This week, The New York Times published two articles about effective altruism: one profiling Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz on their donations via Good Ventures, and the other on choice in charitable giving. In an interview in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Dean Karlan spoke highly of GiveDirectly and our rigorous scientific evaluations. And in basic […]
Blog
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
GiveDirectly UK opens
We have some exciting news for GiveDirectly supporters in the UK. The recently launched GiveDirectly UK trust (UK charity #1167938) makes it easier to claim Gift Aid which boosts donations by 25p for each £1 donated. Additional rate taxpayers can also reclaim tax relief via their Self Assessment returns. All money donated via GDUK (less […]
Operations
On enrolling over 50,000 families
GiveDirectly started in 2008 as an idea in the minds of a few graduate students and a handful of documents. Many thought the idea of giving out money unconditionally to aid the poor was doomed to fail.Recently we enrolled the 50,000th household in our history and wanted to take a moment to mark the milestone. […]
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Poverty in its simplest terms – Cash in the News
GiveDirectly’s own Ian Bassin talks about our basic income pilot in depth in a detailed interview with Impakter magazine. On NPR, the consequences of poverty and mental health are discussed using recent scientific evaluations, including a study on GiveDirectly’s own work which showed that cash transfers can reduce stress levels. And around the world the […]
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Those cash benefits – Cash in the News
In an interview with Vox, Melinda Gates mentions cash as a well-researched and effective anti-poverty intervention. Elsewhere, in basic income news, Eduardo Porter, in a New York Times story about Hillary Clinton’s policy to fight poverty in the US proposes a universal basic income for kids and a French legislative report announces a plan for […]
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Just give him cash – Cash in the News
Co-founder Paul Niehaus talked about the saying “teach a man to fish…” in a lively conversation with Tiny Spark podcast’s Amy Costello. Also this week, the World Bank and its President Jim Yong Kim continued to advocate for cash transfers to the poor as an effective policy following their report last week. And in basic […]
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Taking on inequality – Cash in the News
This week the World Bank released a comprehensive report on fighting global poverty and increasing global prosperity. One of their six policy recommendations: cash transfers to poor families. In a speech, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim repeated the call for cash in policy proposals. In India top economist Arvind Subramanian voiced his support for […]
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Easier simply – Cash in the News
In a video on technological unemployment, Robert Reich concludes, “Interest in a basic income is surging,” before describing our pilot and it’s ability to produce rigorous evidence on the impact of a basic income. Outside the United States, The Economist described how cash can help solve another of the world’s pressing problems: the refugee crisis. […]
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With these milestones reached – Cash in the News
This week, we announced new details on our basic income pilot, including the size of the pilot, the study design, and the timeline: that we are preparing to begin payments to an initial pilot village in late October. The announcement was subsequently covered by Business Insider and Basic Income News. This weekend NPR separately reported […]
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New details on our basic income pilot
We have good news and more details to share on our work to launch a first-of-its-kind test of a basic income guarantee. Thousands of donors have come together to support the effort, contributing over $11 million since April and bringing total commitments to the project to $21 million, with $9 million to go to fully […]