Learn the core ideas of Effective Altruism
Through this online course, you'll learn the key ideas of EA with a small group of like-minded people.
Guided by a facilitator, you'll gain access to curated materials and practical exercises to help you have a greater impact.
8 weeks
No fees
30 December - 23 February 2025
Online
Global Time Zone
Improve the lives of others
Increase your impact
Learn new concepts, frameworks and counter intuitive ideas to help you have more impact in your career, donations and other projects.
Connect with people focused on impact
Meet like-minded people
Discuss a curated curriculum with other people who care deeply about improving the lives of others in the most effective ways they can.
How it works
The Introductory EA Program is a free online program open for anyone around the world to join.
8 week program
4-8 participants
You'll have weekly 1.5-hour discussions with a cohort of 4-8 participants and one facilitator.
1400 alumni in online group
Access a slack group with others who care about maximising their impact.
3.5 hours per week
2 hours prep
Before attending each discussion, you’ll spend roughly 2 hours completing a set of readings, podcasts or videos (and sometimes a brief written exercise).
1.5 hour discussions
Discuss the ideas you've read with your seminar and facilitator over video call.
Topics Covered
Questions You'll Explore
- Who should we care about helping?
- How much better are the best options to do good?
- What can we do to prevent the next pandemic?
- How can we make better decisions together?
- How does climate change compare to other risks?
Curriculum
Week 1
The Effectiveness Mindset
We’ll explore why it's important to think carefully about how you spend your time and money to help others, and why a "scout mindset" is critical to finding the best opportunities.
Week 2
Differences in Impact
Some efforts to help appear to be much more effective than others. We'll share a tool for estimating impact, and look into one promising focus area: reducing global poverty.
Week 3
Radical Empathy
Should we care about the suffering of non-human animals, as well as humans? Alongside this question, we'll explain the ideas of expected value and impartial altruism.
The Introductory EA Program
Learn the core ideas of Effective Altruism
8 weeks
No fees
30 December - 23 February 2025
Online
Global Time Zone
Alumni
See how people around the world are taking action after learning more about Effective Altruism.
Luca, Founder & Content Creator at School Of Thinking
Received grant to build longtermist community in Italy
Received a grant to leave management consultant job and work as a content creator full time with his project: School of Thinking.
Vlad, Robotics Mechanical Engineer at NASA
Started a workplace group at NASA
Founded an EA group at NASA to help colleagues have more impact through donations, volunteering, and project choices.
Denisse, Software Engineer at Meta in Zurich, Switzerland
Volunteered for ‘Effective Institutions’
Earning to give at Meta, organized “Giving Month” project raising more than $40k. Also volunteering opportunity with “Effective Institutions Project.”
Sydney, Stanford junior studying biomedical computation
Launched workshops on longtermism
Sydney started a summer program to find talented high school students and help them tackle existential risks.
Michael, Stanford studying CS and Earth Systems
Founded the Stanford Alternative Protein Project
Michael founded a student group dedicated to advancing products with the potential to make factory farming obsolete.
Buhle, University of Cape Town graduate and intern at Vodafone
Advocated to improve food fortification in South Africa
Organised various EA events and began an advocacy project to improve food fortification in South Africa (in collaboration with FFI).
Other Programs
In-Depth EA Program
This program is ideal for graduates of the introductory program or those with a similar level of experience, who want to dive deeper into more complex EA ideas and examine their key uncertainties about how to best improve the world.
The Precipice Reading Group
In this reading group, you will read and engage in structured discussions of Toby Ord’s The Precipice, a book about existential risks and safeguarding the future of humanity.
Keep up to date with the latest news, podcasts, videos, and opportunities in our monthly newsletter
The Introductory EA Program
Learn the core ideas of Effective Altruism
8 weeks
No fees
30 December - 23 February 2025
Online
Global Time Zone
Join a global
network
1000+
Learners
50+
Countries