It’s official – poor families in Kenya and Uganda are getting the full $5M match from Good Ventures. In just eight weeks, thousands of people have given $5,019,543 directly to the poor. What this community has done is just remarkable: 4,000+: individual donors 32: countries represented $1: smallest donation $100,000: largest donation 3.4: bitcoins donated […]
Blog
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Opinions
New ways to give directly
As we race to meet Good Ventures’ $5M matching challenge by January 31, we’ve introduced five new ways to give directly to the poor – all with the goal of making it easy and efficient: 1. Bitcoin. We now accept donations in bitcoin! You can donate bitcoin through our donate page. Bitcoins are automatically […]
Operations
GiveDirectly is in Uganda!
From the beginning, our goal at GiveDirectly has been to build an efficient and scalable platform to deliver cash transfers to poor people around the world. After months of planning and execution, we are very happy to announce that we now have a program up and running in a second country: Uganda! Cash transfer recipients […]
Opinions
Cash Transfers, Conflict, and Assets that Earn their Keep
GiveDirectly’s work has always been guided by scientific evidence. When we began sending unconditional cash transfers to Kenyan villagers a few years ago, we had every reason to believe that the money would change recipients’ lives for the better. A motorcycle is one asset that can continue to generate income for years after the initial […]
Operations
Building Our Technology Team
Technology is at the heart of what we do. We’ve built a secure, scalable and efficient platform that we’ll use to deliver cash transfers to thousands of poor households this year, and now we’re planning the next generation technology that will let us scale this platform up to serve millions of the world’s poor across […]
Recipients
Room for Improvement: What One Woman’s Cash Transfer Experience Taught Us
GiveDirectly locates recipients in remote, rural areas and securely delivers life-changing amounts of cash directly into their cell phone accounts. Over 97% of our recipients report having received their funds without incident – a testament to the robustness of our systems. Evidence suggests that cash can improve the lives of young women; we are conducting […]
Opinions
Looking Beyond the Buzz
GiveDirectly has received some media attention lately. We’re thankful for it, as it allows us to share our work and ideas with more people who might want to help. NPR’s in-depth profile on our work in Kenya reached a broad audience and sparked further discussion in other outlets and the blogosphere. While it’s exciting to […]
Opinions
Corruption: The Elephant in the Room
In discussions of international development, corruption is often the elephant in the room. Funders don’t like to hear about it; nonprofits and governments don’t like to talk about it. During routine visits to recipients, our field team uses technology that automatically records a time and GPS marker for each piece of data they collect. But […]
Recipients
Metal Roofs – A Lesson from the True Poverty Experts
Along with Paul and Chris, I spent last week in Rarieda Province Kenya, where I received a lesson in development from the poor themselves. A typical thatched roof in Kenya (right) must be replaced 1–2 times per year, at a cost of $100–$150, and is often a habitat for insects. A GiveDirectly recipient’s home (left), […]
Research
The Other Blattman Study
I believe we should be putting more money and more power directly into the hands of the poor. When given the chance, they have a consistent track record, across dozens of rigorous studies, of using money sensibly to improve their own lives. This evidence base was already compelling – and then along came Chris Blattman. […]
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