poverty

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.

HLS Effective Altruism has been thrilled at the positive response to HLS Gives. So far, HLS students like you have pledged over $27,000 of their collective summer earnings. This generosity will make a significant positive impact on the world.

While many of our pledgers have already promised to give to a specific organization, many remain uncommitted. We appreciate this open-mindedness: one ought to think hard about where to give. If you agree with our commonsense philosophy—that evidence ought to guide our quest to do the most good we can—you should give to the highly effective, proven charities recommended through our partner organization, One For The World (OFTW). I’m sure you already know that donating to the wrong charity can accomplish nothing, or even cause harm. Even within the class of charities that do have a positive effect, the difference between the least and most cost-effective charities can be significant. The lack of solid evidence for many organizations’ effectiveness and differences in transparency further complicate the decision. Fortunately, however, teams of experts have analyzed dozens of the most promising charities and selected those which have the best evidence of high efficacy. Donations through OFTW go to such charities. [Read more…] about Why Give Through One For The World