{"id":6776,"date":"2023-04-25T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/?p=6776"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:27:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T02:27:31","slug":"part-2-of-5-what-can-the-philanthropic-sector-take-from-the-downfall-of-samuel-bankman-fried-and-his-ties-to-effective-altruism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/2023\/part-2-of-5-what-can-the-philanthropic-sector-take-from-the-downfall-of-samuel-bankman-fried-and-his-ties-to-effective-altruism\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 2 of 5: What Can the Philanthropic Sector Take from the Downfall of Samuel Bankman-Fried and His Ties to Effective Altruism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CalumBy Calum Carmichael<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(The full, five-part series is downloadable as a pdf: What Can the Philanthropic Sector Take from the Downfall of Samuel Bankman-Fried and His Ties to Effective Altruism, a five-part series by Calum Carmichael (2023)<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 2: Effective Altruism<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As noted in part 1 of this series<\/a>, the charges brought in late 2022 against the crypto entrepreneur Samuel Bankman-Fried intensified existing criticisms and suspicions of Effective Altruism \u2013 the approach to philanthropy with which he is closely associated. Parts 3, 4 and 5 will examine those criticisms and derive from them broader questions and issues for the philanthropic sector to consider. But here in part 2, we examine Effective Altruism itself: its origins, ethos, analytical methods, priorities and evolution.<\/p>\n

What are we talking about?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Effective Altruism (often shortened to EA) has two sides. First, it\u2019s a research area that uses evidence and reasoning to determine ways to do the most good with a given amount of philanthropic resources. Second, it\u2019s a community of practice comprising individuals and organizations that use the findings of that research to direct their resources \u2013 whether time or income \u2013 toward the ways found to do the most good. In some respects, it resembles the secular philanthropy clubs<\/a> founded in Paris and London during the late Enlightenment \u2013 the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Philanthropique of 1780 or the London Philanthropic Society of 1788 \u2013 in disparaging indiscriminate forms of charity, promoting reason as a means to identify the most effective ways to improve well-being particularly of the poor, and then privately funding and managing those ways.<\/p>\n

Origins<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In its current form, EA emerged less than two decades ago out of initiatives taken by young adults in the UK and US both to measure differences in the cost-effectiveness of charities and to encourage giving on that basis.<\/p>\n

\"Toby

Toby Ord<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2009, Toby Ord and William MacAskill, then a research fellow and graduate student with the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University, collaborated in measuring those differences across charities addressing poverty and its effects in low-income countries. Within months, they created the organization Giving What We Can<\/a> that encourages members to donate at least 10% of their income in perpetuity to the charities found to be most effective. Its membership<\/a> has grown from the original 23 to more than 8,200. In 2011, MacAskill and a fellow student Ben Todd co-founded the organization 80,000 Hours<\/a> (what an average person works over a lifetime) to provide advice on careers that could combine a personal fit with high social impact. By the end of that year, MacAskill, Ord, Todd and 14 others involved with the two organizations decided to incorporate them as a charity, finally agreeing on the name Centre for Effective Altruism<\/a> (CEA). The term \u201cEffective Altruism\u201d was established.<\/p>\n

\"Holden

Holden Karnofsky<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile in the US, Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, both in their 20s, decided in 2007<\/a> to leave their jobs at an investment firm to found and staff GiveWell<\/a>, a research organization that uses performance metrics to identify the most cost-effective charities in a variety of fields. In 2012, GiveWell partnered with Good Ventures<\/a>, the charitable foundation established by the Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna. That partnership led to the creation of Open Philanthropy<\/a>, a research and granting foundation that in 2017 became a separate organization with Karnofsky as CEO, leaving Hassenfeld as CEO of GiveWell. These people and organizations formed linkages with their counterparts in the UK, and adopted the term Effective Altruism to describe their own research agendas and giving practices.<\/p>\n

Ethos<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Given its origins, one can understand why EA interprets its research and giving in explicitly ethical terms. To a large degree, its philosophical roots draw from utilitarianism<\/a> \u2013 the premise that actions are moral to the extent they promote total well-being. More pointedly, they draw from the work of the philosopher Peter Singer, starting with the four-fold \u201cbasic argument\u201d that he laid out in 1972<\/a> during the famine in Bangladesh. Given:<\/p>\n