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Moonside wrote

Philosopher Peter Singer has writte. about 'effective altruism' and questions like these in his books

  1. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.
  2. The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically.

I'd say that there are things lacking funding that will bring a higher "ROI" on human welfare than investing in a balanced bundle of stocks and bonds and then giving to charity would.

To be clear, I'm no fan of utilitarianism but some similar principles are less objectionable when applied to charity imo.

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twovests OP wrote

I haven't thought about it like this, but now that you phrase it that way it seems obvious. The accumulating value of savings and financial investments would grow slower than the accumulating value of donating money as it's acquired if I donate to the right places.

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metagameface wrote

You should definitely check out the effective altruism movement, figuring out how to maximize the amount of good that can be done through charity is exactly what it's about.

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