This past week GiveDirectly’s Michael Faye spoke at SXSW about our groundbreaking basic income experiment, and his talk was covered by Inc.‘s Kevin Ryan. Actor and director Mark Duplass ran an op-ed in The Huffington Post encouraging people to reach across political divides to collaborate in making the world a better place, specifically by donating directly to poor families via GiveDirectly.
GIVEDIRECTLY IN THE NEWS AND BLOGS
1. How Will The Rise Of Crowdfunding Reshape How We Give To Charity?
Fast Company, Ben Paynter, March 13, 2017
In essence, all of these charitable crowdfunding platforms operate on the same basic principle: That the beneficiaries themselves know best much how they need and how to spend it. GiveDirectly, which uses mobile phones to transfer cash directly to people in extreme poverty, enlists its field team to help identify recipients before allotments are doled out. The process, along with strict accountability for how much they spend on it, has earned the group a top rating from GiveWell.
2. The 2.26.17 Issue
The New York Times Magazine, March 10, 2017
The beautiful thing about GiveDirectly’s approach to universal basic income is that it lets people devise their own path out of poverty. As similar projects have demonstrated, this simple concept creates effective and efficient outcomes. Why? Because individuals know their own lives and needs much more than a think tank from some paternalistic or politically motivated aid agency. We need to stop treating the world’s poor like children. People have the knowledge and drive to better themselves. Annette de Soto, Seattle .
3. You’re A Trump Supporter. I’m An Elitist Hollywood Liberal. But What Can We Do Together?
The Huffington Post, Mark Duplass, March 10, 2017
The first campaign is for GiveDirectly.org because they are not only hyper-efficient but you can also track where your money goes and how it is helping. I’ll start with a $10,000 personal donation. I’m asking those interested to match me with $1 donations to bring that number up to $20,000. Google has promised to match that $20,000 for this campaign. We’ll raise $40,000 in a few days if we do this right.
4. Elon Musk Says the Government Will Have to Pay Citizens a Salary. This Company Is Testing That Theory
Inc., Kevin J. Ryan, March 10, 2017
One potential idea for counteracting a future that involves massive job losses is universal basic income, a government-provided monthly or yearly stipend given to each citizen. GiveDirectly, a non-profit company that gives donations directly to impoverished people in the form of cash, is currently running an experiment in Kenya that could provide answers as to just how feasible this is. “It’s been called radical and extreme,” said GiveDirectly co-founder Michael Faye at a South by Southwest panel on Friday, “but it’s a strikingly simple and obvious idea.”
5. Stanford Panel: What do people do when they are given cash with no strings attached?
Basic Income News, Cordelia Holst, March 8, 2017
Last to present was Joe Huston, from GiveDirectly, a non-profit that gives unconditional cash transfers directly to the extremely poor people living in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Over the last 5 plus years of operations GiveDirectly has transferred over 135 million dollars through their program. GiveDirectly’s most common model is giving 3 lump sums (total roughly $1000), transferred through mobile phones over a 5 month period, to the poorest people in each village. They have been building a body of evidence of the effects of cash transfers, over the last 5 years, over 65,000 households, and are able to speak to the question “What do people do when they are given cash with no strings attached?”
CASH TRANSFERS IN THE NEWS
6. A masterclass on cash transfers and how to use High Level Panels to influence Policy
From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blog, Duncan Green, March 10, 2017
Owen chaired a recent high level panel on humanitarian cash transfersand presented its work in his talk. The traditional aid response is ‘people are hungry due to drought, flood, conflict etc → there isn’t enough food → we need to ship in loads of food’. Both arrows are wrong: Amartya Senshowed that the problem in famine is not lack of food, but lack of purchasing power among the affected populations – in nearly all of Ethiopia’s famines, the country has produced enough food to feed its people. The second arrow is wrong because giving people cash is usually a much more effective response than shipping food over from the US or wherever: the food often arrives too late, just when local farmers are recovering, and a flood of free food promptly destroys local markets.
EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM IN THE NEWS
7. Donors look for charities with the greatest future impact[Gated]
The Financial Times, Andrew Jack, March 10, 2017
But some are sceptical of such high level number-crunching or recommendations without more detailed analysis, including Will MacAskill, an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford university, who helped found the Centre for Effective Altruism and Giving What We Can, a movement designed to encourage people to pledge 10 per cent of their income to “the most effective causes”.
8. Finland just launched a radical experiment in giving people free money — here’s how 5 residents are using their extra cash
Business Insider, Chris Weller, March 7, 2017
The program, put on by the country’s social security agency, Kela, is testing out a modified version of basic income. Under basic income, every citizen gets a regular allowance regardless of employment status, in an attempt to improve overall well-being and reduce poverty.