Giving Compass' Take:

Evan Gaensbauer explains the volunteer opportunities, skills, and type of individuals that are usually involved with effective altruism.

How do you think opportunities volunteering in effective altruism differs from other volunteer opportunities? 

Learn about the basics of effective altruism and understand the intricacies of the practice.


There is a lot of discussion in effective altruism about how to use one's career to do good, either through earning to give as a donor to effective charities or organizations, or with your time through direct work at one of those organizations.

Worldwide, there are now thousands of effective altruists, and their spare time is an under-utilized resource by organizations in the effective altruism ecosystem. 80,000 Hours rightly point out using your spare time to upgrade your education or learn transferable skills to further your career.

However, effective altruism is a community attractive to people from all walks of life. This leaves EA with a lot of community members whose time for a variety of reasons goes unused:

  • Students seeking to build their skills through volunteering, or want to volunteer as an effective non-profit as an extra-curricular activity.
  • Individuals at later stages of specialization in their careers, when acquiring new skills is less valuable at the margin than leveraging the valuable skills they already have with high-impact volunteering opportunities.
  • Unskilled individuals who for whatever reason don't have the opportunities for higher education or skills-building but are nonetheless eager to volunteer their time for a high-impact cause.
  • Homemakers, stay-at home parents, retirees and other supporters of effective altruism who have time to spare

There are also several organizations part of the effective altruism or allied movements focused on causes common to EA which primarily focus on research, outreach and advocacy, Often these organizations depend on volunteers to keep costs low, spread awareness, raise funds, and run their projects.

On this list are volunteer opportunities in the following focus areas across 16 different projects and organizations:

  • Global Poverty Alleviation
  • Farm Animal Welfare
  • Wild Animal Welfare
  • AI Safety & Existential Risk
  • EA Community (Movement-Building, Education & Outreach)
  • Anti-Ageing

Read the full article about volunteer opportunities effective altruism by Evan Gaensbauer at Effective Altruism Forum.