Over the years, we’ve had lots of conversations with folks about whether it’s a good idea to simply give money to people who don’t have much of it. It’s a great conversation: it gets to some pretty core issues about human nature, and (spoiler alert) there is good news to share! To help you have […]
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Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Opinions
6th straight GiveWell recommendation
We’re thrilled to be a GiveWell recommended charity again this year. It’s the 6th year in a row that giving money directly to the poor has been rated one of the smartest bets in philanthropy. Direct giving joins a short list of other highly effective interventions atop the GiveWell list. To the other recommended charities, […]
Opinions, Uncategorized
Four questions to ask before you give
Giving effectively means asking tough questions. (We know; you all have been great about asking us some tough ones over the years.) With the holiday giving season coming up, here are the top four questions we ask before giving. Share this post and get some conversations going: Can I tell where my dollar (or pound, […]
Operations
GiveDirectly for Harvey recovery
Like many of you, we’ve seen the flooding and devastation created by Hurricane Harvey, and we’ve wished for a way to help those families directly. Unfortunately, there’s still no way for the public to send money directly to those families in need. So when some folks from our team said they wanted to head to […]
Operations
Update on UBI and the Kenyan election
Folks, We’ve decided to postpone the launch of our basic income initiative in Kenya until after the new election. Earlier this month Kenya’s Supreme Court voted to nullify the August 8th presidential election results. Presidential candidate Ralia Odinga challenged sitting president Uhuru Kenyatta’s 54% win and appealed to the Supreme Court that the election had […]
Uncategorized
Let them decide – Cash in the News
A story about GiveDirectly’s universal basic income initiative came out last week, airing multiple times on All Things Considered with a feature on the front page of NPR’s homepage. The piece was the first in a series about unconditional cash transfers and their potential to end extreme poverty. Elsewhere, a new tech founder joined the […]
Uncategorized
Our main goal is to learn – Cash in the News
Basic income featured prominently in the news this week with an op-ed on the shortcomings of the Finnish study in The New York Times, coverage from Vox dispelling common critiques of basic income, and a handful of articles about Silicon Valley’s rising interest in basic income. GiveDirectly’s CFO Joe Huston also spoke with Brazilian magazine […]
Uncategorized
A world where 8 men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people – Cash in the News
Comic Relief, a large British charity, announced their support of GiveDirectly and cash transfers this week in a blog post on the topic. Additionally, our co-founder Paul Niehaus was featured in news pieces on KPBS-San Diego and in a survey of basic income studies in Scientific American. Prof. Tavneet Suri, one of the principal investigators […]
Uncategorized
Not everybody wants a goat – Cash in the News
In a 30-minute documentary, ABC Australia profiled GiveDirectly’s work in Kenya. They spoke at length with both Caroline Teti, our External Relations Director in Kenya, and Mitch Riley, our Regional Director. They also featured a range of GiveDirectly recipients, from one who used his transfer to start a band, to another who is growing hundreds […]
Uncategorized
Allocating the capital – Cash in the News
In an interview with Hamilton Nolan, GiveDirectly’s co-founder discusses the current state of the debate around basic income and the details of our experiment. Elsewhere, GiveDirectly’s basic income experiment was referenced in Fortune, Business Insider, and IndiaSpend, and GiveDirectly was mentioned in The Washington Post as part of a broader shift toward cash transfers in […]