Effective Altruism
The vast majority of people understand altruism as an inherently ethical action. Still, a systemic problem with it is that the overwhelming majority of altruistic acts range from at most somewhat effective to sometimes counterproductive. This is often due to not basing actions on evidence, not dedicating our time and resources to the right cause, or even just focusing on something that won't benefit much from additional help.
In light of this, recent years have seen the growth and development of the Effective Altruism movement, which seeks to prioritize causes and look at what the best available evidence says to have the maximum possible impact. Various organizations such as GiveWell, The Life You Can Save, Giving What We Can, among others, have sprouted that help people know how to not only live more altruistically, but able to make the biggest impact they possibly can.
Since Veganism is easily the biggest thing the average person can do to reduce their harm to the world, both to animals and the environment, effective altruists often advocate for reduction in consumption of animal products as part of their ethos, and of course, Vegans who focus on animal rights, should also care about whether or not their actions are having the biggest effect towards achieving their goals.
When Applied to Veganism
We believe that for most human-related causes, while they still deserve support, overshadow animal rights issues. This even happens in Effective Altruism, with the vast majority of money, time, and resources going to charities that prioritize issues like mosquito netting (to prevent malaria), providing vitamin A to children, and deworming communities. These of course are all important, but there are dozens of charities for animals in agriculture meant to relieve their suffering.
There's a massive discrepancy as far as funding is concerned. GiveWell, the top effective altruism charity evaluator for human causes, received about US$415 million in donations from 2024-2025[1], with about US$64 million of that going to their Top Charities.[2]. Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE), the top effective altruism evaluator for animal issues, has received US$12 million total since 2017 for its own top charity fund.