As a child, I was distressed by the stark inequity between my family's financial comfort and the billions worldwide who lack access to basic necessities. I knew I wanted to donate a significant portion of my income and time, but I had no community or analytical framework to guide these efforts. Now I work at the Centre for Effective Altruism, where I have spent a decade supporting what's now a global movement of individuals dedicating a portion of their resources to doing good.
Throughout my teens and early twenties, I was focused on spending as little money as possible so I could donate more. I had this drive to make the world more like what it should be — fairer, so everyone could enjoy the safety and opportunities I had growing up. But my approach was unsophisticated: one evening of internet research to decide where my money should go. I hadn't thought about effectiveness, and I didn't know anyone else thinking seriously about where to donate or how much. That felt incredibly lonely.
When I discovered people organizing through
Giving What We Can and thinking about careers with
80,000 Hours, my world opened up. Here were analytical tools for finding the best places to donate and where money makes the most difference. Here was recognition that we have our careers, not just our dollars, to make a difference.
"I found other people who deeply cared about making a positive difference in the world, and really wanted to use all the tools that they could to find the best opportunities to do that."
Early in our relationship, my husband and I started donating yearly. We've committed to a baseline percentage and often surpass it — for the past several years, we've donated about half of our income. I'm proud to have signed the 10% pledge through Giving What We Can, which has recently hit 10,000 pledgers! This commitment has helped us sustain our ideals even as life got busier with buying a house, children, and career changes.
"I didn't want donating to be about what was most meaningful to me. I wanted it to be about the other person receiving the help."
Beyond changing how I give, effective altruism also expanded my thinking about which problems deserve attention. I came in focused on global development — that felt obvious and important. But over time, I was exposed to other areas that initially sounded weird. AI safety seemed farfetched until I considered how previous generations managed nuclear technology without destroying the world. As new transformative technologies develop, we need to figure out how to prevent disasters.
If you’re new to effective altruism, I recommend keeping an open mind about what types of problems you might work on and what kinds of interventions might be worth considering. There are many ways to contribute to important problems worldwide, including ones you didn't initially know much about.
