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 […]
Blog -
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
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
Our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts
Racism, colonialism, and other forms of discrimination surround most aspects of international nonprofit work. At its most aspirational, GiveDirectly challenges a primarily white-led aid sector to hand over more power to the people it exists to help. However, we continue to look at our organization through a critical lens to disentangle our work from this […]
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 […]
The Future of Cash
Innovations in Togo and the future of cash distribution
MobileAid can change how social protections are delivered worldwide. Our model in Togo reveals its strengths and weaknesses.
Operations
GiveDirectly and Segovia
4/06/2021 | Segovia merger and relationship with GiveDirectly Segovia is a financial technology company co-founded in 2014 by two members of GiveDirectly’s board, which today is owned and operated by Crown Agents Bank (CAB). GiveDirectly uses CAB to issue payments via mobile money networks. A summary of the current relationship between the two organizations can […]
Research
How does a basic income affect recipients during COVID-19?
Initial results from our basic income experiment were released today. In the working paper’s abstract, researchers Abhijit Banerjee, Michael Faye, the late Alan Krueger, Paul Niehaus, and Tavneet Suri wrote: “We examine some effects of Universal Basic Income (UBI) during the COVID-19 pandemic using a large-scale experiment in rural Kenya. Transfers significantly improved well-being on […]
Uncategorized
Additional resources for U.S. families impacted by COVID-19
FreshEBT – our operational partner for the U.S. COVID-19 program – compiled a list of non-cash resources for those looking for support during COVID-19.
We will continue to add to the list as we are made aware of other resources.