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 […]

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The story of Eunice and 144 more in the Kibera program

Eunice lives in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya and was one of 494 people who received ~$1,125 between November 2020 and June 2021 as part of a GiveDirectly COVID-19 relief program focused on entrepreneurs.  This program, funded by Google.org, provided women with cash transfers plus elective budgeting and entrepreneurial training from SHOFCO, a local […]

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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 […]

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Refugees deserve autonomy. Cash can provide it.

The global refugee crisis may seem intractable, but there are promising, tested interventions to help those displaced. Lump sum cash transfers can provide more than just temporary relief. Our programs suggest direct cash is a scalable response that can change the future for millions of protracted refugees. The solutions to date haven’t scaled, and we […]

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