Giving Compass' Take:

· Claire Ballentine provides some helpful tips and tricks from recent publications on maximizing philanthropy and why you should measure the results of your efforts. 

· How can donors and organizations measure the impact of their work? What other advice does the author provide for philanthropists looking to maximize impact? 

· Here's more on this topic and how to expand the reach of effective altruism.

Good philanthropy isn’t like investing in the stock market.

Even if you’re a pro at analyzing profit margins, the world of giving is where emotional passions collide with the effort to make the biggest impact possible with both your money and your time.

A wise first step before beginning your altruistic journey is to ask: Why do you want to give in the first place?

A way toward figuring that out is The Ethics of Giving (Oxford University Press, $35), a compilation of philosophic essays edited by Paul Woodruff. It’s heavy on theory but broken up into manageable sections designed to expose you to perspectives such as intuitionism, Kantian ethics, and utilitarianism, which you probably haven’t thought about since college, or the last time you watched The Good Place.

The book may leave you with more questions than answers about your motivations, but the point is to bring more awareness to the internal emotions driving your actions. As Woodruff writes, “charitable giving is especially important to questions of identity because often the only way busy people can express their ethical commitments is through giving.” The book is also big on effective altruism, which calls for contributions to causes that can be shown quantitatively to do the most good.

Read the full article about tips for effective altruism by Claire Ballentine at Bloomberg.