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Organiser
Sella Nevo
Group
Effective Altruism Israel
What first drew you to effective altruism?
“When I was thirteen I volunteered for the first time, and realized this was the first time in thirteen years I did something that made a difference in other people’s lives. Over the next decade I spent a significant portion of my leisure time volunteering, mainly in poverty alleviation, work with youth at risk, and refugees. I wanted to create the largest positive impact I could, but struggled to find reliable information on how to do so. When I found effective altruism online, it was exactly the community and body of research I had been searching for quite a while - making it a pretty easy sell.”
What has the community come to mean to you?
“When I originally stumbled upon the EA community, I was delighted to find a community that shares my values. The community continues to be a constant source of inspiration — with so many people doing incredible and impactful work. But perhaps the most significant impact the community had on my life over the years has been exposing me to new causes and considerations such as animal welfare, moral uncertainty, and others. Having a community of intelligent people challenging one’s views in a positive and constructive way is both rare and underrated.”
What are the biggest challenges as a community organiser?
“There are very diverse challenges in being a community organizer. One is that communities tend to flourish under consistency, so you want to make sure you organize events, answer questions, and maintain relationships - even at times when other aspects of your life require attention and are keeping you busy. Also, as a person committed to evidence-based change, it can sometimes be hard to focus on advocacy and community-building work, which is often speculative and hard to measure. That being said, being a community organizer is more fun and natural than I had expected, so I recommend more people try it!”
What is the best advice/resource you've found that you still use today?
“Helen Toner’s classic post Effective Altruism is a Question (not an ideology) is something I think all community organizers should keep in mind. Remembering that what we care about is how to do the most good, rather than a commitment to our currently estimated top priorities (especially given the amount of uncertainty we have around many of our top charities and even cause areas), is important to creating a community geared towards openness, innovation, inclusiveness, and challenging existing views.”
What could EA communities do better?
“EA could be (somewhat simplistically) thought of as the intersection between being altruistic and being effective (often associated with being analytical and quantitative, though this is not entirely accurate). I think EA communities are great at engaging people who already have an analytical and quantitative mindset, but don’t invest sufficiently at welcoming people from traditional altruistic backgrounds. By explaining why evidence, research and rational analysis are important in a way that is accessible and respectful to audiences that don’t find this obvious, we can grow the community and benefit from a lot of existing experience and expertise.”
What inspires you?
"People who are dedicated to improving the lives of those less fortunate than themselves, and who remain humble and gracious in the process."
How do you spend your leisure time?
"I love to read, do yoga, go to the beach, and spend quality time with family and friends."
What are your hopes for the future?
"Although the EA movement is still comparatively small, I subscribe to something [American cultural anthropologist] Margaret Mead once said: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has...'"
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