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What is Effective Altruism?

Effective altruism is a global community of people who use evidence and reason to figure out how to help others as much as possible, and take action on that basis.

So how do we measure if we’re helping others as much as possible?

One way to measure:

“The number of people whose lives you improve, and how much you improve them by.”

But because we have limited time and money, we have to know how to use these effectively to help as much as possible.

It’s likely that we haven’t scoured enough data and evidence on how to achieve this.

And that was me back when I didn’t know about Effective Altruism.

Back in 2015, I got introduced to the world of startups and self-help books. So I started to idolize quite a few startup founders and content creators.

Mark Zuckerberg

Elon Musk

Tim Ferriss

Ryan Holiday

Around 2017, I was inspired to create a mission statement for my life:

To help people at scale.

A few months later though, a friend sent me the link to 80000hours.org, and I got really intrigued by it.

Through this site, I learned about EA, and how Effective Altruists ask themselves 3 questions to prioritize different causes / global problems.

#1: Is it a big problem?

• How many people are affected, now and in the future?
• How bad is the problem for people now and in the future?

Small Problem = Small Impact

Big Problem = Big Impact

#2: Is it a solvable problem?

• If we doubled the effort and resources on this problem, what fraction of the problem remaining is left to solve?

Hard to Solve

Easy to Solve = Higher Chance of Impact

How can we figure out which causes to focus on?

#3: Is it a neglected problem?

• How many people and resources are already dedicated to solving this problem?
• If it’s neglected, people who contribute to solving the problem have a higher chance of making a bigger impact

Not Neglected = Less Impact

More Neglected = More Impact

Some of EA’s top cause areas to solve:

#1: Global Health and Poverty

Why is this problem important?

~734M people still live in extreme poverty

~1.5M people still die from preventable diseases every year

~$3,000/life is the average cost it takes for the most effective charities to save lives

#2: Animal Welfare

~72 billion land animals are killed for food globally every year, with most experiencing extreme suffering over their lives.

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Americans annually donate:

$334B to domestic causes

$15B to international affairs

$2.50B to local animal shelters

$0.02-$0.05B for farm animal welfare

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Why is this problem important?

#3: Avoiding

Existential Risks

#4: Promoting

Effective Altruism

Through EA, I realized that there were a lot more ways I could do more good than just through startups or content.

Around Oct. 2018, I found that there was a new EA Philippines page

4 of us met for the first time in Nov 2018 to found and start growing EA PH

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We’ve organized 11 events (1 per month) since December, w/ 10-40 attendees each

Each event covers different cause areas or concepts in EA

So why get involved in Effective Altruism?

1. Keep learning new evidence on which global problems to solve and how to solve them

Whether it’s climate

change or AI, you can learn so many new things through EA.

2. Be part of a smart and talented global community

Joining EA Toronto’s Meetup

At an EA Conference in Singapore

Supporters of Effective Altruism

Sue Desmond-Hellman

CEO of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Vitalik Buterin

Co-Founder of Ethereum

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-Founder of Facebook

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Actor, Director and Founder

EA Philippines Core Team

Kate Lupango

Accountant at Numbers That Matter

Tanya Quijano

Development Consultant,

Former Head Executive Assistant at DSWD

Brian Tan

Product Designer at First Circle

Alec Wang

Head of EA Blue, an EA chapter in Ateneo

Why get involved in Effective Altruism?

3. Find a deeper meaning and purpose to your life

FAQs about EA PH

FAQs about EA PH

1. What projects do we do?

• We hold events and meetings to introduce and inform people about EA
• We have discussions with EA members from other global chapters

2. Do we do any direct outreach with local, underserved communities?

• No - We’re more focused on spreading awareness about EA, learning about EA’s top cause areas problems, and figuring out which charities/organizations to support or volunteer for in them. There are other organizations or programs you can join if you’d like to help directly

3. Do we have formal membership?

• Not yet - we just have core team members (4 of us at EA PH, 5 of them at EA Blue in Ateneo). If you’d like to join our core team and help us organize events or grow the EA community locally, let us know!

4. Do we work on EA PH full-time?

• None of us do currently - we all volunteer part-time for EA PH

5. How do you fund your projects?

• We have funding from the Center for Effective Altruism, based in London

Action Steps

• Like our page at fb.com/EffectiveAltruismPhilippines
• Contact Me, Kate, Tanya, or Alec to have a chat/call/coffee with 1 of us to learn more about EA!
• If you’d like to help us organize events or provide a venue for future events, let us know!
• Learn more about EA through Peter Singer’s TED Talk on YouTube, the 80,000 Hours Podcast, or the Future Perfect Podcast

My email: work.briantan@gmail.com

Facebook: Brian Tan (fb.com/brian.tan.7923)

My Contact Details

Where can you learn more about EA?

1. Subscribe to the Future Perfect Newsletter on Vox

2. Visit the EA forum

3. Read Doing Good Better or The Most Good You Can Do

Before you go, please fill up our post-event survey! bit.ly/EANovFeedback