Send cash to families
impacted by USAID cuts
Your donations will keep critical cash programs running
so families can afford food, medicine, and other essentials.
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Giving cash is
Help someone transform their life.
Giahnni had to leave school when tuition became unaffordable. With the $850 per month she received, Giahnni could return to school and pay down her student loans.
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 690M+ 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
Shawanda grew her business and improved her home for her children
“I’m going to use that first payment to get into a bigger place. My kids don’t need anything really, just a bigger home. And to help with my business. I have a business selling hair products, different types of clothing, swimsuits. I’ll use the money to get more products too.”
United States
Aira used her transfers to cover rising costs
“The food in the supermarket has all gone up. It is more now. Gasoline too. Electricity has gone up. With the money, now I may be able to spend more time with my kids. It gives me freedom and satisfaction.”
United States
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
How AI helped 6x our disaster response speed
When natural disasters hit, the economic impact is immediate for people already living in poverty: wages are interrupted, homes and cars are damaged, spoiled food is thrown out. The sooner affected families receive cash, the sooner they can begin to put their lives back together…
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.
Cash relief for earthquake survivors in Morocco
Our team has delivered cash to 9,000+ people in poverty in Morocco since 2019 and is working to reach survivors as quickly as we’re able to raise funds and establish secure payment channels.
Why too few disaster survivors get cash aid and what we can do about it
People impacted by a crisis prefer cash relief over in-kind aid (e.g. food, tarps), as it allows them to meet their own needs rather than having others guess for them. However, responders are not pivoting from in-kind aid fast enough…
What we got right and wrong when sending cash to flood survivors
We ran pilots to send cash remotely to flood survivors: in Nigeria, we sent funds to survivors weeks after flooding and in Mozambique, we sent funds days before predicted floods. Here are 4 things we got right and wrong…
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…
The power of getting a mobile phone
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…