All charity is not created equal. Or so say the adherents of a movement known as effective altruism, quickly gaining traction among millennials as a more practical view of charity. Decisions about how to allocate your contributions are based on quantifiable outcome, not emotion. Peter Singer, the Australian ethicist and author of The Most Good You Can Do (Yale University Press), is considered the father of effective altruism, having spent 40 years challenging the conventional wisdom behind our ethical choices. In 1975, his book, Animal Liberation, became the foundational text of the non-human rights movement, with copies a common site in the back pockets of campus intellectuals and punk rockers alike. The 69-year-old currently teaches ethics and philosophy at Princeton University and the University of Melbourne, and his work is more influential than ever. In addition to his teaching and writing, Singer advises large charitable organizations and billionaire donors like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on how to get the most good done for their philanthropic efforts. Here he explains a controversial idea: Why working at a bank might be better than joining the Peace Corps.

GOOD: How can we best understand effective altruism?