Zev Minsky-Primus wanted to give some of his Bar Mitzvah money away, but he didn’t know how. After looking at the evidence, Zev decided to give “plain old money to people” through GiveDirectly, no strings attached, and let them decide for themselves. Elsewhere in the news, cofounder Michael Faye talks about direct giving on a […]
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Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
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The decision making of a teenager
Zev Minsky-Primus explains why he donated some of his Bar Mitzvah money, no strings attached, to poor families via GiveDirectly.I recently had my Bar Mitzvah, and as you might expect, that came along with a lot of gifts. And let’s be real, a few thousand dollars is more than a 13-year-old knows how to spend, […]
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One of my favorite topics – Cash in the News
On Tuesday, Paul got a chance to respond to questions from the Reddit community, including some on his favorite topics, like the design of our RCTs and our new basic income trial. In related news, with the Swiss voting on a basic income this Sunday, and details about Y Combinator’s basic income trial just released, […]
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Increase use and coordination – Cash in the News
After days of talks, the World Humanitarian Summit’s Grand Bargain listed as its third recommendation: “Increase the use and coordination of cash-based programming.” But even as cash transfers continue to gain support, as Nikita Lalwani and Sam Winter-Levy uncovered in their long-form feature in The New Republic, some in the aid sector are pushing back. […]
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First of its kind – Cash in the News
With the World Humanitarian Summit coming up next week, the discussion turns toward ways cash can make aid more cost-effective. Journalists reported on emergency cash transfers for disaster relief in Canada and the outcomes of cash on infants. The Irish Times covered Kenya’s mobile money system as a vehicle for sending cash instead of in-kind […]
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GiveDirectly wants to find some answers – Cash in the News
As the debate over basic income continues to heat up, the conversation turns to GiveDirectly’s upcoming trial to find answers through rigorous research. Meanwhile, cofounder Paul Niehaus talked basic income with Mark Leon Goldberg on the Global Dispatches podcast, and COO Domestic Ian Bassin appeared on Seattle Morning Radio and France 24 TV to explain […]
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Here’s where we’re at with basic income
What a response! In the last three weeks, media across the globe has covered our plans to run a basic income trial. The Telegraph wrote that basic income will, “for the first time… be put to a rigorous test” and Vox called our trial “truly historic.” The pilot has also been covered by FiveThirtyEight, The […]
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We just can’t know until we try – Cash in the News
This week saw continued and often in-depth coverage of GiveDirectly’s basic income trial. On both sides of the Atlantic reporters at The Telegraph and New York Magazine asked whether instituting a basic income could make welfare as a whole more efficient and better at serving the poorest. Meanwhile, research continues to show positive impacts of […]
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After years of conjecture – Cash in the News
Our basic income trial continued to make headlines this week after our announcement in Slate two weeks ago. Cofounder Michael Faye spoke with Andrew Flowers of FiveThirtyEight, telling him, “To be honest, a full long-term universal basic income has never been tried, let alone rigorously evaluated.” In Fast Company, Ben Schiller reports: “After years of conjecture […]
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BIG news! – Cash in the News
GiveDirectly made headlines this week when co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus announced our intention to run a basic income project. The story quickly got the attention of several writers and outlets (selections below). As Freakonomics’ Stephen Dubner says in an unconnected, but coincidentally timed podcast, basic income is “an idea whose time finally may […]