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 […]
Blog
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Research
Research on our U.S. COVID-19 program found little measurable impact. We’re adapting.
Between March 2020 and October 2021, GiveDirectly distributed $1,000 one-time relief payments to nearly 200,000 low-income households as part Project100, the largest privately funded cash transfer program in U.S. history. Researchers at University of Michigan ran two randomized controlled trials to evaluate this program, focusing on the impact on recipients’ material and mental well-being. The […]
Recipients, Research
We asked people in poverty how they prefer to receive money
In the past two years, 182 countries launched cash aid programs, recognizing the autonomy they provide people in poverty to make decisions for themselves. In many cases, however, aid recipients have limited control over exactly how they get their cash transfers. While the total amount might be fixed, the frequency and size of payments and the […]
Research
Study: refugees build independence with cash aid
Worldwide, over 26M people have fled their country of birth and today live as refugees, often in conditions of insecurity and deprivation. Despite hundreds of studies showing the positive impact of direct cash aid on people in poverty, only a few focused on refugees (1, 2) and no large experimental study had been conducted on […]
Operations
Building aid applications that are actually accessible
U.S. guaranteed income pilots have limited funds so ultimately reject most eligible applicants. As administrators of anti-poverty programs, we have a responsibility to run an equitable and easy process both for those randomly selected to enroll and those who are not. We launched applications for two guaranteed income efforts in Chicago and Georgia in the […]
Operations
Why we didn’t launch in Ukraine
When Russian troops attacked Ukraine on February 24th, disrupting the future of millions of people, we needed to quickly decide if we would launch a response despite rapidly changing conditions. Ultimately, we decided not to launch one. While a response seemed warranted, it would have come with costly internal trade offs – primarily, delaying a […]
Operations, Opinions
The neglected climate change solution
A worsening cycle of storms and drought is threatening safety and food supply for many in southern Africa. Tropical Storm Ana struck Malawi in January, washing away nearly 200K acres of crops and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Four more large storms have swept through the area since. GiveDirectly is providing emergency cash relief […]
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 gave single-use cameras to 4 villages — see what they captured
Last month, we distributed Fujifilm QuickSnaps to select recipients in Kenya, Rwanda, and Liberia and asked them to document their village as they received cash transfers. Over the course of November, these photographers captured their neighbors’ stories and projects. Our team returned at the end of the month to collect the cameras, the details, and […]
Year
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