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 […]
Blog -
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
Fighting fraud in Uganda
We recently dealt with our worst fraud case to date, with 2% of a round of transfers in Uganda diverted. This incident brought to light vulnerabilities which we have since addressed, and we don’t expect changes in performance going forward. We are making it a point to write openly about this case, however, because nonprofits […]
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
Heartbleed Update
We treat the privacy of our donors and recipients seriously and do not believe it was affected by the Heartbleed Bug.We confirmed that our hosting provider, Amazon, had patched the bug and then we updated all our certificates and keys. We verified that Stripe, our payments processor, did the same. We do not believe that […]
Opinions
GiveDirectly is The 4th most Innovative Company in Finance for 2014
Fast Company has just named GiveDirectly one of the world’s Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Finance. The list highlights enterprises that “exemplify the best in business from across the economy and around the world.” GiveDirectly is the only one on the list focused exclusively on finance for the poor in developing countries, and was […]
Opinions
GiveWell’s First Full Update on GiveDirectly
Please visit the GiveWell website to read an in-depth report on GiveDirectly’s work in Kenya, our expansion into a second country, and our long-term outlook as we continue to scale up our cash transfer operations. The report covers our activities since November 2012, when GiveWell named GiveDirectly their #2 rated charity based on their criteria […]
Uncategorized
New Blog Format
Thanks to the time and efforts of a generous volunteer, this section of the GiveDirectly website will now feature more frequent updates, including reports from our field team, lessons learned from our work, and the latest evidence on the impact our cash transfers have on the lives of the poor. If you have a question […]
Uncategorized
Spring 2013: Cash transfers in the headlines
Evidence behind unconditional cash transfers captured the media’s attention in May: Jacquelline Fuller in Fast Company: “This is a way to transform how people think about aid. There is no reason why a lot of development dollars couldn’t be shifted to a model like this.” Matthew Yglesias in Slate: “Money with no strings attached not […]
Uncategorized
Benchmarking development aid
Jacquelline Fuller in the Harvard Business Review: “…GiveDirectly has a new concept: What if cash transfers are used as a standard benchmark against which to measure all development aid? What if every nonprofit that focused on poverty alleviation had to prove they could do more for the poor with a dollar than the poor could […]
Opinions
Holiday media coverage
GiveDirectly in the news this holiday season: Dana Goldstein in the Atlantic: “So simple, it’s genius.” Dylan Matthews in the Washinton Post: “The idea, in a way, is so obvious it’s hard to believe people hadn’t tried to do it on this scale before: ending poverty by giving people money.” Chris Hayes on MSNBC: “A […]
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