I’m still waiting for hard evidence that average charity spending has significant net positive impact.
Claims like “$1 saves 1 life in Mozambique” or so don’t work at all, for if very cheap way of doing so actually existed, and there were no charities, people of Mozambique would spend such $1 on saving such 1 life. Now that charities pay for it, they spend it on booze instead—and this booze minus administrative costs is the net effect.
Head to Givewell.net, the Poverty Action Lab, and www.dcp2.org. If you want to expect to save one life with high confidence today (and don’t care about future generations/x-risk, research, advocacy, and other approaches with apparently higher expected value) the figure is on the close order of $1,000.
I’m still waiting for hard evidence that average charity spending has significant net positive impact.
Be that as it may, there exist above-average charities which have a net positive impact. If we select among those charities (or choose a grantmaker likely to select above-average charities), ,we can have a net positive impact.
I’m still waiting for hard evidence that average charity spending has significant net positive impact.
Claims like “$1 saves 1 life in Mozambique” or so don’t work at all, for if very cheap way of doing so actually existed, and there were no charities, people of Mozambique would spend such $1 on saving such 1 life. Now that charities pay for it, they spend it on booze instead—and this booze minus administrative costs is the net effect.
Head to Givewell.net, the Poverty Action Lab, and www.dcp2.org. If you want to expect to save one life with high confidence today (and don’t care about future generations/x-risk, research, advocacy, and other approaches with apparently higher expected value) the figure is on the close order of $1,000.
Be that as it may, there exist above-average charities which have a net positive impact. If we select among those charities (or choose a grantmaker likely to select above-average charities), ,we can have a net positive impact.