What is effective altruism, and why is it needed?
In the last few decades, it has become clear that our altruism, or humanitarian efforts, can actually do more harm than good. It’s important to have the desire to help people, stepping out and making every effort to bring assistance to those who need it. But that assistance needs to be strategically focused in order to actually help.
The term “effective altruism” describes the act of helping those in need in the most efficient and productive ways. Someone who might call themselves an effective altruist might choose a job based on the amount of good that the job or company does. They will give to charities based on the maximum impact of per dollar gift.
More harm or more good
Some examples of ineffective altruism might be found in agencies that deliver food, which is great, but that ends up making those populations dependent on the delivery system. Another example would be providing children with an education that cannot be sustained for more than a year or two.
We have heard horror stories from adults who were aged out of orphanages. The organizations have become so dependent on governmental or foreign aid that no child was ever led into adoption. In fact, to lose a child meant losing funds, so children are never given the opportunity to leave the institution and get connected to a loving home. The children simply became money-making tools. This is extreme, but it can easily become the reality.
The key, of course, is to focus on how to do “more good” rather than how to do “less wrong.” This can be challenging. In some cases, the typical or traditional way of helping is significantly less effective than the best way. In the example of the orphanage, the typical way is to provide support for the orphanage that houses the most children. However, the best way would be to provide support for the orphanages that help children more holistically, helpping those groups get the resources to expand and help more children.
The most effective way to do good
In order to make the best use of resources and efforts, we need to find charities that do the most good. Typically, these organizations are actively involved in the people they help. This may sound obvious, but it’s not always the case. There are many large humanitarian aid groups that operate from outside a country or the people they are looking to help. They often do not understand the people and the culture, so their efforts are not necessarily the best.
Health care is one area where effectiveness is critical. In the West, health care is readily available, and knowledge about infection and disease control is well known. Children are taught early about ways to keep themselves healthy. This is not the case in the developing world, and the costs are devastating. Overall, it costs much less to teach a population about hand washing and hygiene than to treat the diseases caused by its lack of education about the disease. Effective altruism would point to funding educational efforts for long-term results.
How we help
illuminAid has seen that our method of bringing humanitarian aid is effective. We know that just handing out resources and hoping for the best isn’t effective. We look for organizations that want to help those in need in the best, most effective way possible. We partner with them and discover how our organization can maximize their efforts. We then provide the tools alongside the training to use those tools effectively.
Effective altruism should be the concern of everyone who donates to a cause. It might take some research but always look for the organizations that want to do the most good, not just lessen the bad.