History of Effective Altruism

Cross-posted from: https://www.jamesnorris.org/history-of-effective-altruism/ 

Concurrent movements that predate effective altruism (EA) with the most overlap:

• Social return on investment
• Randomistas
• Strategic philanthropy
• Effective philanthropy
• Effective giving
• Applied rationality
• Utilitarianism
• Social innovation
• Transhumanism
• Futurism

Key organizations and publications that led to the rise and growth of EA:

Pre-EA

• “An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” book – 1780
• “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” article – 1971
• “Animal Liberation” book – 1975
• “Reasons and Persons” book – 1984

Early EA

• Extropy Institute – 1991
• World “World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries” report – 1993
• “Living High and Letting Die” book – 1996
• The Center for What Works – 1997
• Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) – 1997
• World Transhumanist Association – 1998 -> Humanity+ – 2002 (renamed)

EA Foundations

• The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) social return on investment paradigm – late 90s/2000
• Shock Level 4 (SL4) – 2000
• Campbell Collaboration – 2000
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – 2000
• Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) – 2000 -> Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) – 2013 (renamed)
• The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) – 2001
• The Center for Global Development (CGD) – 2001
• Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) – 2002
• The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) – 2003
• Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development paper – 2003
• “EffectiveAltruism” article – 2003 (first use of “effective altruism” online)
• Copenhagen Consensus – 2004
• Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) – 2005
• Mission Measurement – 2005
• Center for High Impact Philanthropy – 2006
• Utilitarian Essays – 2006
• Overcoming Bias – 2006
• LessWrong – 2006 / 2009
• Felicifia Forum – 2006 / 2008 (archive, history)
• Charity International – 2007 -> Global Happiness Organization (2011)
• GiveWell – 2007
• Philanthropedia – 2008
• “Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy” book – 2008
• Giving What We Can (GWWC) – 2009
• The Life You Can Save (TLYCS) – 2009
• HOPE Consulting’s “Money for Good: The US Market for Impact Investments and Charitable Gifts from Individual Donors and Investors” report – 2010
• Back of the Envelope Guide to Philanthropy – 2011 (original)
• Global Catastrophic Risk Institute (GCRI) – 2011
• Leverage Research – 2011
• Good Ventures – 2011

EA Formalization

• “The history of the term ‘effective altruism’” article – 2011
• 80,000 Hours (80K) – 2011
• “A Name for a Movement?” article – 2012
• Good Ventures – 2012
• Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) – 2012
• Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) – 2012
• Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) – 2012
• Effective Animal Advocacy – 2012 / Animal Charity Evaluators – 2014 (renamed)
• The High Impact Network (THINK) – 2012
• .impact – 2013
• Evidence Action – 2013
• Effective Altruism Summit – 2013 (run by Leverage Research – 2011)
• “The Life You Can Save” book – 2013
• “Four Focus Areas of Effective Altruism” article – 2013
• “The Why and How of Effective Altruism” TED Talk – 2013
• “Facing the Intelligence Explosion” website – 2013
• Foundational Research Institute (FRI) & Effective Altruism Foundation (EAF) – 2013 -> Center on Long-term Risk (CLR) – 2020 (renamed, history)
• Good Done Right – 2014 (history)
• Impact Genome – 2014
• Charity Science – 2014 (history)
• Effective Altruism Ventures (EAV) – 2014 -> Effective Altruism Grants (2017)
• 1fortheWorld – 2014
• Raising for Effective Giving – 2014
• “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” book – 2014
• Effective Altruism Forum – 2014
• “Doing Good Better” book – 2015
• Effective Altruism Global (EAG) – 2015 (run by Self Spark – 2010 -> Upgradable – 2018 (renamed))
• Impact Matters – 2015
• “Effective Altruism Handbook” – 2015

EA Growth

• Lots of new organizations and initiatives (not included for brevity)

EA Decline

• FTX collapse – 2022

EA Future

• Yet to be written

EA’s Key Originators

• Bill Gates & Melinda Gates
• Bjorn Lomborg
• Dean Karlan, Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee & Sendhil Mullainathan
• Derek Parfit
• Eliezer Yudkowsky & Luke Muehlhauser
• Geoff Anders
• Gordon Irlam (biographical article)
• Holden Karnofsky & Elie Hassenfeld
• Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill & Henry Sidgwick
• Nick Bostrom
• Peter Singer
• Peter Unger
• Seth Baum
• William Crouch (William MacAskill), Toby Ord & Nick Beckstead
• Yew-Kwang Ng (biographical summary)

Other EA Histories

• Timeline of effective altruism
• Effective Altruism and the strategic ambiguity of ‘doing good’ – Section 2.1
• Effective altruism – Wikipedia – History
• History of effective altruism – EA Forum
• When Did EA Start?
• Why I don’t write as much as I used to – Growth and professionalism of effective altruism section
• Opening Keynote | Toby Ord & Will MacAskill | EA Global: San Francisco 2016
• Some Early History of Effective Altruism
• Requiem for an Effective Altruism
• On the results of Oxford-style effective altruism, existential risk, and longtermism – Simon Knutsson
• Before There Was Effective Altruism, There Was Effective Philanthropy — EA Forum (partial history)
• Timeline of nonprofit evaluation

EA’s Historical Context

• Is Effective Altruism New?