Consequentialism

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/opinion/in-charitable-giving-no-hierarchy-of-goodness.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

August 10, 2013

Good Charity, Bad Charity

By PETER SINGER

• many people appear to have irrational attitudes toward the small risks of very bad things happening
• we will achieve more if we help those in extreme poverty in developing countries, as our dollars go much further there. But the choice between, say, helping the global poor directly, and helping them, and all future generations, by trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is more difficult
•  new developments are making these decisions easier
• charity evaluator GiveWell
• More experimental is GiveDirectly, which will transfer at least 90 cents of every dollar you give to an extremely low-income African family
• “Effective altruism"
• Thinking about which fields offer the most positive impact for your time and money is still in its infancy, but with more effective altruists researching the issues, we are starting to see real progress.

In Charitable Giving, No ‘Hierarchy of Goodness’

To the Editor:

• people give more, and more consistently, when pursuing their personal convictions

MELISSA A. BERMAN
President and Chief Executive
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

It is not a choice of giving to one or the other; neither is a “bad charity.”

ROBERT S. GREEN
New York, Aug. 11, 2013

Without the arts, life is not worth living.

BARBARA BARRAN
Brooklyn, Aug. 11, 2013