Recipients – GiveDirectly

How to explain AI/ML across the digital divide

Nirali Desai and Vera Lummis — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 18:54:28 +0000

When a crisis hits a low-income country, aid groups often struggle to quickly find and help those most in need because governments have incomplete or outdated information on their citizens (‘social registries’). This is why GiveDirectly has used mobile phone metadata and AI to predict people’s level of need and send them emergency cash quickly—often 4-8x faster than conventional aid.

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MrBeast gives $200,000 directly to people in poverty

Tyler Hall — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 12:13:45 +0000

Beast Philanthropy is a nonprofit YouTube channel that funds and films charitable acts, putting the ad revenue from their popular videos towards their next projects. They feature MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson, the most watched person on Earth with over 600 million followers across his social media platforms. In April, GiveDirectly’s Uganda team hosted Beast Philanthropy to document our direct…

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For refugees in cities, large cash transfers support self-reliance

Rachel Waddell — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:45:00 +0000

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 their host country can be nearly impossible.

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The power of getting a mobile phone

Michael Lukyamuzi — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 13:43:32 +0000

Rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa can mean disconnection. Too poor to afford telephones or travel, some families struggle to keep in touch. Many cannot bank or send money securely. Global news can be slow to reach areas without a cell network. Those without a mobile phone are given one When you donate, you provide people in poverty with more than just cash; you provide connection.

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Evidence on how cash transfers empower women in poverty

Caroline Teti — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 08:17:00 +0000

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 many ways. Below, we break down the evidence by story.

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Sharing stories of poverty but not ‘poverty porn’

Tyler G Hall and Caroline Teti — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 07:54:33 +0000

“The sight of a child so starved he’s too weak to cry… it’s enough to make the angels cry,” says Sally Struthers, strolling through a slum in an unidentified south Asian country. These Christian Children’s Fund ads, which ran for two decades, exemplify the ‘poverty porn’ trope still employed by many charities––a practice so ubiquitous it’s earned a satiric awards series spotlighting the worst…

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Inflation is worst for people in extreme poverty

GiveDirectly — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:03:53 +0000

You’ve likely been impacted by the cost of living crisis: U.S. gas prices spiked this summer and energy prices are still at all-time highs across Europe. While overall inflation in high-income countries is at 6%, in low-income countries it’s at 9%. Consumers in wealthy countries can often switch from higher-quality goods to lower-quality ones, an option not possible for recipients like Josphat.

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We asked people in poverty how they prefer to receive money

Miriam Laker-Oketta — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 01:51:59 +0000

February 2023 update A newly published academic paper examining the preferences of low-income households in Kenya over the structure of GiveDirectly unconditional cash transfers found: 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…

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We gave single-use cameras to 4 villages — see what they captured

Tyler Hall — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:41:11 +0000

Last month, we distributed Fujifilm QuickSnaps to select recipients in Kenya, Rwanda, and Liberia and asked them to document their village as they received cash transfers. Over the course of November, these photographers captured their neighbors’ stories and projects. Our team returned at the end of the month to collect the cameras, the details, and consent forms from the subjects.

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I was a COVID-19 recipient. Now, I’m an employee

Aline Fernicka — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 14:45:53 +0000

Note: This post was was written in Kirundi and translated by Aline’s coworker, Roben. Read the original here. My name is Aline Fernicka. I am a Burundian refugee and a former GiveDirectly recipient. I currently work as a Field Officer at GiveDirectly in Kigali, Rwanda registering recipients in our programs so that they can receive unconditional cash transfers and get over the poverty line.

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