The winter holiday season is a time for reflection, resolution, family, and, for many in the effective altruism movement, charitable giving. Staff of the organizations we respect—including GiveWell, Animal Charity Evaluators, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and the Open Philanthropy Projection, for example—publicize their end-of-the-year giving plans around this time, so we do the same here.
SJ + EA: Extreme Poverty as a Social Justice Priority
Cullen O’Keefe, President
The pursuit of social justice was the central theme of my undergraduate experience. In my classes, campus involvement, and nascent career, I dedicated my time to fighting oppression, especially oppression based on gender, sex, sexuality, and race. I came to law school expecting to dedicate my career to these struggles by working for a non-profit. However, I have since become convinced that I should prioritize combating extreme poverty instead. In this piece, I hope to convince you that, if you value social justice and some of the common core beliefs that undergird it, you ought to focus more on global poverty, too.
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Beyond Charity: Low- and No-Cost Effective Altruism
Cullen O’Keefe, President
Since our main event each year is our summer income pledge, HLS Gives (please sign up if you haven’t!), some might perceive us as a singularly money-focused organization. We aren’t. We encourage donations to effective charities because we think money is an extremely potent tool for helping others. But it is far from the only tool; not every problem is a nail to charity’s hammer. For students and others living on a low budget, donations may be appealing but unrealistic. In this blog post, I outline some ways that I practice effective altruism beyond giving to effective charities. Some of these practices have some cost (beyond the opportunity cost), but many of them can be done nearly for free, and some may even save you money (which you could then donate if you so desire).
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