Mission statement

What we are here to do

Effective Altruism Amsterdam exists to help people in this city turn the wish to do good into something that actually works. Concretely, that means three things.

1. Introduce the ideas honestly. Give people a real grounding in effective altruism — including the parts that are contested — so they can decide for themselves what to make of it.
2. Build a community worth staying in. A group where you can think out loud, be disagreed with kindly, and find people who take the same questions seriously.
3. Help people act. Support the concrete steps: choosing a direction, finding a first role, starting a project, deciding where to give.

How we try to operate

Scope sensitivity

Helping more people is better than helping fewer. We try to keep that in view even when it is uncomfortable.

Honesty about uncertainty

We would rather say "we don't know" than overclaim. That includes about our own impact.

Openness over recruitment

We are running a space to think, not a campaign to convert. Nobody should feel pushed towards a conclusion.

Care for the people here

Impact is not a reason to treat people as means. See our community health page.

Independence of thought

Deference to consensus is a failure mode. We actively want people who disagree with the mainstream of the movement.

How we judge whether it is working

Attendance numbers are easy to count and mostly beside the point. The things we actually care about:

• Do people leave the Introductory Program understanding the ideas well enough to argue with them?
• Do people make concrete changes — a career step, a project, a giving decision — that they still endorse a year later?
• Does the community feel like somewhere you can admit confusion?
• Are we honest when something we ran did not work?