After a disaster strikes, images of destroyed homes motivate many of us to donate. Often we give to charities handing out things like tarps and food, because that’s what we imagine people need. Here are 4 reasons you should instead… 1. Survivors use cash for urgent goods and services Markets and businesses rebound quicker than […]
Blog -
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
Update on GiveDirectly leadership roles
New update August 2024: Update April 2024: Summary Rory Stewart is transitioning from President to Senior Advisor Rory Stewart has served as GiveDirectly’s President since August 2022. Under his leadership, GiveDirectly delivered more cash to people living in extreme poverty than any year prior, expanded our climate change response, and secured formal collaborations with multiple […]
Operations
A new tool to give even more directly
UPDATE: As of August 2023, we have stopped matching donors with participants receiving cash transfers. We began matching donors with recipients receiving transfers to better illustrate the impact of your donation, and we learned a lot from testing this approach. Delivering this experience in a high-quality way required more time from field and technical staff, […]
Operations
Canva partnership tackling extreme poverty in Malawi one year on
Last fall, GiveDirectly and Canva, the visual communication platform, announced a partnership to give money directly to some of the world’s poorest people – a $10 million pilot that is sending a basic income through mobile money payments to people in extreme poverty in Khongoni, Malawi. The pilot, launched this March, will deliver ~$50 per […]
Recipients
Inflation is worst for people in extreme poverty
You’ve likely been impacted by the cost of living crisis: U.S. gas prices spiked this summer and energy prices are still at all-time highs across Europe. While overall inflation in high-income countries is at 6%, in low-income countries it’s at 9%. Consumers in wealthy countries can often switch from higher-quality goods to lower-quality ones, an […]
Opinions
Why we work in the United States
GiveDirectly began delivering cash donations in Kenya, but we’ve run programs in the United States for the past five years: first responding in 2017 to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. When COVID-19 hit, we launched Project100, the largest donor-funded cash aid program in U.S. history. Beyond emergency response, we have […]
Opinions
Why giving directly still means giving well
When we set out to build GiveDirectly, we hoped not only to shift resources and decision-making to those in extreme poverty but also to increase the effectiveness of the sector as a whole. The effective altruism movement and organizations including the Centre for Effective Altruism, GiveWell, The Life You Can Save, and many others have […]
Operations
2021 Report
Recipients
We’ve reached 1 million households in poverty and counting
We sent a cash transfer to our 1 millionth household this fall. In 2011, our first year operating, we paid… 99. See the growth in real time: The very first GiveDirectly payment ever Below is GiveDirectly’s co-founder Rohit Wanchoo making our very first test payment ever. Before we were instantly enrolling and paying tens of thousands people at […]
The Future of Cash
Study: AI targeting helped reach more of the poorest people in Togo
This week researchers with Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) published a working paper with the results of a first-of-its-kind contactless direct payments program. The program, which was led by the Government of Togo and supported by the research team and GiveDirectly, showed the machine learning targeting outperformed […]