Does Effective Altruism Hurt Cultural Organizations?

It’s an overcast Sunday morning and most of Seattle is glued to the Seahawks game, but John Salvatier and Elizabeth Van Nostrand are waiting for members of the group they help run, Seattle Effective Altruists, to arrive at Salvatier’s house in the Central District.

Van Nostrand explained that effective altruism “is extremely quantitative. ‘How much money does it take them to save a life? Give to the one that saves the most.’”

Though millennials like Van Nostrand and Salvatier are a generosity-minded bunch, this data-driven approach has left a traditional beneficiary of charitable giving out in the cold: the arts.