Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin, recently reviewed Will's book, Doing Good Better.
Overall, it was very positive. One difference, however, was that he thinks we should continue to give some portion of our resources locally rather than internationally, and he justifies this on the basis of having a greater long-run impact. I hadn't seen this argument made by someone who agrees with so much of effective altruism before (normally those in favor of local giving reject the idea that we should maximise our social impact at all, or seem to have misunderstood effective altruism). I'm not convinced, but I think we should take the argument seriously:
But we're also members of local communities, and we have a moral obligation to support philanthropic efforts in those communities too, even if they don't leverage our contributions as efficiently as they might somewhere else.
Local participation in philanthropy isn't just a moral obligation though. It also has its own utilitarian component through strong derivative impact. When you donate locally, you function as a tangible role model to others in your community. You help build networks for action. You form partnerships and alliances with other community members, and position philanthropy as a local norm, a tangible part of the culture that has a compounding effect over time by solidifying community ties, facilitating engagement and collaboration, and creating a tradition of mutual support.
See the full article.
Part of the second quote seems reasonable. "When you donate locally, you function as a tangible role model to others in your community." I can appreciate that, but if we accept that most local causes are less effective than causes in developing countries, we want to be a role model that encourages people to give to more effective causes and give locally less.
The first quote is weak. Why do we have a moral obligation to do good less effectively just because we are part of a community? Perhaps the full article backs that up more, but as it stands it doesn't stand.
It's part of being a good citizen - your community supports you, so you should support it back.
GiveWell has made grants on this basis in the past to organisations whose research they've used: http://blog.givewell.org/2013/06/20/near-term-grantmaking/