Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference

by William MacAskill

Both GiveDirectly and DMI seem excellent in terms of the quality of their implementation. GiveDirectly is led by a leading development economist; DMI is led by someone with extensive experience and achievements in radio education, and has an advisory board that includes some of the world’s best epidemiologists and development economists. In communication with GiveWell, both charities have openly shared requested information. GiveDirectly even goes so far as to provide information on how many cash transfer recipients reported having to pay bribes to the local agents who transferred them the money (at the time of writing, the figure is 0.4%). This sort of admission is very encouraging: showing that the charity cares about identifying and fixing mistakes, rather than brushing them under the rug.