GiveDirectly

"Now when storms come, we aren’t worried about our new house getting destroyed. We just look at each other and say, ‘is it coming from this side or that side?’" - Domingos, a cash transfer recipient. Domingos and his family live in Nhamatanda, Mozambique, an area impacted by worsening droughts and floods. In 2019, a cyclone destroyed his simple home and farm. The loss of income forced him to withdraw his kids from school as he couldn’t afford the fees. After receiving $800 from USAID and GiveDirectly, that all changed. Now he has a stronger, larger home, a thriving farm, and his kids are all back in school. A survey 6 months after getting cash found the number of families eating multiple meals a day had jumped from 51% to 85%. With USAID, we’ve delivered $7 million – no strings attached – to over 7,000 families in Nhamatanda since 2021. Watch below to see how Domingos’s community used their cash creatively to build resilience and learn more at https://lnkd.in/eXxDHRwD

Many U.S. studies show cash can have positive impacts, but some find no impact or even negative impact. Here's our take ⬇ We do not expect all cash studies to be positive. While there have been hundreds of randomized controlled trials studying the impact of direct cash, very few of these have taken place in the U.S. Most are from low- or low-middle-income countries like Kenya, where GiveDirectly started. As we consider the nascent state of U.S. cash research, it’s worth remembering that global cash studies sometimes have null or even negative findings. Direct cash is not a silver bullet, and it does not work equally well in every context. We take limited null and negative research results seriously. But we do not believe they are bellwethers for the end of cash in the U.S. These results will provide valuable insight into how we can better design future programs that avoid the pitfalls of previous efforts. It would be shortsighted to stop these efforts based on just a few null or negative findings. GiveDirectly will continue to deliver cash in the U.S. and study it against existing interventions. For example, there are fertile research opportunities in comparing direct cash against other non-cash government benefits through benchmarking studies.   Continuing to deliver cash and study its effects in the U.S. are vital steps toward better understanding how to end poverty in the world’s wealthiest country. We have much more to learn and more good to do for low-income Americans. Read more from Camille Parker and Matthew Ruby: https://lnkd.in/eSCnEKwz

Direct cash more than doubled the number of Rwandan families eating more than once a day. A one-time $1,100 transfer enabled them to send their kids to school, start businesses and live lives of dignity. Food insecurity decreased significantly from 72.8% to 26.0% and school attendance increased from 73.9% to 81.0%. Research indicates that cash transfers can be more effective than traditional nutrition programs in addressing nutrition challenges: https://lnkd.in/gu-_Dd4X Find out more at givedirectly.org/rwanda

We showed Beast Philanthropy's GiveDirectly video (youtu.be/pZ-MpxDZr9I) to the featured Ugandan community. Here’s what they thought of it ⬇ 👍🏿100% were satisfied with the video: - “It makes me appreciate the moment my life changed and reminds me of when I was able to send my son to school.” - “I enjoyed the part of my neighbor Tiyan operating her grinding mill. It shows that a woman can also do what a man can do.” 💃🏿They were happy to see their community’s joy and success:  - “I liked seeing my community dancing with joy and happiness, children at school with full uniforms, and new businesses.” - “I enjoyed seeing the people happy amidst the challenges, people dancing and unity in the community.” 🔪They appreciated Beast Philanthropy visiting their market: - “The part where the visitors were in the market, it makes the community feel they are part of us.” - “I liked the part where [Darren Margolias & Dan Mace] were trying to sharpen the panga knife” 📝 They also gave us actionable feedback for next time, which you can read in our full report at https://lnkd.in/dFRrUNYn Learn more about our consent process at https://lnkd.in/ekWFGfae

In the spirit of transparency and open learning, we’re sharing GiveDirectly’s Responsible AI/ML Framework: a set of principles and actionable protocols guiding how we use AI technology. We utilize big data and AI to swiftly and accurately deliver cash relief to people in need. However, we have to balance the benefits of this technology against the potential risks. While many aid organizations now use AI/ML in their programs, there is little concrete transparent documentation on how organizations are handling the risks and tradeoffs. We created our framework from a combination of existing principles on responsible AI-usage, along with learnings from our past work, interviews with GiveDirectly recipients in Malawi and Kenya, GiveDirectly staff, and outside academic experts. Read at https://lnkd.in/ezwMNHXk and share your thoughts in the comments below. #AI #AIsafety #ML

"Charities can use tech to make highly effective interventions on the ground, that would otherwise be far harder and more costly to implement. Luke K. Freeman🔸 cites the non-profit organisation GiveDirectly, which allows donors to send cash to people living in the world’s poorest countries via their mobile phones. 'Their investment in fast payment technologies and SMS-based registration methods is a large part of how quickly they can deliver donations directly to recipients,' he observes. “They currently have the technical capacity to reach more than 5mn people per year should they receive that level of funding.'" - Nicholas Fearn for Financial Times: https://lnkd.in/erC_iYJr Give directly through Giving What We Can at https://lnkd.in/eHx3ZM3i Learn more about our payment technology innovations at givedirectly.org/togo

This is an example of artificial intelligence for humanitarian good. Climate shocks like floods and droughts are rapidly accelerating humanitarian emergencies in countries already affected by conflict and crisis, despite the fact that these countries bear the smallest responsibility for climate change. In many cases, we have the research and technology to reliably predict when disasters are imminent, and as a result we can protect lives and livelihoods through anticipatory action. The International Rescue Committee is thrilled to continue working with Google.org, in collaboration with GiveDirectly, to develop innovative solutions to build climate resilience in crisis-affected contexts - more needed today than ever before. https://lnkd.in/evuZ-Vaw

Read more about how our collaboration with MrBeast's Beast Philanthropy came together at https://lnkd.in/ekWFGfae 🎉

Beast Philanthropy, the charity founded by the world’s most popular YouTuber MrBeast, gave $200,000 to Ugandans living in extreme poverty through GiveDirectly and posted a video about the process. Watch below and read about how the collaboration came together at https://lnkd.in/ehr-WM_3 We partnered on this video to reach more families in need:   👀 Large, new audiences will learn about GiveDirectly: Beast Philanthropy videos are seen by 20M-40M people, and dubbed into 12+ languages. This will reach people that have never heard of direct cash, and some of them will start giving directly: GiveDirectly.org/beast 💸 It helps dispel common myths about direct cash aid: Many people still think that giving cash to people in poverty is a bad idea: they may waste the money, need training instead, or won’t be able to make lasting changes to their lives. This video excels at tackling these common concerns for a broad audience. We're asking featured recipients for feedback on the process:   👥 After filming, our safeguarding team interviewed 9 of the filmed recipients. Some examples: - “The way they came and interacted with me and my family, that's what I liked most. I felt in place and free with them.” - “I needed to tell how happy I felt, and also to show the rest of the community that when given something small or large, you can always use it in a way that can help raise your standard of living.” - “I felt good about it, though I feel I should also be shown the photos and videos to watch.” 🇺🇬 Later this month, we’ll screen the video for the featured community dubbed into Nga’Karimojong (their language), followed by a focus group discussion and share their thoughts at https://lnkd.in/ekWFGfae How you can help: 1️⃣ Reshare the Beast Philanthropy video & this post on social media 2️⃣ Donate to our fundraiser with Beast Philanthropy, which will send life-changing cash transfers to 120 more families in a neighboring village in Uganda: GiveDirectly.org/beast 3️⃣ Share your thoughts on the video or suggestions for other creators we should work with in this form: https://lnkd.in/ehqv4cGR https://lnkd.in/e9Daqep7

“Just handing money to the poor and saying, ‘hey, poor people know best what they need.’ GiveDirectly are sort of the pioneers of this. They use mobile transfers. They use door-to-door surveys, A.I. to find communities in need, and they just directly hand money to poor people into their mobile wallets… There's lots of studies that suggest unconditional cash transfers raise income levels. They also help poverty indicators, things like health, nutrition, and education… The big attraction of this model is that – once the payments infrastructure is set up – it's hugely scalable… Most of all, it's a good thing that we're beginning to question that overly technocratic approach that's really dominated since the turn-of-the-century” - Avantika Chilkoti on The Economist's podcast Listen to the original episode: https://lnkd.in/eASgdT-5  Read her full report: https://lnkd.in/eHVApHjU