Thank you for that warm welcome
Thank you Tyler for that introduction, it's really terrific
I want to thank everybody who has been involved in putting together this wonderful event
And I'm really happy to be speaking here to not only talk to you about effective altruism
Not only to promote the organizations that are involved; PSI and if you're in DC and you're interested in this to get involved with giving what we can
But also to put forward some arguments in the hope that as Tyler just said
You too will think about the way you're living and whether there are things that you could do better
OK I've now mentioned effective altruism and I should say a little about what that term means
It's obviously got two parts, the altruism you'll understand easily
It's live your life to make the world a better place
Now that doesn't mean that every waking moment you have to be making the world a better place
Effective altruists are not all saints they don't claim to be saints
But they do say a significant part of my life I want to  try to make the world a better place
That's something that's important to me that I find is one of my aims
But it is also a part of what gives me fulfillment and satisfaction in my own life
So that's the altruism part
Effective is just like what I said a few moments ago
Make sure that when you do that whatever resources; if it's the percentage of his income that Tyler has pledged to donate to chariities
Or whatever else it is, maybe you don't have much money
But you have time, resources, skills make it as effective as possible
Don't just try to make the world a better place in fact try to do the most good you can
To make the biggest possible positive difference in the world that you  can with the resources that you're willing to put into that
Here's a web page from Rockefeller philanthropy advisors
One of the biggest philanthropy advisors in the world and they say one thing on this page that is absolutely right
Giving away money is simple. Giving away money effectively is an entirely different manner
So when I came to that I thought great they're on the right track
And then I looked more deeply into a pdf they have there called finding your focus in philanthropy
And it has this remark: what is the most urgent issue?
There's obviously no objective answer to that question
Is that obvious?
I don't even think it's true let alone obvious
I think at least sometimes it's very difficult to differentiate some what different causes
Climate change and global poverty are both huge and important causes I believe
And of course they're related because climate change is going to hit the poor most heavily
But some causes I think are just obviously I think not as important as say global poverty
Did you read earlier this year?
That David Geffen the entertainment mogul behind DreamWorks and various other entertainment ventures
Gave $100 million
To renovate what used to be Avery Fisher concert hall
Have you ever been to a concert at Avery Fisher concert hall in the Lincoln's centre in New York?
Sorry you've been to the last concert you'll go to Avery Fisher concert hall
Next time it will be David Geffen's concert hall
But a part from the naming issue
Is it really that important that when you go to this concert it's the best renovated concert hall?
This is going to be the Lincoln's centre says actually one fifth of the total cost
They've got another 400 million to raise to renovate the concert hall
I just think if you think of that amount of money and what it could do to prevent people from becoming blind
To save the lives of a very large number of children
Of hundreds of thousands of children atleast
That seems to me to be more important
To help millions of families to get a chance to get out of extreme poverty
Those things I think trump the idea of having a better renovated concert hall
So I do think we are to be thinking much more about effectiveness
And about where we get the biggest bang for a buck
We do that in our consumers spending all the time
And it's rather strange that when we donate we typically don't even ask that question
70% of Americans who donate to charity do zero research on the charity that they're donating to
Zero
And the other 30% mostly do very, very shallow research
So I now want to look at this question about how we can measure effectiveness
So until very recently again until about the time the effective altruism movement got going
The only information that you could easily find online about charities was the percentage of their revenue that went for administration rather than to programs
And so people use that figure as their guide
The 30% who did some research basically find that figure
And used it to donate to the charity with the lowest administrative cost
Is that a signed policy?
Well in very extreme cases it is
Perhaps because 60% - 80% are going to administration, that's not a good charity
But the difference between 25% and 15 or 10% doesn't really tell you much
Because if you cut administration back to the bare bones you may not be able to choose the best programs
You may not be able to monitor and evaluate the best programs
So OK 90 cents in every dollar is going programs
But half the programs do no good at all
So only 45 cents in the dollar do any good
The other charity spends let's say 20% on administration
Or it might even be a bit more
But it monitors it's programs
So of that 80% that goes on programs
Let's say three quarters of that 60% does good
That's better than that 45% doing good
So we need more evidence of effectiveness
And let me just briefly say that these guys made a big difference in making sure it happened
They left the hedge fund in order to fund Give well
They took a huge drop in salaries to do this
They funded this organization; Give Well
That does in depth research into charities
Recommends a small number of charities
The ones that can demonstrably show how good they are, how effective they are
They've set a new standard of rigor
If you're interested in animal charities as some of you maybe
Animal Charities Evaluators is a new organization trying to do this
To evaluate charities that work to reduce animal suffering
And finally the organization that I founded The Life You Can Save spun off a book I wrote with that title a few years ago
Is also recommending charities that I regard as among the top charities and are supported by other people now in that organization doing research
So there is information
And I hope that you will come out of this thinking firstly I do want to do more to make the world a better place
Secondly I'm going to do some research
I'm going to go to some of these websites
And I'm going to make sure that what I do whether it's time or money is the most effective thing I can do
To make the world a better place
Thank you
