Giving Compass' Take:

• Ben Paynter explains how Priority Wiki acts as a platform for effective altruists to discuss and decide which global issues need to be fixed first. 

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of this model? 

• Learn about the basics of effective altruism


The basic goal of the effective altruism movement is to create efficient philanthropic change by backing programs and innovations that are cost-effective so that each dollar given impacts as many people as possible. The underlying tenet is that donor dollars are a limited resource, but dollars are just one of the limiting factors. There’s still another major resource that needs to be accounted for: research time.

There’s a learning curve for calculation-driven cause groups (and donors) to figure out what world-plaguing problems really are the most pressing, what solutions seem the most promising or neglected, and what else might need to be done. The problem is there hasn’t been a single resource for accessing all this information in one place.

To change that, Rethink Priorities, an initiative of the effective altruism awareness and engagement building nonprofit Rethink Charity, has launched Priority Wiki, a publicly editable Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia for cause prioritization wonks. It collects and categorizes vetted research around pressing charitable causes and potential interventions.

Read the full article about Priority Wiki by Ben Paynter at FastCompany.