Effective Altruism
at UCLA
Doing Good Better.
Spring 2026 General Meeting
April 8, 2026 • Powell Library
What is Effective Altruism?
A movement and philosophy focused on how we can do the most good with our limited time and resources.
The goal is not to give ourselves warm fuzzies — it's to actually consider things from the perspective of those affected.
Expand your moral circle
Care about those far away, in the future, and different from us — animals, digital minds.
Be scope-sensitive
Helping 100 people is better than helping 10 — not because we're robots, but because their lives actually improve.
Use evidence & reason
Prioritize with frameworks like ITN, counterfactual impact, expected value, and cost-effectiveness.
The World Needs Our Help
EA isn't about solving abstract problems. The world is full of very real, very important challenges.
600K+
die of malaria yearly
Most are children under 5
80B+
land animals killed for food/yr
Often in extreme suffering
1.3B
live under autocracies
Lacking basic freedoms
???
AI systems being built now
Existential-scale stakes
The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. — Our World in Data
Impact is Extremely Heavy-Tailed
Your Leverage
Top 1%
You are in the global top 1% of income
$4,000
can save a life from malaria via top charities
UCLA
gives you access to extraordinary career opportunities
Agency
You can change your mind, identify what matters most, and go work on it
Our Intellectual Toolkit
The Most Important Century?
Technological progress is rapid. All possible futures are wild. Our actions are extremely leveraged right now.
AI Progress
AI capabilities are advancing rapidly. We may see transformative AI this decade — the decisions made now shape whether it goes well.
All Futures Are Wild
Whether AI stalls or accelerates, every plausible future is strange. The current trajectory of economic growth and tech progress can't continue unchanged.
We Are Leveraged
A small number of people working on the right problems can have enormous influence on the long-term future. That includes us.
We should treat this with the seriousness it deserves.
A Community, Not a Burden
Excited Altruism
This doesn't need to be a moral weight. You can be surrounded by a great community and be genuinely excited about making the world better. EA is about caring — and caring can feel amazing.
Not Dogmatic
EA is about improving our models of the world. People in EA are down to support you and down to receive critical feedback. It's an intellectually vibrant community with lots of healthy disagreement.
We can care.
"On Caring" by Nate Soares captures this beautifully: letting yourself feel the weight of the world's problems — and then choosing to act anyway.
CASE STUDY
Global Health & Development
How EA thinking applies: the best health interventions are 100x more cost-effective than average.
The EA Approach
Key Insight
Not all charitable interventions are equal. The best are orders of magnitude more effective. EA asks us to take this seriously because the difference is measured in human lives.
"Humanizing Expected Value" — EA Forum
CASE STUDY
Animal Welfare
Expanding the moral circle: over 80 billion land animals are killed for food each year, most in factory farms.
80B+
land animals killed/yr
99%
in factory farms (US)
<1%
of philanthropic $ goes here
Why EA prioritizes this
Extremely important (massive scale of suffering), highly neglected (tiny fraction of philanthropic funding), and tractable (corporate campaigns for welfare reforms have been remarkably effective per dollar). This is the ITN framework in action.
CASE STUDY
AI Safety & Governance
If AI systems become more capable than humans at most tasks, the stakes are existential.
Misalignment Risk
AI systems that are smarter than us but don't share our values could pursue goals catastrophically at odds with human wellbeing. Alignment research tries to solve this before it's too late.
Power Concentration
Even if AI is aligned with someone's values, it matters whose. Concentrated control of transformative AI could entrench authoritarian power or erode democratic governance.
This is arguably the most important — and most neglected — problem of our time.
What We Do
Our programs, events, and how to get involved
Frontiers Fellowship
START HERE
A 7-week discussion program exploring the core ideas of EA, the "most important century" hypothesis, and independent critical investigation.
Part 1
Introduction to EA
Core principles, tools for impact, expanding moral circles (Weeks 1–3)
Part 2
The Next Frontier
Most important century, AI, existential risks, shaping the future (Weeks 4–5)
Part 3
Independent Investigation
Critiques, forming independent beliefs, self-directed research (Weeks 6–7)
~2 hrs/week reading • 1 hr/week discussion • Apply today!
Career Pathways Program
Small-group discussions with professionals working across EA cause areas.
Jesse Tandler
Director, New Roots Institute
April 22
Daniel Eth
Director of Strategy, AI Policy Network
May 8
Brandon Goldman
Partner, Goldheart Ventures & Treasurer, Foresight Institute
TBD
Career Accelerator & Board
Career Accelerator
Join the Board
Perhaps one of the highest-impact things you can do: if you create two "you-equivalents," you've doubled your impact.
A tight-knit community of people who care about EA and care about each other.
Applications are open now.
Upcoming Events
Tomorrow • 7:20 PM
"The AI Doc: or How I Became an Apocaloptimist"
Come watch the documentary with us! Two free tickets remaining.
This Weekend • April 10–12
West Coast EA Retreat — Northern California
Meet the broader EA student community & professionals. Costs fully covered.
May 2–3 • Applications due April 16
EAGxDC Conference
Learn about cause areas, have 1-on-1 chats with leading professionals. We'll provide feedback on your application, and we'll travel and house together.
Get Involved
Join the Discord
Stay in the loop, connect with the community, find events and opportunities.
Apply for the Frontiers Fellowship
The best way to start. The application takes ~15 min if you do it here tonight (skip the last question!).
Check our Linktree & Website
All links, applications, and info in one place. QR codes on the next slide.
We have the room until 8 PM — chat with board members, ask questions, and start your fellowship application now!
eaucla.org
Links & QR Codes
Scan to get started — or visit eaucla.org
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Linktree
eaucla.org
Website
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Discord
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Fellowship App
Thank you for coming! We're excited to have you. 💛