I find it useful to think about contributing charitable causes in my own neighbourhood/community as having a completely different motivation than giving to stuff that's far away. It's not possible for me to donate blood where it is most needed, but I can donate blood here and know that it'll be useful to whoever receives it anyway. It's not possible for me to volunteer my time somewhere overseas (putting aside doing remote/online stuff which can be helpful) - but I can put lots of time into things happening around me that make me feel more connected to the place where I live and provide a genuine service/vision of a better world at a small scale. (in my case this means pouring lots of time into a free bike fixing community space. I guess there is an opportunity cost in that I could be earning money with this time but that seems to be a somewhat limited way to think, and it gives me lots of joy/meaning). Donating money to places of great need and known effective solutions goes alongside this - moving money is a lot more easy than moving people (or blood I guess!). There's lots of stuff about effective altruism that I'm skeptical about, although I do have a good friend who is extremely involved in the "community" and working for an EA org so I feel quite familiar with it as a culture/thinking framework. However that basic principle, that lots of solutions just need resourcing, is very easy to forget and quite vital, especially when so much 'convincing people to donate' effort goes into much more 'close to home' kinda causes. But feeling you've made a difference to someone you're never going to meet, that sentiment gap you touch on here, is much harder than feeling you've made a difference when i.e. you know someone with cancer whose free wig really improved their life. I guess donating to stuff around you would be fine if every community in the world had an equal number of individuals with the resources/capacity to donate to local causes, but that's simply not the case.
I resonate with all of this! Blood donation is a really good example and I like the framing a lot of "genuine service/vision of a better world at a small scale". I volunteer with my local run club which is engaged throughout the year with local organizations and of course strong communities around the world include things like free bike fixing and public libraries and neighbors and organizations working to end homelessness. Bikes especially can be life-changing for people, especially women, in rural areas who can't afford cars and have to walk a long way to do work or get water or go to school (I was thinking of this recently because my old organization just published a study - linked below). So I'm always trying to find community-based organizations and things beyond very basic global health programs (although of course these are good!) both in my own neighborhood and far beyond even though the latter is hard.
I know the full effective altruism movement well from my time in the Bay Area and there's a lot I am skeptical/critical of and simply don't understand as well (the linked article touches on a bunch of these). Many of my criticisms end up being of a) (most of my criticisms) when EA has gone too far imo into the speculative realm and b) when theories of change are limited to specific positive outcomes and yet seem to be presented as the be-all and end-all in a broader field -- that said, I think that GiveWell's work moving a ton of money from high-income countries into global health has been great even though obviously malaria medication (as with any one thing) is just one part of making the world a better place.
I watched a documentary about World Bicycle Relief a while ago! I think that it’s such a good example of something which is really useful but also pleasurable and fun (hopefully!) - I think part of a good life that is of course enabled by good health/education etc. but not fully related is the experience of joy and leisure and sometimes being quite focused on instrumental policies means it’s easy to lose sight of this. Which doesn’t mean that roundabouts should be water wells of course, to take a favourite EA example - but that safe places for play and sport are part of a good life which everyone deserves
I could resonate! Your argument reminds me of how I was thinking about this with respect to limited funding to developing nations. Perhaps similarly, it bothers me that more people continue to fund projects in the developed world - specifically real estate developments, when there is a huge infrastructure gap in the world farther away. People only seem to care about investing in their own neighborhood as it directly affects/benefits them. And often wonder - is it education, dialogue, or trust that can bridge this gap.
I appreciate you bringing up different forms of investment here beyond charity donation, since this is super important as well! I've been thinking about this regarding remittances sent by people working in high-income countries to support their families in their home countries, where there's already this high level of trust & dialogue. Remittances reached an estimated $656 billion in 2023 (link 2 below). I was also recently at a panel that was discussing real estate development in Africa broadly with the specific audience of members of the African diaspora. I feel like there is a lot of potential on building on already-existing networks where there are already levels of trust and interest (and maybe also some financial investment), which is probably not possible to do in a centralized way but could work for specific initiatives or even sector focuses.
Thanks for sharing!! First time hearing about this concept and surprising to hear it represents a significant % of GDP in some countries! Also curious which panel it was! in general starting where there is already trust + dialogue is interesting.
I find it useful to think about contributing charitable causes in my own neighbourhood/community as having a completely different motivation than giving to stuff that's far away. It's not possible for me to donate blood where it is most needed, but I can donate blood here and know that it'll be useful to whoever receives it anyway. It's not possible for me to volunteer my time somewhere overseas (putting aside doing remote/online stuff which can be helpful) - but I can put lots of time into things happening around me that make me feel more connected to the place where I live and provide a genuine service/vision of a better world at a small scale. (in my case this means pouring lots of time into a free bike fixing community space. I guess there is an opportunity cost in that I could be earning money with this time but that seems to be a somewhat limited way to think, and it gives me lots of joy/meaning). Donating money to places of great need and known effective solutions goes alongside this - moving money is a lot more easy than moving people (or blood I guess!). There's lots of stuff about effective altruism that I'm skeptical about, although I do have a good friend who is extremely involved in the "community" and working for an EA org so I feel quite familiar with it as a culture/thinking framework. However that basic principle, that lots of solutions just need resourcing, is very easy to forget and quite vital, especially when so much 'convincing people to donate' effort goes into much more 'close to home' kinda causes. But feeling you've made a difference to someone you're never going to meet, that sentiment gap you touch on here, is much harder than feeling you've made a difference when i.e. you know someone with cancer whose free wig really improved their life. I guess donating to stuff around you would be fine if every community in the world had an equal number of individuals with the resources/capacity to donate to local causes, but that's simply not the case.
I resonate with all of this! Blood donation is a really good example and I like the framing a lot of "genuine service/vision of a better world at a small scale". I volunteer with my local run club which is engaged throughout the year with local organizations and of course strong communities around the world include things like free bike fixing and public libraries and neighbors and organizations working to end homelessness. Bikes especially can be life-changing for people, especially women, in rural areas who can't afford cars and have to walk a long way to do work or get water or go to school (I was thinking of this recently because my old organization just published a study - linked below). So I'm always trying to find community-based organizations and things beyond very basic global health programs (although of course these are good!) both in my own neighborhood and far beyond even though the latter is hard.
I know the full effective altruism movement well from my time in the Bay Area and there's a lot I am skeptical/critical of and simply don't understand as well (the linked article touches on a bunch of these). Many of my criticisms end up being of a) (most of my criticisms) when EA has gone too far imo into the speculative realm and b) when theories of change are limited to specific positive outcomes and yet seem to be presented as the be-all and end-all in a broader field -- that said, I think that GiveWell's work moving a ton of money from high-income countries into global health has been great even though obviously malaria medication (as with any one thing) is just one part of making the world a better place.
https://www.idinsight.org/project/world-bicycle-relief/
I watched a documentary about World Bicycle Relief a while ago! I think that it’s such a good example of something which is really useful but also pleasurable and fun (hopefully!) - I think part of a good life that is of course enabled by good health/education etc. but not fully related is the experience of joy and leisure and sometimes being quite focused on instrumental policies means it’s easy to lose sight of this. Which doesn’t mean that roundabouts should be water wells of course, to take a favourite EA example - but that safe places for play and sport are part of a good life which everyone deserves
Absolutely!!
I could resonate! Your argument reminds me of how I was thinking about this with respect to limited funding to developing nations. Perhaps similarly, it bothers me that more people continue to fund projects in the developed world - specifically real estate developments, when there is a huge infrastructure gap in the world farther away. People only seem to care about investing in their own neighborhood as it directly affects/benefits them. And often wonder - is it education, dialogue, or trust that can bridge this gap.
I appreciate you bringing up different forms of investment here beyond charity donation, since this is super important as well! I've been thinking about this regarding remittances sent by people working in high-income countries to support their families in their home countries, where there's already this high level of trust & dialogue. Remittances reached an estimated $656 billion in 2023 (link 2 below). I was also recently at a panel that was discussing real estate development in Africa broadly with the specific audience of members of the African diaspora. I feel like there is a lot of potential on building on already-existing networks where there are already levels of trust and interest (and maybe also some financial investment), which is probably not possible to do in a centralized way but could work for specific initiatives or even sector focuses.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/pdf/ratha-remittances.pdf
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/06/26/remittances-slowed-in-2023-expected-to-grow-faster-in-2024
Thanks for sharing!! First time hearing about this concept and surprising to hear it represents a significant % of GDP in some countries! Also curious which panel it was! in general starting where there is already trust + dialogue is interesting.
"Building Africa's Future Cities" here! https://www.columbiaafricaconference.com/agenda
Ohh, I was there last year!
Whoa small world haha