Effective Altruism is a philosophy of targeting philanthropy to the issues and locations where it can make the most difference. It's not a cult. Most nonprofits are run by people who are doing it as a side gig ir, if they're doing it full time, are making much less money than they could be doing something else because they care. Are there some bad actors out there? Sure, there are in any industry but it's not most of them and it's not a cult.