Joice was living in poverty when she received a cash transfer from GiveDirectly’s donors in 2014. Now she is a GiveDirectly field officer whose job includes telling new recipients about GiveDirectly. This is her story. I was born in Kisumu County and I was married in Siaya County. I had great dreams of improving my […]
Blog - Operations
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
On GiveDirectly’s use of paid media
We’ve received a couple of questions about an online advertising campaign for GiveDirectly that’s been running on Facebook and general banner ads. The ad inventory for the campaign was donated by a corporate partner, and so comes at zero cost to GiveDirectly aside from staff time. We are not yet sure what role advertising has […]
Operations
Announcing: GDLive
The last week has been an emotional one for many of us, and I hope that today we can provide a small channel for something more uplifting: a reflection of your collective compassion for the global poor and an honest look into their lives and the impact of your investments. Today, we launch GDLive, which […]
Operations
We’re ahead of target in sending cash
GiveDirectly staff across Kenya and Uganda are working hard to send cash transfers to thousands of families each month. Over the last several months, we are actually tracking ahead of our current enrollment budgets for our standard rolling cash transfer campaign for 2016. Right now, we are ahead of these enrollment goals by ~18%. What […]
Operations
GiveDirectly UK opens
We have some exciting news for GiveDirectly supporters in the UK. The recently launched GiveDirectly UK trust (UK charity #1167938) makes it easier to claim Gift Aid which boosts donations by 25p for each £1 donated. Additional rate taxpayers can also reclaim tax relief via their Self Assessment returns. All money donated via GDUK (less […]
Operations
On enrolling over 50,000 families
GiveDirectly started in 2008 as an idea in the minds of a few graduate students and a handful of documents. Many thought the idea of giving out money unconditionally to aid the poor was doomed to fail.Recently we enrolled the 50,000th household in our history and wanted to take a moment to mark the milestone. […]
Operations
Refusals in Kenya
In general, an overwhelming majority of eligible recipients opt to receive cash transfers from GiveDirectly. In Siaya, where GiveDirectly Kenya has operated from 2011 to the beginning of 2016, over 95% of recipients who are given the opportunity to be a part of the program accept it. In Uganda and Rwanda more than 96% of […]
Operations
Why and how we invest
We have a strong incentive and desire to transfer the majority of the funds we receive to our recipients as quickly as possible. GiveDirectly is a service – donors use GiveDirectly to transfer funds to the extreme poor – and our donors expect that service to be efficient and timely. And beyond that, transfer speed […]
Operations
How do we tell who is poor?
Every organization that aims to improve the lives of others has to confront some basic questions: Who should we help with our limited resources? How should we find the people we’d like to help? And how should we make sure that the people we’re actually helping meet the criteria we’ve established? Surprisingly, this isn’t something […]
Operations
Biometrics in Uganda
How do you verify individuals’ identities in a country where identification documentation is not prevalent and personal data is non-existent? In fact, this is a massive problem faced by anti-poverty programs worldwide. Organizations from national governments to NGOs struggle with how to accurately and safely identify their beneficiaries, especially in regions that lack reliable infrastructure […]