One thing EA is really good at is optimising other people’s resources that were otherwise being spent inefficiently, because EA has a lot of knowledge about doing things effectively. So if EA is “getting into” something, it might not be because EA is directing lots of its own resources to something. It might be that the resources were already there and EA is just helping optimise their allocation.
I think that this is some of what is happening with democracy. A lot of people care a lot about democracy, and they want to give money to help democracy. EA (via Power for Democracies https://www.powerfordemocracies.org/ ) is helping make sure that that money is doing more good by providing recommendations about where it should go to do as much good as possible for democracy. It may be that the EAs you are talking to are getting excited about the fact that democracy promotion is finally getting more effective.
This is also what EA has done with climate. Climate is not a big focus area of EA because it is not neglected, however Giving Green ( https://www.givinggreen.earth/ ) has been massively successful as an EA organisation and directed $56 million in funding so far. I think most of that funding wasn’t from EAs, it was from people who mostly care about the climate.
This is a super helpful and illuminating reply! Thank you! I love the idea of EA helping all cause areas to more effectively accomplish their goals.
There are lots of things I care about that fall outside of EA. And, for those things I care about, I often think most of the work being done to achieve that thing seems inefficient. So I love the idea of EAs helping make goals get accomplished. That’s super smart.
It just scares me when I hear people encourage EAs to donate to democracy promotion above other, more traditionally EA, causes.
Hi Alene,
Thanks for writing this post on the forum!
One thing EA is really good at is optimising other people’s resources that were otherwise being spent inefficiently, because EA has a lot of knowledge about doing things effectively. So if EA is “getting into” something, it might not be because EA is directing lots of its own resources to something. It might be that the resources were already there and EA is just helping optimise their allocation.
I think that this is some of what is happening with democracy. A lot of people care a lot about democracy, and they want to give money to help democracy. EA (via Power for Democracies https://www.powerfordemocracies.org/ ) is helping make sure that that money is doing more good by providing recommendations about where it should go to do as much good as possible for democracy. It may be that the EAs you are talking to are getting excited about the fact that democracy promotion is finally getting more effective.
This is also what EA has done with climate. Climate is not a big focus area of EA because it is not neglected, however Giving Green ( https://www.givinggreen.earth/ ) has been massively successful as an EA organisation and directed $56 million in funding so far. I think most of that funding wasn’t from EAs, it was from people who mostly care about the climate.
I believe that EA’s work to help animals is significantly increasing at the moment. Some of this is related to EA itself growing, but animal welfare effective giving is growing faster than effective giving generally. The EA animal welfare fund raised 2x as much money in 2025 as it did in 2024. For more information, have a look at this post: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/z8Lr5euvnEsdBcdFg/animal-welfare-fund-payout-recommendations-from-july-to
All the best,
Kes
Dear Kes,
This is a super helpful and illuminating reply! Thank you! I love the idea of EA helping all cause areas to more effectively accomplish their goals.
There are lots of things I care about that fall outside of EA. And, for those things I care about, I often think most of the work being done to achieve that thing seems inefficient. So I love the idea of EAs helping make goals get accomplished. That’s super smart.
It just scares me when I hear people encourage EAs to donate to democracy promotion above other, more traditionally EA, causes.
Thank you for your time and explanation!
Sincerely,
Alene