The Effective Altruism movement is becoming popular in New Zealand. The basic idea is that logic and critical thinking can be applied to charity giving, and that charities range from being great at helping people to being as good as useless, or even detrimental.

I talked with Catherine Low about the movement a few months ago, and she told me of charity efforts that work in Africa, where their measured outcomes actually show that they are making things worse for local communities. Catherine spoke about the movement (opens new window) recently on Radio NZ.

Effective Altruism New Zealand is currently giving away free copies of a book by William Macaskill - Doing Good Better. Go to effectivealtruism.nz for details.