Doing Good Better

MacAskill's central claim is that most charitable giving and volunteering, however well-meaning, is chosen based on emotional appeal, personal connection, or marketing rather than evidence of actual impact, and that this gap between intention and effect is often enormous — some interventions do vastly more good per dollar than others, sometimes by orders of magnitude. He proposes a small set of evaluative questions any would-be donor or altruist should apply: how many people does this problem affect, is it currently neglected by other resources, and is there a tractable, evidence-backed way to make progress on it.

This reframing matters because it treats altruism as a domain where rigor and skepticism are not cold or unfeeling but actually the most caring response available, given that resources for doing good are finite and some uses of them help far more people than others. MacAskill extends the same reasoning beyond donations to career choice, arguing that where you work and what problems you dedicate your working life to can be evaluated with the same evidence-based framework.

Who should read it

This suits anyone who donates to charity, volunteers, or is choosing a career and wants to make sure their good intentions translate into measurable impact rather than good feelings alone. It's less suited to readers looking for a spiritual or emotionally driven case for generosity, since the book's approach is deliberately analytical.

About the author

William MacAskill is a Scottish moral philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford, and a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and the organization Giving What We Can.