Looking for a “digital native” NGO that’s “widely known to be good at tech”? Tom Steinberg lists GiveDirectly in his article “How Can Funders Know Who to Trust When It Comes to Tech Advice?” On the evidence behind cash transfers, Stephen Kidd asks, “To Condition or Not to Condition: What is the Evidence?” and an […]
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Uncategorized
In the hands of our recipients – Cash in the News
We’re starting a new series, “Cash in the News,” where we will summarize the week’s news on GiveDirectly, cash transfers, and related topics like Effective Altruism and basic income. We will include a list of selected articles and posts, along with a brief, relevant excerpt from the post itself. Stay tuned for the latest and […]
Operations
Why and how we invest
We have a strong incentive and desire to transfer the majority of the funds we receive to our recipients as quickly as possible. GiveDirectly is a service – donors use GiveDirectly to transfer funds to the extreme poor – and our donors expect that service to be efficient and timely. And beyond that, transfer speed […]
Opinions
GiveDirectly featured in Google San Francisco’s Giving Week 2015
From November 30th to December 4th 2015, Google San Francisco hosted their annual Giving Week, highlighting one organization each day and encouraging employees to donate to their favorite organizations. GiveDirectly was chosen as one of very few charities featured during that week. Not only did Google employees step up to support direct cash transfers to […]
Opinions
Why I give directly: Reaching someone a world away
After hearing from Beverly Archer on one of our open conference calls, we asked her to share her perspective on why she gives directly. Here she describes her search for a better way to help. When I was a very little girl, I saw a picture of emaciated children in a magazine. It frightened and […]
Operations
How do we tell who is poor?
Every organization that aims to improve the lives of others has to confront some basic questions: Who should we help with our limited resources? How should we find the people we’d like to help? And how should we make sure that the people we’re actually helping meet the criteria we’ve established? Surprisingly, this isn’t something […]
Operations
Biometrics in Uganda
How do you verify individuals’ identities in a country where identification documentation is not prevalent and personal data is non-existent? In fact, this is a massive problem faced by anti-poverty programs worldwide. Organizations from national governments to NGOs struggle with how to accurately and safely identify their beneficiaries, especially in regions that lack reliable infrastructure […]
Recipients
New Year’s notes from GiveDirectly recipients
Every day we talk to dozens of recipients to get feedback, find out how things are working out for them, and ask if there’s anything we can do to improve our own processes. This week we selected several recipients at random, and asked if they wanted to share any end of year thoughts with the […]
Opinions
Why we give directly to GiveDirectly
Benckiser Stiftung Zukunft, a forward-thinking German philanthropy, was looking for ways of giving that were efficient, effective, based in evidence, and had “the potential to improve the future of aid overall.” After visiting us in New York and Uganda, they decided to give directly, in addition to funding a randomized controlled trial to gather further […]
Opinions
GiveDirectly, as told by BostWiki
“Part of charity is learning how to imagine other people complexly… that receivers of charity are real people too, and often smart, thoughtful people just like us.” One of our supporters, BostWiki, made a video explaining why he chooses to give directly, and why cash transfers make sense. Watch his video below, or here.