For the first time, America’s aid agency now specifically calls for using direct cash to address poverty In October, USAID released a position paper on Direct Monetary Transfers during an event at Center for Global Development that puts cash at the core of their development toolkit, framing it as an efficient and effective form of […]
Blog - Research
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Research
Direct cash looks 3-4x more cost-effective in a new GiveWell assessment
For those unfamiliar, GiveWell is a charity evaluator dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities by carefully assessing evidence to help donors decide where to give. GiveWell funds charities that they believe save or improve lives most cost-effectively. They do this by assigning ‘moral weights’ to specific outcomes based on the subjective judgments from staff, donors, […]
Opinions, Research
What we make of null and negative results from U.S. cash programs
Yolanda spent some of the monthly cash she receives through GiveDirectly’s program in Cook County, Illinois on a trip to the zoo with her grandson. “It felt good because that payment helps me be able to do those things,” she said. “So I don’t have to say to my grandson, ‘Oh, we can’t do that […]
Research
Survey: fewer people support direct cash transfers than you may think
In May, GiveDirectly ran a panel survey of 750 Americans who fit our common donor profile to better understand their familiarity and sentiments around direct cash. Below, we outline the most relevant findings and how they’ll inform our communications and marketing strategy. Note: we’ll continue to update this blog as we further analyze the survey […]
Research
Early findings from the world’s largest UBI study
Summary of findings 2 years in: Here’s a 3 minute audio summary of the findings from NPR: To learn about the most effective ways of delivering cash aid, GiveDirectly worked with a team of researchers to compare three ways of giving out funds.1 About 200 Kenyan villages were assigned to one of three groups and […]
Recipients, Research
For refugees in cities, large cash transfers support self-reliance
For families fleeing conflict or crisis, the world is short on solutions. In the past decade, relief organizations have been forced to make steep cuts to rations provided due to budget constraints, while wealthy countries have welcomed fewer than 1% of refugees. For the 33M refugees unable to return home, building a new life in […]
Recipients, Research
Evidence on how cash transfers empower women in poverty
Donations to GiveDirectly put power in the hands of recipients, 62% of whom are women.1 On International Women’s Day, hear directly from women and girls in poverty in Malawi about the unique ways that direct cash empowers them: This impact is more than anecdotal; research finds that cash aid lets women improve their lives in […]
Research
Research on our U.S. COVID-19 program found little measurable impact. We’re adapting.
Between March 2020 and October 2021, GiveDirectly distributed $1,000 one-time relief payments to nearly 200,000 low-income households as part Project100, the largest privately funded cash transfer program in U.S. history. Researchers at University of Michigan ran two randomized controlled trials to evaluate this program, focusing on the impact on recipients’ material and mental well-being. The […]
Recipients, Research
We asked people in poverty how they prefer to receive money
In the past two years, 182 countries launched cash aid programs, recognizing the autonomy they provide people in poverty to make decisions for themselves. In many cases, however, aid recipients have limited control over exactly how they get their cash transfers. While the total amount might be fixed, the frequency and size of payments and the […]
Research
Study: refugees build independence with cash aid
Worldwide, over 26M people have fled their country of birth and today live as refugees, often in conditions of insecurity and deprivation. Despite hundreds of studies showing the positive impact of direct cash aid on people in poverty, only a few focused on refugees (1, 2) and no large experimental study had been conducted on […]
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