting donors to support their own country might counteract spreading cosmopolitanism.
Most Second World nations probably wouldn’t have the most effective interventions at helping humans, you’re right. But look at India and China, both countries have hundreds of millions in extreme poverty as well as millions of people with money to spend. I would think that having an EA organization in each of those countries that evaluated domestic charities, gave talks at universities, and sought out and promoted people earning to give to the media, would have a huge impact. Development expert Mal Warwick estimates there are 5 million organizations in the world helping the poor, mostly in the poor countries themselves, so the odds of India and China each having extremely effective charities would be very high in my estimation. And that’s not to mention that people in those countries can also donate to INGOs with operations in their own country. (I know both these countries already have charity evaluators but I haven’t been able to find out whether they are GiveWell or Charity Navigator types. The Indian one has an English website but it is currently down.)
**I believe the very wealth and prosperity in nations which allows those nations to be more altruistic may be also the same forces which generate consumerist preferences in those nations. So, on a society-wide scale, spreading minimalist values might be on uphill battle.
I don’t think minimalism would be received as weirder than being a serious EtGing, so it doesn’t make sense to me to write it off so quickly. There are already minimalist blogs with hundreds of thousands of unique monthly visitors – maybe if CEA gets in touch with them they will like EA and promote it on their blogs, in their books, and so on. The people reading minimalist books and websites would be more open to EA than the general public, I would presume. Also, an EA could make a minimalist website that focuses on minimalism with the odd mention of EA/EtG so as to get visitors that find the simple life interesting but don’t like to be preached to about donating more.
**Thus, even if this is the case for a large religious charity which holds lots of potential for leveraged impact, it may be impracticable to convince them to change their tactics.
Institutions in general are very slow to change, especially large ones, but I think that the non-profit sector can only ignore evidence-based interventions and effectiveness evaluation for so long. It’s like with the environmental movement. In the 90′s, environmentalism wasn’t as big, but in the 2000′s the public’s expectations have changed and now most companies have to at least claim they are sustainable just to stay relevant.
**To affect religious people, it might take religious effective altruists.
I think the only way EA will grow among a religion is if people see others in their religion doing it. A trickle will grow into a stream. I don’t think EA has any true weaknesses, I really believe that (as a philosophy, not as a movement), so it seems like just a matter of time before religious people start earning to give, donating more based on evidence, etc.
Tip: in the future, for commenting, if you want to show a paragraph, or unbroken portion of text, quoted, preface it with the “>” symbol without any spaces between it, and the first word.
I misunderstood you on what you meant by promoting some sort of effective altruism in developing countries. I understand now. I agree spreading effective altruism throughout China, and India, would make lots of sense.
Effective altruist Kristian Ronn and his friend have launched an effective altruist organization launching a project aimed at helping anyone figure out how to decrease their negative impact on the world. It’s called Normative], and it’s in a contest to be funded. I’m unsure if it’s non-profit, or for-profit. Click here to vote for it.
By all means we should still try. I think you’re right.
We already agree that it’s religious effective altruists who will likely cause effective altruism to grow greatly among different religions. I’m glad you’re so optimistic. I sincerely believe there isn’t much wrong with effective altruism either. It might be the first antifragile social movement I’ve ever been part of.