GiveDirectly’s field team is at the heart of our operations. Our field officers explain the program to potential recipients, provide ongoing education and support, and collect detailed data at every stage of the process. They act as the first line of defense, interacting with recipients on a daily basis. Occasionally, they share stories with the […]
Blog - Opinions
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Opinions
Government waiting rooms and definition deliberations
I often hear GiveDirectly cited as one of the most innovative players in the nonprofit sphere for giving out cash with no strings attached. Although that’s noteworthy, for me, what makes the organization exceptional is its team’s commitment to use rigorous, scientific evidence to inform, evaluate, and improve its program.For the past six months, I’ve […]
Opinions
Conversations with the Kenya team
As a way of building connections among our teams in the US and Africa, GiveDirectly has set up regular international one-on-one chats between team members in Uganda, Kenya and the US. Of course a call or online chat isn’t as good as meeting with coworkers in person, but these short conversations are teaching me a […]
Opinions
GiveWell (re-)recommendation
We’re thrilled that GiveWell has listed us as one of their top recommended charities once again this year. It’s not an easy mountain to climb: GiveWell reviews hundreds of organizations in unbelievable depth, and recommends very few – this year, only four. I’m grateful to my teammates here at GiveDirectly, as their strong performance is […]
Opinions
Our new website
Today we’re launching a new website for GiveDirectly—the first major update since www.givedirectly.org went live in 2011. Our main goal in reimagining the site was to create radical transparency into what we do and how well we do it. We’ve invested a lot to integrate cutting-edge technology into our field model so that we have […]
Opinions
Cash transfers: not “whether,” but “how”
Many people think that simply giving money directly to the poor is a radical new idea. We’re flattered, but the reality is: it isn’t. Over the last decade, cash transfers have quietly become one of the most widely used poverty-fighting tools in the toolkits of aid agencies and emerging market governments. If the question about […]
Opinions
News round-up: Digitizing cash transfers
We’ve used mobile payments to deliver cash transfers since launching in Kenya in 2009. But many cash transfer programs around the world – including large-scale programs run by governments – still operate with physical cash, which is often costly, slow, and prone to error and corruption. Increasingly we’re seeing programs shift to mobile and other […]
Opinions
GiveDirectly COO’s TED Talk
“The more cash we give to the poor, and the more evidence we have that it works, the more we have to reconsider everything else we give.”In a new TED talk, Joy Sun, COO-domestic of GiveDirectly, asks us to reconsider how we think about and deliver aid, and provides evidence on the power of unconditional […]
Opinions
Does the GiveDirectly team believe in giving cash to the homeless?
We asked members of our team who are from or have spent a lot of time in the U.S. a simple question: Do you give cash to the homeless in the US? We were inspired by a blog post in which Chris Blattman asks: “Why do I think it’s a good idea to give cash […]
Opinions
Becoming known in Siaya town
For the past year, I served as the Field Director in Kenya and led our team to deliver more than $3 million to poor households. Since transitioning to a New York-based role recently, I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come in a year. When I arrived in Kenya, our office was aptly described as […]