Introduction
Summary of the book Doing Good Better by William MacAskill. Before moving forward, let’s briefly explore the core idea of the book. When you consider charity, the first image might be a smiling child holding a small gift, a heartwarming photo that sparks a desire to help. But behind these images lie real human struggles, complex problems, and difficult choices that can’t be solved by good intentions alone. This introduction serves as a gentle invitation to step into a world where careful thinking and compassionate logic guide your generosity. It’s about understanding that money, effort, and time are precious resources, and when directed thoughtfully, they can change the course of someone’s life dramatically. You’ll learn to see beyond flashy ads and familiar causes, question long-held assumptions, and embrace evidence to ensure that every donation or career move you make truly counts. As you move through these chapters, you’ll uncover tools, insights, and strategies to channel your kindness where it matters most—transforming vague goodwill into powerful, life-saving action.
Chapter 1: Unmasking Common Misconceptions About Doing Good to Truly Transform Lives .
Think back to the last time you donated money to a charity. Perhaps you dropped a few coins into a collection jar at the grocery store, or clicked a big red donate button online after seeing a heartbreaking photograph. You probably felt good afterward, imagining your contribution improving someone’s life. Yet, have you ever paused to ask yourself what actually happened after you donated? Did that money truly reach those in dire need, or did it slide into an already well-funded cause without adding much additional help? Unfortunately, most of us never look deeply into this question. We trust that good intentions naturally lead to meaningful results. The reality, however, is that appearances can be deceiving. Just because a charity is famous or widely supported doesn’t guarantee that every single donation makes a real, life-changing impact. Understanding this hidden gap between intention and outcome is the first crucial step toward doing good better.
Imagine standing before a long row of different causes, each holding out a collection box, each pleading for support. There are so many options: feeding hungry children, protecting endangered animals, funding cancer research, or buying blankets for disaster victims. All these charities claim to help, but some interventions may result in enormous, positive changes while others offer only modest improvements. It’s not always as simple as sending money where your heart leads you. In fact, by not looking deeper, you risk pouring resources into areas already overflowing with help, leaving other dire needs neglected. The thought can be unsettling—after all, we usually believe that donating anywhere is always good. But reality teaches us that we must carefully consider where our help can achieve the greatest possible effect. By re-examining your approach to giving, you become empowered to direct your donations toward areas where they truly matter most.
To truly understand how to make a difference, imagine charity as a form of investment. Just as savvy investors seek out opportunities with the greatest potential return, thoughtful donors learn to invest in causes that produce the biggest improvements in people’s lives. Although it might feel odd to think this way, treating charitable giving as a type of strategic decision-making does not make your kindness any less sincere. Instead, it sharpens your compassion, ensuring that your money and efforts produce the best possible outcomes. Think about it like gardening: if you scatter seeds randomly across a barren field without considering soil quality or weather conditions, many seeds may never sprout. By carefully choosing the right patch of land and nurturing seedlings properly, you ensure that the garden flourishes. Your donations are like seeds of hope. Plant them wisely, and your kindness can grow into something truly transformative.
This shift in thinking—from giving automatically to giving thoughtfully—sets the stage for discovering entirely new ways to help others. It encourages you to step back from familiar patterns, like giving to the same well-known organizations or reacting emotionally to the latest heartbreaking story. Instead, you focus on facts, effectiveness, and tangible results. With this approach, you’re no longer just tossing money toward problems and hoping for the best; you’re using your resources strategically to create real, lasting change. It’s not about being cold-hearted or overly analytical. It’s about caring so deeply that you want your actions to count. By delving into the details, examining evidence, and understanding where your help can do the most good, you can become a more confident, impactful donor. As we move forward, you’ll discover tools, ideas, and principles that empower you to transform your well-meaning compassion into genuine life-changing outcomes.
Chapter 2: Learning to Prioritize Like a Medical Rescuer to Amplify Your Charitable Impact .
In high-pressure situations, decision-making can mean the difference between life and death. During the Rwandan genocide, Dr. James Orbinski of the Red Cross faced an impossible dilemma. Countless injured people crowded makeshift clinics, yet time, medicine, and staff were desperately limited. To save as many lives as possible, Dr. Orbinski had to prioritize patients based on their chances of survival and how quickly they needed treatment. He developed a system where he wrote numbers on their foreheads: 1 meant immediate attention, 2 could wait a bit, and 3 meant sadly there was nothing he could do. Although brutal, this method allowed him to rescue more individuals than if he had tried to treat everyone equally. It taught a powerful lesson: when resources are limited, focusing efforts where they make the greatest difference can yield far better outcomes than trying to help all problems at once.
This same principle applies to charitable giving. While it might seem harsh to rank people’s needs, it’s simply a practical necessity in a world where resources are always finite. You cannot donate to every cause, no matter how worthy, so you must identify where your support can bring the greatest benefit. Instead of spreading your donations thinly across multiple areas, consider concentrating them where they’ll truly change lives. Think of it like targeting the root of a problem rather than trimming its leaves. By doing so, you empower certain interventions to work more effectively and deliver a more substantial impact. Just as Dr. Orbinski’s system allowed him to reach those he could still save, careful prioritization ensures your donations reach individuals who might otherwise remain overlooked.
To learn prioritization, start by asking practical questions: How many people will benefit from this donation? By how much will their lives improve? Are these people currently underserved or already receiving ample support from many donors? Such questions might feel uncomfortable because they treat helping others as something measurable. Yet measuring impact is essential to ensure that your kindness doesn’t get lost in the crowd. Just as a teacher allocates more time to struggling students who can greatly improve with guidance, a donor should look for opportunities to help communities that face severe hardships but lack adequate backing. In this way, prioritizing doesn’t mean caring less about others; it means focusing your care where it can truly change a desperate situation into a hopeful one.
When you adopt this mindset, you join a growing movement of individuals who believe that good intentions must be guided by informed decisions. You don’t need to have infinite wealth or expert knowledge to do this. Even modest donations can make a massive difference if aimed correctly. Picture it like lighting a candle in a dark room. One candle in a well-lit stadium might go unnoticed, but that same candle in a pitch-black cottage can brighten a family’s entire evening. By learning to prioritize, you shift from passive giving to active problem-solving. You become more than just a donor; you become a strategic ally in battles against poverty, disease, and suffering. This choice not only magnifies the effectiveness of each dollar you spend, but also deepens the meaning behind your generosity, ensuring your compassion truly saves and improves lives.
Chapter 3: Calculating Expected Value to Make Smarter Decisions About Where to Give .
Imagine you face a choice: should you donate to a medical program that has a 50% chance of saving 3,000 lives or to another cause guaranteed to save 1,000 lives? While the sure thing may sound appealing, using the concept of expected value can change your perspective. Expected value is a mathematical tool that helps you weigh potential outcomes by combining their likelihood with their impact. For instance, a 50% chance of saving 3,000 lives equals an expected value of 1,500 lives. This number suggests that, on average, your donation would result in saving more lives than the safer 1,000-life guarantee. Though reality is never as neat as a calculation, thinking in terms of expected values helps you compare different opportunities and guess which ones might have the most substantial long-term impact, even if they come with uncertainty.
This idea may feel unfamiliar at first because it turns emotional decisions into something more analytical. But remember, it’s not about removing your heart from giving; it’s about guiding your heart with reason. Consider large-scale projects, like preventing a nuclear disaster or slowing down climate change. The probability of success may be low, but the potential benefits—averting a catastrophe that could harm millions—are enormous. By understanding expected value, you no longer dismiss these challenging but high-impact interventions. Instead, you weigh their potential carefully. Sometimes, the smartest choice is to support an effort that, while risky, offers unimaginable benefits if it succeeds. Without this perspective, you might overlook crucial opportunities just because their success isn’t guaranteed.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 illustrates how ignoring expected value can be catastrophic. The plant’s planners saw the chance of a huge accident as very low and thus failed to adequately prepare for it. But if they had considered the expected damage—a small probability multiplied by a vast potential harm—they might have put better safety measures in place. Similarly, when you donate, considering expected value encourages you to think not only about the likelihood of success but also about the magnitude of possible outcomes. Is it better to fund a cause that almost certainly helps a small number of people or one that might help an enormous number of people but isn’t guaranteed? Expected value thinking empowers you to explore both paths logically.
Incorporating expected value into charitable giving is like learning to look at a bigger map before choosing which route to take. Instead of rushing down a path just because it seems simple or safe, you analyze different possibilities, measuring how far they might take you toward your ultimate goal of improving lives. It can be a powerful tool for making sense of complexity. After all, the world’s problems are rarely black-and-white. They come with uncertainties and unknowns. Using expected value helps you embrace those uncertainties, making you more flexible, prepared, and innovative. Just as a scientist tests hypotheses before concluding, you learn to consider various outcomes before settling on a donation. This mindset ensures that your charitable actions, guided by thoughtful analysis, carry you closer to truly doing good better.
Chapter 4: Escaping the Crowd: Why Overfunded Causes May Not Need Your Help .
Some charities receive so much attention and funding that they’re like overflowing wells—every additional drop of support barely raises the water level. This is the law of diminishing returns in action. The more resources you pour into a well-supplied area, the less added benefit each extra dollar provides. While it may seem kindhearted to support a popular cause that’s always in the news, doing so might only create a tiny ripple. Meanwhile, neglected causes—like remote villages facing preventable diseases or struggling communities with no education access—are parched deserts where each drop of aid can spark a miraculous bloom of hope. By understanding how diminishing returns work, you realize that directing your donation to lesser-known but severely underfunded areas can unlock dramatic improvements in people’s lives.
Consider disaster relief efforts. After a massive earthquake or flood, the media often highlights the tragedy, prompting an outpouring of donations. While this generosity shows that people care, it also leads to a peculiar imbalance. Everyone rushes in to help, resulting in a mountain of donations for one tragic event. Meanwhile, quiet and ongoing crises, like preventable malaria-related deaths, receive far less attention and funding. For every person who died in a widely reported disaster, multiple charities might receive extraordinarily large sums, far surpassing what they can efficiently use. Meanwhile, in a poverty-stricken region with little media coverage, meager funds force families to go without basic healthcare or clean water. By turning your attention to these neglected areas, you avoid adding a drop to a brimming bucket and instead fill an empty cup that can truly change someone’s fate.
The sweater analogy can help clarify this point. If you own no warm clothing, receiving a single sweater is life-changing—it could mean surviving a harsh winter. If you already have two sweaters, another might be nice but not essential. If you have a closet full of sweaters, one more barely matters. In terms of donations, think of the people you’re trying to help: if you support a cause that already has plenty of sweaters, your contribution provides only marginal comfort. On the other hand, donating to a cause that has nothing—no sweaters, no relief, no support—can genuinely save lives. Understanding this helps you see why giving to the overfunded isn’t always the best route. Your compassion can be stretched much further by focusing on places and people with little or no help.
By recognizing the importance of targeting neglected issues, you begin to see why huge problems like chronic poverty, malaria, and malnutrition deserve more attention. These slow-burning crises claim millions of lives over time, but they don’t always produce dramatic footage to attract global sympathy. Still, their victims are no less human or deserving. By stepping away from the spotlight and into the shadows where fewer people donate, you can become a hero to those who need it most. This is not about ignoring famous causes—it’s about restoring balance and ensuring your resources genuinely lift people out of desperate conditions. When you learn to look beyond the spotlight, your donation goes from being a single drop in a massive ocean to a refreshing river in an arid land, delivering hope and possibility where it’s been long overdue.
Chapter 5: Seeing the Bigger Picture: Using Counterfactual Thinking to Choose Effective Paths .
Counterfactual thinking asks a powerful question: what would have happened otherwise? Imagine you see someone choking and, being the only person present, you quickly perform the Heimlich maneuver to save his life. Your actions, despite possibly causing minor harm, were clearly good because if you had done nothing, he likely would have died. Now picture the same scenario, but this time a trained paramedic stands beside you, ready to help. If you push the paramedic aside to do the job yourself, you might still save the choking man’s life—but you might cause unnecessary harm or miss the paramedic’s superior skill. In this second scenario, your intervention wasn’t as beneficial as it seemed. Counterfactual thinking helps you see the difference between doing good that wouldn’t have happened otherwise and doing something that someone else could have done better.
This concept is vital for making career choices that genuinely improve the world. Many people assume that directly working at a charity or an NGO is always best. After all, you’ll be on the front lines, delivering aid and seeing the difference up close. But consider the counterfactual: if you didn’t take that job, would another qualified, passionate person step in and possibly do an even better job? If yes, then your true added value might be lower than you think. On the other hand, imagine taking a high-paying position in a bank or technology firm and donating a significant portion of your salary to highly effective charities. Without you in that role, the money might never reach these life-saving programs. By choosing the career path that allows you to add the most unique value, you amplify your contribution to the world’s improvement.
When considering your future, personal fit also matters. Follow your passion is common advice, but it’s not always the most impactful route. Some passions, like becoming a professional athlete or musician, are extremely competitive and rarely produce reliable incomes to donate from. Others may lead you into popular fields where your presence isn’t uniquely needed. By thinking counterfactually, you ask: if I don’t fill this role, will it remain empty, or will someone else pick up the slack easily? If it’s the latter, maybe you can do more good in a different role, one that aligns with your strengths and positions you to generate steady resources for causes that desperately lack funding. This approach might feel like you’re being too analytical, but it’s just the opposite—you’re ensuring that your empathy and dedication translate into maximum positive outcomes.
Counterfactual thinking transforms your perspective on what doing good really means. Instead of only seeing heroic stories of direct action, you recognize that behind the scenes, quiet supporters can have a massive influence. They write checks that fund scholarships for girls who would never afford school otherwise, or finance bed nets that prevent children from being bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes. They may never appear in inspirational documentaries, yet without them, many life-saving interventions would not be possible. By embracing counterfactual thinking, you acknowledge the value of each role in society. Some people will excel as frontline workers; others can excel as supporters who ensure those heroes have the resources they need. Whichever path you choose, thinking carefully about what would have happened otherwise ensures that you’re always adding meaningful value, not just following a script that any other caring person could perform.
Chapter 6: Judging Charities by Their Real-World Results, Not Their Overhead Costs .
When deciding where to donate, it’s tempting to look at how charities spend their money. You might hear advice like: Pick charities that devote most of their donations directly to programs, not salaries or administrative costs. But this measure can be misleading. Imagine a charity that proudly spends 99% of its funds on delivering top-quality caviar to wealthy bankers who aren’t truly in need. Another charity invests heavily in overhead like research, staff training, and effective communication, which helps them deliver simple but life-saving interventions—like teaching families how to prevent deadly diseases. Which charity actually improves lives more? Clearly, the one that invests in solutions that tackle urgent problems, even if its overhead costs appear high. The key is not how they split their budget pie, but what they achieve with the entire pie as a whole.
Consider a real-life example: Development Media International (DMI) runs health education campaigns through radio and television in developing countries. They spend a significant portion of their budget on overhead. From a narrow perspective, this might seem wasteful. But in reality, these expenses pay for well-researched strategies and professional content that can reach millions of listeners and viewers, convincing them to adopt life-saving hygiene practices. Something as simple as washing hands properly or boiling water can prevent deadly illnesses. If DMI’s approach reduces childhood mortality by thousands each year, isn’t that a better outcome than a charity that uses nearly all its funds on direct goods but fails to achieve meaningful change? By focusing on results—on how many lives are improved or saved—rather than just overhead percentages, you direct your support to organizations that accomplish something truly valuable.
Charity evaluators like Charity Navigator became popular by rating organizations based on how much money reaches the front lines versus overhead. While well-intentioned, this focus can mislead donors. Overhead can include critical elements: hiring skilled staff, collecting data on program success, improving management, or investing in training local workers. These investments might not give the heartwarming image of handing out blankets to shivering families. Yet, if done right, they can mean that in the future, for every one blanket you would have handed out, the newly improved systems now provide ten. By spending smartly on overhead, charities can become more effective engines for change. They can learn from their mistakes, adjust strategies, and expand their impact to more communities than ever before.
Instead of asking how charities spend each dollar, ask what they accomplish. Do they reduce mortality rates? Boost literacy? Improve access to safe water, nutritious food, or vital medicines? Are they solving underlying problems rather than just treating symptoms? By evaluating organizations based on their measurable outcomes, you align your donations with genuine transformations. This approach also encourages charities to think strategically and be transparent, as they must demonstrate real results to earn your trust. Rather than punishing charities for having overhead, you can reward those that invest wisely to increase their positive impact. This mindset empowers you to cut through appearances and ensure your generosity supports truly effective solutions that uplift human lives. In a world full of good intentions, understanding how to identify real-world impact is your guide to doing good better.
Chapter 7: Understanding Unintended Consequences to Avoid Doing Harm While Trying to Help .
We often assume that if we mean well, we must be doing good. But the world is complex, and good intentions don’t always guarantee positive outcomes. Consider sweatshops: many people feel outraged by the low pay and tough conditions for workers making cheap clothes or electronics. Campaigns encourage consumers to avoid unethical products and push for more expensive fair-trade goods. But what happens if you close down sweatshops without providing a better alternative? For many workers in developing countries, sweatshop jobs, while unpleasant by our standards, are far better than backbreaking farm labor or having no employment at all. If you remove those jobs, you might leave them even poorer. Without thinking about the counterfactual—what would happen if sweatshops disappeared—our moral stance could unintentionally make things worse for the very people we want to help.
Fair-trade products seem like a noble alternative: pay a bit more for coffee or chocolate so farmers receive a fairer price. Yet, reality is messier. The strict standards and certification requirements mean that many of the poorest countries cannot join these programs. As a result, wealthier nations or better-organized producers benefit, while truly impoverished communities still lag behind. Fair-trade schemes might uplift moderately poor farmers in comparatively richer countries, but the most desperate farmers—those in severely underdeveloped regions—remain excluded. To them, the extra dollar per pound of coffee never arrives. Thus, the kindness consumers imagine delivering through fair-trade purchases rarely reaches those who need it most.
This doesn’t mean you should never buy fair-trade products or always embrace sweatshops. Instead, it highlights the importance of looking beyond simple narratives. Truly helping others often requires digging deeper: examining the local economic conditions, understanding what alternative opportunities exist for workers, and being aware of the hidden trade-offs. Sometimes, what seems like a moral victory in one sense can create disadvantages in another. By acknowledging complexity, you can find more nuanced solutions—supporting charities that provide training, healthcare, or education to factory workers, or funding projects that help extremely poor farmers improve their standards to eventually join fair-trade markets.
Ultimately, understanding unintended consequences encourages humility. It reminds us that the world’s problems are rarely fixed by a single, straightforward approach. Instead, we must remain alert, flexible, and willing to listen to the voices of those we aim to help. By regularly re-examining our choices and learning from new evidence, we avoid dangerous oversimplifications. Whether it’s sweatshops or fair-trade goods, disaster relief or underfunded diseases, every solution has ripple effects. Your goal is to maximize positive ripples and minimize harmful ones. Doing good better doesn’t just mean making smarter calculations; it means opening your eyes to complexity, welcoming insights that challenge your assumptions, and continually refining your approach until your well-meaning generosity truly translates into lasting improvements.
All about the Book
Discover a transformative approach to effective altruism in ‘Doing Good Better’ by William MacAskill. This insightful guide helps you maximize your impact and make smarter charitable choices for a better world.
William MacAskill, a leading philosophy professor, co-founder of Giving What We Can, and advocate for effective altruism, inspires readers to create measurable change in the world through thoughtful decision-making.
Philanthropy Professionals, Nonprofit Managers, Social Entrepreneurs, Public Policy Analysts, Community Organizers
Philanthropy, Volunteering, Social Impact Investing, Activism, Research on Charitable Giving
Global Poverty, Effective Charitable Giving, Animal Welfare, Climate Change
The best way to do good is to find opportunities to do good better.
Peter Singer, Elon Musk, Malcolm Gladwell
Gold Medal at the 2016 Nautilus Book Awards, Winner of the 2015 Axiom Business Book Awards, Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
1. How can you maximize the impact of your donations? #2. What are the most effective charities to support? #3. How does cause prioritization influence charitable giving? #4. Can you measure the effectiveness of different charities? #5. What is the importance of evidence-based decision making? #6. How do you assess the long-term effects of charity? #7. What role does personal bias play in giving decisions? #8. How can you use your career for greater good? #9. What is effective altruism and why does it matter? #10. How can you engage others in impactful giving? #11. What are the benefits of a global perspective on charity? #12. How does direct vs indirect charity influence outcomes? #13. What challenges arise in measuring social impact? #14. How can volunteering align with doing more good? #15. What strategies can amplify your charitable contributions? #16. How does public perception affect charitable endeavors? #17. Can everyday actions contribute to larger societal changes? #18. What ethical considerations should guide charitable choices? #19. How important is transparency in charitable organizations? #20. How can you encourage critical thinking about giving?
Effective Altruism, Doing Good Better, William MacAskill, Philosophy of Giving, Charity Evaluation, Practical Ethics, Maximizing Impact, Altruistic Actions, Social Impact, Evidence-Based Giving, Ethical Decision Making, Nonprofit Effectiveness
https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Good-Better-Effective-Altruism/dp/069117065X
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