As a longtime professor and leader of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore, I spend a good deal of time thinking about power – who exercises it, how it’s emplo ...

DONORS to charities rarely make the sort of cost-benefit calculations investors, for example, would think obligatory. So charities attract donations with pictures of smiling gap-toothed children, ...

The contemporary effective altruism movement seeks to transform philanthropy in two ways: 1) by directing philanthropy to the most important objectives, and 2) by ensuring that philanthropic dollars ...

I've got a new article in the New Yorker this week about the persistent paradox of altruism. It's subscription only, but here's the beginning: The vampire bat emerges from its cave at the darkest hour ...

The world’s population tops 7 billion—and counting. Spin the globe, and you’ll encounter all types of compelling problems: a health crisis here, an earthquake there. You want to make a difference, but ...

In 1971, the philosophy department at Oxford University was confronted with an unusual student. One of the few vegetarians on campus, Peter Singer staged alarming demonstrations with papier-mâché ...

Sign up for the Concord Monitor's morning newsletter and get essential news each day. Sign up Life is complex. The more black and white we try to make it, the further ...

Sometimes you come across a piece of writing so good, you just want to hang it up and become a plumber instead. The speech below, delivered to the Yale Medical School class of 2011, is one of those.

In today’s inter-connected world some of the most innovative models for social innovation will become those that can modularize, “crowdsource,” and aggregate small tasks. Philanthropy was once ...

Your heart may be in the right place, but are your good deeds wreaking havoc? (Photo: Nadeen Nakib for Yahoo Health/Getty Images) Laurie Feldman used to be that mother — the one who redid her children ...

Altruism might have evolved for fairly selfish reasons, at least in insects. When a warring termite colony loses its king and queen — the only members capable of reproduction — then its survivors ...