How it works

1 Village enrolled
We enroll a full village at a time. Recipients who consent to sharing their information are shown above; those who don’t are paid using other funds.
2 Recipient funded
Your donation goes to the person you are mapped to above. Once their village is funded, we schedule transfers for our next monthly payment date.
3 Monthly transfers delivered
Every month, we use mobile money technology to send your donation to the person you are mapped to.
4 Regular updates
Every few months, we check in with the village. We’ll share those updates with you so you can see how the person you funded chose to spend their transfers.

See how past recipients spent their transfers

The biggest difference in my daily life is the purchase of a cow… We used to buy milk from the neighbourhood which could cost us a lot of money every month. We are glad that currently, we have sufficient milk and also able to sell the surplus which in turn facilitate the purchase of other household goods.

Tergech,
Kenya
Funded

I now have a flock of chicken that I bought using the transfers. We used to depend on the sale of crops from our farm but for a while now they have not been doing well due to climate change. I am now hoping to live a better life because I have more than one source of income.

Judy,
Kenya
Funded

My mud-walled house had several defects which had a negative impact on our health. The dust could make us catch flu and cough; this was expensive because I had to use a lot of money for treatment. Today the house looks decent after plastering it.  Apart from that, none of my family members has gone to the hospital for treatment

Evalyn,
Kenya
Funded

Cash empowers recipients to invest in what they need most. They’ll receive monthly transfers for 5 years.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I know my money really funds this person?

“Your money goes to help this person. They’ll even write you a thank you card.” This is a familiar pledge you may have heard from charities before. GiveDirectly’s program is not a marketing gimmick, it’s the real thing. By leveraging over a decade of experience and recent technical advances in payment technologies in developing economics, we quite literally send your donation to the people you select and email their messages back to you. 

Why can’t I choose who I donate to?

Donors do not get to choose specific people to fund and that is intentional. Evidence shows that some donors choose recipients based on factors like attractiveness, skin color, and family status, which makes for neither good social policy nor efficient operations. We avoid this choice bias by instead showing a list of people in poverty in a village yet to be funded and allowing donors to select how many to support.  

How were these people & stories selected?

Our field team in Kenya uses government data to identify villages below the poverty line and enrolls all households in that village. Recipients who consent to sharing their information are shown on the website; those who don’t are paid using other funds. To date, only <2% of recipients have declined to be featured here. Each interview is conducted by a local field officer who does the translation in real time, and is asked to be as literal as possible; no one at GiveDirectly edits or filters these. Collecting these stories contributes little to our costs as we’d conduct regular check-ins regardless.  

GiveDirectly Field Officer Constance enrolling Mamake and her family in Kilonga, Kenya.

How long does it take from when I donate to when people receive their first payment?

Once enough donors sign up to fund everyone in the village, we schedule transfers for our next monthly payment date. We make sure everyone receives their first payment within 2 months of being enrolled. If it takes more than 2 months to match enough donors to fully fund a village, we use flex-funding to cover their transfers. 

Why are households funded for 5 years?

Based on findings from our other guaranteed income programs, we believe five years of reliable income will provide households a chance to meet their basic needs, stabilize their finances, and invest in income-generating projects. After that time, we connect donors to more recipients living below the extreme poverty line. 

Can I make a one-time donation?

In order to directly map your donation to a specific person’s transfer, we ask that you donate monthly. If you want to make a one-time donation, you can support recipients across our programs here. For further questions, email us at info@givedirectly.org.

What if I want to end my recurring donation early?

You can end your recurring monthly donation any time here or by emailing info@givedirectly.org. The households you were donating to will still receive transfers through the end of their 5 years through alternative funding. 

Something’s broken, what do I do?

Thank you for testing this product and thank you for asking! Each issue you find helps us iterate and build a better donor experience. You can report issues here or email us at beta@givedirectly.org.