Until 2019, Bankman-Fried had also served on the Center for Effective Altruism board, which MacAskill co-founded. Source: Effective Altruism ForumIt was also a huge black eye for effective altruism’s “earn to give” philosophy, which encourages individuals to amass as much wealth as possible to give it away. Launching the Effective Altruism MovementEffective altruism certainly didn’t begin this way in 2009, when MacAskill and fellow Oxford University postgraduate philosophy student Toby Ord founded Giving What We Can. How effective altruism expanded in a few short years was dramatic. “Part of the philosophy around effective altruism is figuring out the most effective interventions to save lives,” says Thatcher.