âWe donât actually think you should donate less to something because itâs more effective.â
(All the below numbers are made up for example purposes and donât represent the cost of chicken-related interventions)
Letâs say that I want to have chicken for dinner tonight. However, I donât want to cause chickens to suffer. I have worked out that by donating $0.10 to Chicken Charity A I can prevent the same amount of suffering that eating a chicken dinner would cause, so I do that. Then I find out that Chicken Charity B can do the same thing for $0.05, so I do that instead for tomorrow nightâs chicken dinner. A charity being 2x as effective means I donate half as much to it. This is the âoffsettingâ mindset.
Effective Altruists do not (usually) think this way. We donât consider our donations as aiming to do a fixed amount of good and maximise effectiveness in order to reduce the amount we have to donate. We do it the other way around, usually: a fixed amount that is set by our life circumstances (e.g. the 10% pledge) and maximising the effectiveness of that in order to do as much good as possible.
(All the below numbers are made up for example purposes and donât represent the cost of chicken-related interventions)
Letâs say that I want to have chicken for dinner tonight. However, I donât want to cause chickens to suffer. I have worked out that by donating $0.10 to Chicken Charity A I can prevent the same amount of suffering that eating a chicken dinner would cause, so I do that. Then I find out that Chicken Charity B can do the same thing for $0.05, so I do that instead for tomorrow nightâs chicken dinner. A charity being 2x as effective means I donate half as much to it. This is the âoffsettingâ mindset.
Effective Altruists do not (usually) think this way. We donât consider our donations as aiming to do a fixed amount of good and maximise effectiveness in order to reduce the amount we have to donate. We do it the other way around, usually: a fixed amount that is set by our life circumstances (e.g. the 10% pledge) and maximising the effectiveness of that in order to do as much good as possible.