Which Effective Altruism Fund should I donate to?

Updated

Effective Altruism Funds lets you donate into one of four pooled, expert-managed funds, each targeting a different cause area: Animal Welfare, Effective Altruism Infrastructure, Global Health and Development, and Transformative AI. There is no single "best" fund — the right choice depends on which problem you consider most important, solvable, and neglected. If you already know your priority cause, pick the matching fund; if you're unsure, the descriptions below let you compare them on the same dimensions.

The four funds at a glance

Fund What it backs Example grant
Animal Welfare Fund Organizations and projects that alleviate the suffering of millions or billions of animals $117,000 (2024 Q4) to The Center for Responsible Seafood for research and a pilot on humane chill-killing at Indian shrimp farms, to inform global certification standards
Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Organizations or people that aim to grow or improve the effective altruism community $6,196.87 (2024 Q3) to Hear This Idea, a podcast about ideas for solving important problems
Global Health and Development Fund Outstanding, evidence-based opportunities to improve access to healthcare and economic development $1,690,095.48 (2022 Q4) to Malaria Consortium for a seasonal malaria chemoprevention program
Transformative AI Fund Early-stage grants to individuals, new organizations, and existing organizations with new projects, addressing transformative AI, with a primary focus on reducing global catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems —

All four are managed by fund managers, and the site reports 52,000 donors, $100M+ in grants, and 1,544 grants awarded.

How to choose

Use these questions to narrow it down:

  • Do you care most about reducing animal suffering? → Animal Welfare Fund. It funds organizations and projects aimed at alleviating the suffering of millions or billions of animals.
  • Do you want to strengthen the effective altruism community itself? → Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund. It backs organizations or people working to grow or improve that community.
  • Do you prioritize evidence-based health and economic development? → Global Health and Development Fund. It targets outstanding, evidence-based opportunities for better healthcare access and economic development.
  • Do you see advanced AI as the key risk? → Transformative AI Fund. It makes early-stage grants to individuals, new organizations, and existing organizations with new projects, focused primarily on reducing global catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems.

How the funds decide where money goes

The grantmaking approach compares projects using several criteria, including expected value, marginal impact, counterfactual impact, track record, information value, and direct and indirect effects. Expected value is the clearest example of the logic: some projects are high-risk with big potential payoffs, while others are safer bets, so the fund weighs potential benefit multiplied by chance of success.

For example, a 1% chance of $100,000 and a 50% chance of $2,000 both have the same expected value of $1,000 — over time they would yield the same average return. This is why a fund may back a speculative project rather than an obviously safe one.

Practical notes before you donate

  • Donation route depends on where you live. The site lists "Donate on every.org" as recommended for donors outside the UK or Netherlands, and "Donate on Giving What We Can" as recommended for donors in the UK or Netherlands.
  • Applying for funding is separate from donating. If you want money for your own project rather than to give, grants range between $1,000–$500,000, applications take less than 1 hour, and funding goes to people, projects, non-profits, and institutions.
  • You can review actual grants first. A grants database is available if you want to see past funding decisions before choosing a fund.

If your main goal is simply to give effectively without picking a cause, the pooled structure is the point: your donation is combined with others and directed by fund managers to projects they judge most effective within that cause area.