Send money directly to
people who need it most.
Your donation empowers families in poverty
to choose how best to improve their lives.
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Giving cash is
Help someone transform their life.
Ndiwo’s parents couldn’t afford to send him to high school. With $197, he was able to re-enroll and buy farm equipment. He’s saving the profits to study engineering at a university.
Help without conditions.
People in poverty deserve the dignity to choose for themselves how best to improve their lives — cash enables that choice.
Help that works – and lasts.
There are 300+ studies on cash transfers – making it one of the most-studied aid interventions. Cash has been shown to drive a range of impacts, even 5+ years after a transfer.
Help that is efficient and direct.
Cash has no shipping costs: your donation is delivered directly to a person in poverty via mobile money with support from in-country staff, not subcontractors or middle-men.
Help end extreme poverty.
The resources to close the poverty gap for 700M+ people already exist – they’re just not reaching those in greatest need. Unlike other forms of aid, cash can efficiently scale to reach and transform hundreds of millions of lives.
Receiving cash catalyzes change
Hawa invested in a farming business and restarted construction on her home
“When I received the money, I invested $50 into farming. Since I don’t have a farm land here, I asked a land owner for over a lot to plant cassava. I paid people to brush, clean, and plant. The rest of the money, I traveled to Monrovia where I have a half lot with a foundation that stopped several years ago because I did not have the money to continue with the project.”
Liberia
Didier upgraded his barbershop and doubled his income
“When I arrived in Kenya from Congo as a refugee in 2008, life was a struggle. After staying for quite some time, I located a place to run a barber shop. The transfers allowed me to improve my shop. My shop is thriving. I increased my service charge from $1 to $2, and my income has risen to $400 per month. I even hired another employee, paying him on a commission basis. This move has contributed to the increase in my earnings.”
Kenya
Francoise started a sewing business and is returning to school to pursue her dreams
“I got pregnant when I was seventeen years old and dropped out of school. I used $70 to buy a sack of beans as a way to save money profitably and purchased a sewing machine for $150. With the remaining cash, I saved it to buy school materials and uniforms because I wanted to go back to school.”
Rwanda
Mirriam paid her daughter’s school fees, grew her business, and improved her home
“As any single mother, after my divorce, all I thought of was how I would provide for my children. With the second transfer, I bought iron sheets, a bicycle and clothes for my last born in secondary school. My greatest achievement so far has been paying school fees for my daughter. For the first time, I have paid it in full.”
Malawi
Denis bought a motorcycle and revamped it for his ‘boda boda’ business
“I got my first transfer of $120 in September 2022, I saved it and waited for the second transfer with a plan to purchase a motorcycle. I got one on sale at $600 and purchased it. I majestically rode to the GiveDirectly office to show them how the transfers have changed my life.”
Uganda
Rabeca built a brick house and powered it with a solar panel
“My name is Rabeca and from an early age my life was marked by a lack of money that affected and limited all areas of my life. With the transfers, I realized my dream of building a brick house. I was also able to buy a solar panel which has brought light into our lives! Now, we live as if we were in the city, not the village, because we have light all the time. We can charge our mobile phones and my children can do their schoolwork at night without any difficulty.”
Mozambique1.5 million people reached
Support programs that meet local needs at a global scale
Explore highlights from the field
Switching to more cash aid would help millions in 2025
Maximizing the portion of humanitarian aid given as cash from 20% to 50% could mean directly helping ~2.7 million more people this year without spending more.
Explain AI/ML systems to people in poverty using real-world scenarios
GiveDirectly collaborated with researchers and local teams to refine how we explain our AI-driven payment system, finding that scenario-based examples resonate best with recipients.
How GiveDirectly prevents, addresses, and reports risks
GiveDirectly publishes an annual report on fraud, harm, and safety incidents, reflecting our increased investment in safeguarding and commitment to transparency.
More people in poverty get cash when we work with governments
GiveDirectly is partnering with the governments of Malawi and Rwanda to run cash transfer programs integrated with both countries’ wider development plans, creating a path to accelerating the end of extreme poverty.
Early findings from the world’s largest UBI study
We worked with researchers to compare the impacts of a short-term UBI vs. long-term UBI vs. lump sum transfer. These results look at just the first two years, when all three groups had received roughly the same amount of money.
For refugees in cities, large cash transfers support self-reliance
Half a million refugees have fled insecurity in their home countries to try to build a new life in Kenya. Having left nearly everything behind, many struggle to restart without a big missing piece: money. Watch how cash aid helps them restart…
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16% of Africans do not live within reach of a mobile network, with the biggest gaps in the poorest regions due to a lack of demand. Our project reaching 15K families in Kiryandongo, Uganda motivated two telcos to extend coverage and mobile money agents to the area…
Sharing stories of poverty but not ‘poverty porn’
People in poverty are often documented without their consent. GiveDirectly only documents recipients with their formal consent, or in the case of minors, both their and their parents’ consent. They opt to sign a plain-language form translated into local languages…