Charitable Impact and Effective Altruism

Charitable impact was the subject that caught my attention at a recent roundtable I was taking part in.

I run a charity, have sat on charity boards, been responsible for corporate social responsibility in the business world and had numerous charity consulting clients.

My view is running a charity is one of the hardest jobs out there, mainly due to the prevalent worldview that exists about what charities should do which are often held by people who truly have no idea about the challenges of running one.

I am a big fan of charity expert Caroline Fiennes’ book ‘It ain’t what you gave it the way that you give it’ and this TED talk by Dan Palotta on fundraising. It is absolutely not true that we do not have enough money or energy or ability in this world to fix all our issues.

The issue is the whole notion of charity seems stuck in the Victorian era when it is now 2016. I have only come to the effective altruism party in the last 18 months or so and I love what it is done for the way I think about giving. The idea is I should think about the most good I can do, rather than just doing something, is a real shift in my mindset. I definitely have not been giving enough financially and I am changing that strategically.

My challenge to you today is to find a charity that looks to you like it has got an ambitious leader, call them up and ask how you can help. Give them a brief summary of your best skills. Tell them how much time you can give – one-off? monthly? – and asked them to meet with you in the next couple of weeks to plan it.

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