BCEA Strives To Make Giving Back Intentional

By athena VinCh Heights Staff

At Boston College, the “men and women for others” spirit guides the mission of the manyon-campus volunteer and philanthropic organizations dedicated to helping both the Boston and global community.

When Brian Gardner discovered the philosophy behind effective altruism, which encourages the use of evidence and reason in determining the most effective ways to help people, he realized it matches perfectly with this BC passion of giving back to others.

So, along with Caroline Bald, MCAS ’23, and Molly Binder,

LSEHD ’23, Gardner, CSOM ’23, started Boston College Effective Altruism (BCEA) this fall.

The term “effective altruism” is a philosophy that can mean many different things to different people, according to Gardner. BCEA aims to teach students about this philosophy so they can apply it to their lives.

“To me, it’s an organization that’s interested in looking at the ways that we can help the world through a more critical lens,” Gardner said. “More specifically, it’s a program that’s hoping to look at the world through a lens of data and logic and reason to see where we can kind of make the most difference and affect the most lives in the most positive ways we can.”

Effective altruists focus on pressing global issues—such as climate change, world hunger, and pandemics—and examine and implement practical solutions to these issues.

For college students, Gardner said the effective altruism philosophy is particularly useful because it can help them consider the impact their future career or pursuits will have on the world.

“So it kind of teaches people, especially as college students, ways where you can get involved or spend your time or resources to most positively impact the world,”

Gardner said.

Gardner said he was first introduced to the effective altruism movement during his sophomore year at BC. He heard about the organization One for The World, which seeks to maximize the impact of donations by screening charities to make sure they are spending their money effectively. The BCEA club founders originally planned to start a One for the World club at BC, but they decided to start a more broad effective altruism club after learning more about the philosophy.

“Slowly over the years, it’s transformed into this larger movement that we wanted to encapsulate,”

Gardner said.

Binder said she was also interested in effective altruism because it was a philosophy she had no previous exposure to. She liked its focus on intentional giving and how it encourages people to expand their donations and community service beyond their own communities.

“Usually, when we go about our decisions for how to make an impact, it’s based on things like our immediate circle [and] who we may be surrounded with,” Binder said. “But if we kind of expand that out, we can have a much bigger impact in a lot of cases.”