Effective altruism is a philosophy and a social movement which holds that actively helping others is of central moral importance and approaches the choice of possible strategies in a rational and scientific way. An effective altruist follows a utilitarian metric in their charitable endeavours. For example an effective altruist would not give money to beggars but instead donate to UNICEF or a local NGO.

Development aid is an effort to help people in their efforts to lift themselves out of poverty and develop further. This is as opposed to humanitarian aid, which is a rapid intervention designed to save lives, alleviate hardship, and get disaster victims back on their feet.