Difference between revisions of "Timeline of GiveDirectly"

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| 2013 || October 26 || Media coverage || An article at ''{{w|The Economist}}'' titled ''Pennies from heaven'' describes GiveDirectly and concludes that giving money directly to poor people works surprisingly well, but it cannot deal with the deeper causes of poverty.      <ref>{{cite web |title=Pennies from heaven |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2013/12/12/pennies-from-heaven |website=The Economist |access-date=9 March 2022 |date=12 December 2013}}</ref> ||
 
| 2013 || October 26 || Media coverage || An article at ''{{w|The Economist}}'' titled ''Pennies from heaven'' describes GiveDirectly and concludes that giving money directly to poor people works surprisingly well, but it cannot deal with the deeper causes of poverty.      <ref>{{cite web |title=Pennies from heaven |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2013/12/12/pennies-from-heaven |website=The Economist |access-date=9 March 2022 |date=12 December 2013}}</ref> ||
 
|-
 
|-
| 2013 || October 29 || Media coverage || An article by Kerry A. Dolan at ''{{w|Forbes}}'' emphasizes GiveDirectly's positive results of cash grants made to poor households in Western Kenya from 2011 to 2012.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dolan |first1=Kerry A. |title=Giving Cash Directly To The Poor Gets Thumbs Up From New Study |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/10/29/giving-cash-directly-to-the-poor-gets-thumbs-up-from-new-study/?sh=570d19b215a0 |website=Forbes |access-date=9 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref> ||
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| 2013 || October 29 || Media coverage || An article by Kerry A. Dolan at ''{{w|Forbes}}'' emphasizes GiveDirectly's positive results of cash grants made to poor households in Western Kenya from 2011 to 2012.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dolan |first1=Kerry A. |title=Giving Cash Directly To The Poor Gets Thumbs Up From New Study |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/10/29/giving-cash-directly-to-the-poor-gets-thumbs-up-from-new-study/?sh=570d19b215a0 |website=Forbes |access-date=9 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref> || {{w|Kenya}}
 
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|-
 
| 2013 || November 20 || Program || GiveDirectly announces it has a program being conducted in {{w|Uganda}}, its second country.<ref>{{cite web |title=GiveDirectly is in Uganda! |url=https://www.givedirectly.org/blog-post/4639869356775728332 |website=givedirectly.org |accessdate=20 February 2019}}</ref> || {{w|Uganda}}
 
| 2013 || November 20 || Program || GiveDirectly announces it has a program being conducted in {{w|Uganda}}, its second country.<ref>{{cite web |title=GiveDirectly is in Uganda! |url=https://www.givedirectly.org/blog-post/4639869356775728332 |website=givedirectly.org |accessdate=20 February 2019}}</ref> || {{w|Uganda}}

Revision as of 14:46, 9 May 2022

This is a timeline of GiveDirectly, a not-for-profit organization whose claimed mission is "to reduce poverty by providing financial assistance directly to those in need." It offers a service of cash transfers. GiveDirectly operates primarily in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.[1]

Sample questions

The following are some interesting questions that can be answered by reading this timeline:

  • What are some events describing GiveDirectly's cash transfer and basic income programs?
    • Sort the full timeline by "Event type" and look for the group of rows with value "Program".
    • You will see descriptions related to cash transfer and universal income programs, including pilot projects, trials, enrollment statistics, and geographical distribution of GiveDirectly's programs.
  • What are some notable fundings by third parties to GiveDirectly?
    • Sort the full timeline by "Event type" and look for the group of rows with value "Funding".
    • You will see some notable donations by entities such as Google, Good Ventures, as well as notable individuals such as Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna.
  • What are some cases of media coverage citing the work of GiveDirectly?
  • What are some studies involving GiveDirectly's work?
    • Sort the full timeline by "Event type" and look for the group of rows with value "Study".
    • You will mostly see studies on unconditional cash transfers, citing GiveDirectly's program.
  • What are some cases of recognition of GiveDirectly's work?
    • Sort the full timeline by "Event type" and look for the group of rows with value "Recognition".
    • You will see nominations by other organizations, especially GiveWell.
  • Other events are described under the following types: "Background", "Financial", "Launch", "Performance", "Recommendation", "Team", and "Website".

Big picture

Time period Development summary Details
2009–2012 Early period GiveDirectly is originated as a giving circle started by Paul Niehaus, Michael Faye, Rohit Wanchoo, and Jeremy Shapiro, students at MIT and Harvard, based on their research into philanthropy.[2]
2012 onwards Formalization The giving circle is formalized into GiveDirectly.[2]
2016 onwards Basic income GiveDirectly starts its basic income program.

Summary by year

Time period Development summary
2009 GiveDirectly launches and focuses on its novel cash transfers model. Kenya becomes the first operating country.
2012 GiveDirectly is rated as a "standout organization" by charity evaluator GiveWell.
2013 Uganda becomes GiveDirectly's second operating country.
2014 GiveDirectly board members launch Segovia, a software technology platform aimed at streamlining payment systems.
2015 Rwanda becomes GiveDirectly's third operating country.
2016 GiveDirectly undertakes its basic income enterprise. Kenya becomes the first operating country of the program.
2017 GiveDirectly begins a study of providing long-term, ongoing cash transfers sufficient for basic needs ("basic income guarantee").[3]
2018 GiveDirectly starts operating in Liberia, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2019 GiveDirectly begins making payments to approximately 10,000 refugee households (65,000 people) in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda.[4]
2020 GiveDirectly engages in COVID-19 response work, receiving substantial revenue as support.[5]
2021 GiveDirectly delivers US$106.3M to 431,000 people in poverty across seven countries in Africa.[6]

Number of funders per year

Year Number of funders
2011 164[7]
2012 810[7]
2013 6,195[7]
2014 7,275[7]
2015 8,886[7]
2016 10,999 funders.[7]

Numerical and visual data

Google Scholar

The following table summarizes per-year mentions on Google Scholar as of December 14, 2021.

Year "GiveDirectly"
2010 2
2011 3
2012 7
2013 14
2014 35
2015 49
2016 60
2017 102
2018 137
2019 138
2020 141
Givedirectly gscho.png

Google Trends

The comparative chart below shows Google Trends data for GiveDirectly (Nonprofit organization) and GiveDirectly (Search term) from January 2008 to February 2021, when the screenshot was taken. Interest is also ranked by country and displayed on world map.[8]

GiveDirectly gt.jpg

Google Ngram Viewer

The chart below shows Google Ngram Viewer data for GiveDirectly from 2008 to 2019.[9]

GiveDirectly ngram.jpg

Wikipedia Views

The chart below shows pageviews of the English Wikipedia article GiveDirectly, on desktop from December 2007, and on mobile-web, desktop-spider, mobile-web-spider and mobile app, from July 2015; to January 2021.[10]

GiveDirectly wv.jpg

Full timeline

Year Month and date Event type Details Affected country (when applicable)
2009 September 1 Launch GiveDirectly incorporates in the State of Massachusetts.[1]
2009 Program GiveDirectly launches in Liberia and Kenya, and starts using mobile payments to deliver cash transfers.[11][12][13] Kenya, Liberia
2011 July 2 Study Field staff in Kenya launches a large-scale evaluation of GiveDirectly's work, funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by Dr. Johannes Haushofer of the University of Zurich in collaboration with GiveDirectly's board.[14] Kenya
2011 July 21 Media coverage GiveWell blogs about GiveDirectly, calling it "a charity to watch".[15]
2011 July 22 Funding Economics blog Marginal Revolution makes a donation and blogs about GiveDirectly.[16]
2011 July 26 Media coverage The Boston Globe's Brainiac blog writes about GiveDirectly and its procedure.[17]
2011 August 2 Media coverage NPR's Planet Money blog covers FiveDirectly approach, calling it a "simple but radical".[18]
2011 August 3 Media coverage Time Magazine's Moneyland blog calls GiveDirectly approach "radical, if obvious", asking: "Instead of using charitable donations to set up elaborate programs (and to cover hefty administrative costs for those programs), all in the name of helping the poor, why not just give the money directly to poor people, in as efficient a way as possible?".[19]
2012 January 3 Media coverage Vishnu Sridharan at the New America Foundation writes a blog post on GiveDirectly approach and where it fits in to the big picture.[20]
2012 April Study Sarah Baird, Jacobus de Hoop and Berk Özler publish study on the effects of a positive income shock on mental health among adolescent girls using evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Malawi. The researchers find strong evidence of increased psychological distress among untreated baseline schoolgirls in treatment areas, suggesting that giving poor people cash makes them happier, and their cashless neighbors miserable.[21] Malawi
2012 May 2 Recognition GiveWell completes its full review of GiveDirectly and rates them a "standout organization."[20][22]
2012 August 2 Team Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes joins GiveDirectly board as director.[23][24]
2012 November 2 Recognition GiveWell updates its evaluations for 2012 and names GiveDirectly one of three "top-rated" organizations.[20][22]
2012 December 5 Funding GiveDirectly receives a US$2.4 million Global Impact Award from Google, with over 90% of the amount (US$2.21 million) being earmarked for direct cash transfers to the poor, and the remainder of the award (US$ 190,000) to underwrite the fixed costs of setting up operations in a second country.[25]
2012 December Funding Good Ventures awards a grant of US$500,000 to GiveDirectly for general operating support in recognition of GiveWell’s No. 2 charity ranking in the year.[26]
2013 March Financial GiveDirectly reports US$3 million in funds available, 2 million of which it has designated for future transfers in Kenya, and 1 million of which it has designated for use in scaling its model to a second country.[27] Kenya
2013 June 11 Website GiveDirectly announces new blog format section of its website, aimed at featuring more frequent updates, including reports from the field team, lessons learned from the work, and the latest evidence on the impact GiveDirectly's cash transfers have on the lives of the recipients.[28][29]
2013 June 26 Media coverage GiveWell's publishes first full update on GiveDirectly, and produces an in-depth report on GD’s work in Kenya and their long-term outlook as they continue to scale up their cash transfer operations. The report covers GD's activities since November 2012, when GiveWell named GiveDirectly their second rated charity based on their criteria of efficiency, impact, transparency, and capacity for growth.[28][30] Kenya
2013 June Program GiveDirectly plans to target only mud and thatch households in a second country chosen for its cash transfer program.[27]
2013 September 6 Media coverage David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein from Planet Money report on GiveDirectly work in Kenya, explaining whether its method of charity works, and why some people think it's a terrible idea.[31][32][28][33] Kenya
2013 October 26 Media coverage An article at The Economist titled Pennies from heaven describes GiveDirectly and concludes that giving money directly to poor people works surprisingly well, but it cannot deal with the deeper causes of poverty. [34]
2013 October 29 Media coverage An article by Kerry A. Dolan at Forbes emphasizes GiveDirectly's positive results of cash grants made to poor households in Western Kenya from 2011 to 2012.[35] Kenya
2013 November 20 Program GiveDirectly announces it has a program being conducted in Uganda, its second country.[36] Uganda
2013 – 2014 December 2013 – January 31, 2014 Funding Good Ventures awards a grant of US$2 million to GiveDirectly in December 2013 and matches $5 million in additional donations from December 3, 2013 through January 31, 2014. Both grants are for general operating support in recognition of GiveDirectly's earning a "top charity" ranking from GiveWell in 2013.[37]
2014 February 10 Recognition American business magazine Fast Company names GiveDirectly one of the world's Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Finance.[38][39][11]
2014 March 11 Media coverage Staff at the Mulago Foundation comments on the results of Innovations for Poverty Action’s impact evaluation of GiveDirectly’s cash transfer program. Broadly speaking they see the results as “important” but think the media have overhyped them.[40][41][11]
2014 July 9 Program GiveDirectly board members Michael Faye, Chris Hughes, and Paul Niehaus announce plans to start a separate, fee-for-service for-profit venture called Segovia to develop technology for managing field logistics, with a focus on programs that transfer cash to the poor.[11][42][43][22][44]
2014 November 26 Website GiveDirectly launches a new website, the first major update since www.givedirectly.org went live in 2011.[11][45]
2014 October 24 Media coverage In a new TED talk Joy Sun talks about GiveDirectly, and comments on the benefits of unconditional cash transfers.[46][47][11]
2014 December 10 Recognition GiveWell lists GiveDirectly as one of their top recommended charities once again.[11][48][49]
2014 December Funding Good Ventures awards a grant of US$5 million to GiveDirectly for general operating support in recognition of the organization's earning a "top charity" ranking from GiveWell.[50]
2015  ? Program GiveDirectly registers in Rwanda.[1] Rwanda
2015 June Funding Good Ventures announces an unrestricted US$25 million grant to GiveDirectly for support of general operations.[51][52][53][54][55][24]
2015 August 7 Funding Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna agree to donate US$25 million to GiveDirectly, the largest donation to date.[56]
2015 October Study A study by J. Haushofer et al. on unconditional cash transfers in Kenya concludes that increases in neighbors’ wealth strongly decrease life satisfaction and moderately decrease consumption and asset holdings. "The decrease in life satisfaction induced by transfers to neighbors more than offsets the direct positive effect of transfers, and is largest for individuals who did not receive a direct transfer themselves. We find evidence of hedonic adaptation, in that the negative spillover effect of transfers to neighbors decreases over time, at a rate similar to that of direct transfers."[57] Kenya
2015 November 23 Recognition GiveWell names GiveDirectly one of their top-rated charities of 2015, this time for the fourth consecutive year. GiveWell also rates GiveDirectly strongest on all aspects of organizational performance, including on “transparency and communication,” “robustness of the case for impact,” and “room for more funding.”[58][51][22]
2016  ? Funding Segovia donates its software and services to GiveDirectly. The in-kind donation of the software and associated services are valued at US$52,454 for the delivery of approximately US$5,170,928 of grant transfers that would be disbursed between January through April of 2016.[1]
2016  ? Program GiveDirectly begins enrollment in Rwanda.[1] Rwanda
2016 January Funding Good Ventures awards a US$9.75 million grant to GiveDirectly for general operating support, in recognition of the organization’s earning a “top charity” ranking from GiveWell in 2015.[59]
2016 February Background The Global Innovation Fund announces its first round of investments, the first of which goes to software tech platform Segovia. The Global Innovation Fund was started by GiveDirectly co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus. The company aims to improve the efficiency of aid by improving the cash transfer system.[44]
2016 April Program GiveDirectly announces a US$30 million initiative to test universal basic income in order to ‘try to permanently end extreme poverty across dozens of villages and thousands of people in Kenya by guaranteeing them an ongoing income high enough to meet their basic needs’.[60]
2016 May Funding Segovia no longer donates the software and services to GiveDirectly and instead charges at a fixed percentage of grant transfers.[1]
2016 July Study Johannes Haushofer and Jeremy Shapiro publish paper analizing the short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers in Kenya from GiveDirectly. Results suggest that these programs have significant impacts on economic outcomes and psychological well-being. The researchers find a strong consumption response to transfers. Transfer recipients experience large increases in psychological well-being. Whereas no overall effect on levels of the stress hormone cortisol is found, there are differences across some subgroups.[61] Kenya
2016  ? Program GiveDirectly launches GDLive, an online tool for donors to read recipients' answers to questions about their lives and their reactions to receiving cash transfers from GiveDirectly.[3]
2016 October Program GiveDirectly launches a pilot version of what would become the largest basic income experiment in history so far. Beginning early 2017, 40 villages would receive roughly US$22.50 per month for 12 years. Meanwhile, 80 villages would get the same amount for just two years, another 80 would get a lump sum equal to the two-year amount, and 100 villages would get no money.[62]
2016 October Program GiveDirectly begins its transfers cash program in Rwanda.[22] Rwanda
2016 November 29 Recognition GiveWell recognizes GiveDirectly as one of their top rated charities for the fifth year running.[63][64][22]
2016 December Program GiveDirectly’s launches the first long-term Universal Basic Income evaluation in history.[63][65]
2016 December Program GiveDirectly enrolls 31,000 new households, and places US$27 million into the hands of 40,000 households (or more than 180,000 individuals), most of whom live on less than $1/day. This represents more than a 1000X increase in distributions from just five years ago.[63][66]
2016 December Expansion GiveDirectly is registered under the Companies Act 2006 as having established a UK Establishment in the United Kingdom.[1]
2017 January Media coverage A range of outlets around the world mentions GiveDirectly in relation to universal basic income, including El Mundo, The World Post[67], Inside Philanthropy[68], New York Magazine[69], New Statesman[70], and The Guardian[71].[72][73]
2017 January Funding Good Ventures awards a US$2,500,000 grant to GiveDirectly for general operating support, in recognition of the organization’s earning a “top charity” ranking from GiveWell in 2016.[74]
2017 May Media coverage In a webinar, Greek American engineer Peter Diamandis interviews Michael Faye, who talks about the disruption of philanthropy through peer-to-peer aid.[75]
2017 May 17 Media coverage Vox's "Weeds" interviews Michael Faye as well as several recipients of GiveDirectly basic income program in Western Kenya. The interview deals with a range of issues, from recipient choice to social welfare policy, and featuring some of the most important voices which are often left out of the debate: recipient families themselves.[76][77] Kenya
2017 July 5 Media coverage Hamilton Nolan interviews GiveDirectly's co-founder Paul Niehaus, who discusses the current state of the debate around basic income and the details of our experiment. Elsewhere, GiveDirectly's basic income experiment is referenced in Fortune[78], Business Insider[79], and IndiaSpend. GiveDirectly is also mentioned in The Washington Post[80] as part of a broader shift toward cash transfers in the aid sector.[81][82][77]
2017 July 13 Media coverage In a 30-minute documentary, national broadcaster ABC Australia profiles GiveDirectly's work in Kenya, speaking at length with GD External Relations Director Caroline Teti, and Regional Director Mitch Riley.[77][83] Kenya
2017 October Program GiveDirectly starts conducting two pilot projects in the United States to deliver cash transfers to people affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Maria.[1]
2017 November 13 Program GiveDirectly officially launches its trial of basic income in rural Kenya, and starts enrolling experimental participants. The US$30 million experiment is expected to be the largest trial of basic income to date, in terms of both size and duration. All residents of about 120 rural Kenyan villages, comprising more than 16,000 people in total, would receive some type of unconditional cash transfers during the experiment; some of these villages, moreover, would receive the universal basic income for twelve years.[84] Field officers in Bomet County, Kenya begin to enroll the first (post-pilot) households into the basic income initiative[85][77] Kenya
2017  ? Program GiveDirectly begins using Segovia mobile money wallets for delivery of cash transfers to the recipients in East Africa.[1]
2017  ? Funding GiveDirectly receives a US$663,500 grant from the Government of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development for its project serving refugees in Uganda.[1] Uganda
2017 December 7 Recognition GiveDirectly is recognized as a "top charity" by GiveWell.[86]
2017 December Recommendation The Open Philanthropy Project recommends a grant of US$2,500,000 to GiveDirectly for general operating support, due to its status as a GiveWell top charity.[87]
2017 December Program GiveDirectly launches a US$3.5 million pilot program distributing cash transfers to refugees in Uganda. The program targets refugees who have been displaced for at least five years, as well as households in the communities hosting them.[3] Uganda
2018 January Funding GiveDirectly receives a US$3.6 million award from USAID to begin cash transfer operations in Liberia.[1] Liberia
2018 January Study J. Haushofer and J. Shapiro publish a study on the long-term impact of unconditional cash transfers. Three years after the beginning of the cash transfer program, the researchers find that transfer recipients have higher levels of asset holdings, consumption, food security and psychological well-being relative to non-recipients in the same village.[88]
2018 March 30 Media coverage Berk Özler at worldbank.org publishes an article the impact of GiveDirectly’s cash transfers over the last three years.[89]
2018 April Funding GiveDirectly receives a US$3 million award to begin cash transfer operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a US$3.75 million award to begin cash transfer operations in Malawi.[1] Malawi
2018 April 19 Media coverage Justin Sandefur at cgdev.org publishes an article mentioning results from GiveDirectly's cash transfer program in Kenya, and concludes that children human capital, instead of business growth, is the likely channel for long-term effects from cash transfer programs, which proved to be conditional on school attendance, boosting employment and earnings in adulthood.[90] Kenya
2018 June Expansion GiveDirectly starts partnership projects in three new countries: Liberia, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[22] Liberia, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
2018 September 13 Program GiveDirectly publishes the results from their first experimental benchmarking study, a collaboration with USAID, Google.org, and academic and implementing partners set in Rwanda. The results reveal that large lump sum cash (US$532 transfers) had positive primary outcomes such as consumption, dietary diversity, and anthropometrics, while improvement wasn't found in anemia and total wealth. Secondary outcomes such as savings, productive assets, consumption assets, house value, and child mortality, were found to have better results as well.[91][73][92] Rwanda
2018 September 26 Media coverage Washington Post columnist Christine Emba names GiveDirectly in a publication advocating for foreign aid as a cash-only transaction.[93]
2018 November Recognition GiveDirectly is listed as one of GiveWell's four top-rated charities, and is recognized for offering donors an outstanding opportunity to accomplish good with their donations.[94]
2018 November Funding GiveWell recommends that Good Ventures grant $2.5 million to GiveDirectly, citing several factors including standout transparency and GiveDirectly's strong process for ensuring that cash is well-targeted and consistently reaches its intended targets.[22]
2019 March Study Researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research examines GiveDirectly's unconditional cash transfers in Kenya in their paper on income changes and intimate partner violence. The study results suggest that transfers to the wife primarily reduce physical and sexual violence by reducing her tolerance of it, while transfers to the husband reduce violence by reducing his marginal taste for it.[95] Kenya
2019 March Study A study revisiting income elasticity of nutrition in the context of the unconditional cash transfer program of the GiveDirectly concludes that, in summary, cash transfers meaningfully increase household spending (including on food), increases earnings, improves food security, and leads households to increase their assets.[96]
2019 April 4 Study GiveDirectly publishes an investigation using facial recognition software to detect potential fraud among enrolled households, after finding an excess of households in a second count compared to the first one. Results show a low rate of duplicates, with most fraudulent activity consisting in single households pretending to be multiple.[97]
2019 May Study Michael Cooke and Piali Mukhopadhyay from GiveDirectly publish study evaluating large cash transfers to coffee farming communities in Uganda. Among the findings, the researchers observe an increasing level of consumption, total asset value, earnings and food security, bothin coffee farmers and the community in general. Among coffe farmers, an increase in coffee investment index, and coffee sales revenue is fond.[98] Uganda
2019 May Study Johannes Haushofer, James Reisinger, and Jeremy Shapiro publish study using data from a randomized controlled trial conducted in collaboration with GiveDirectly. The researchers find that increases in own wealth lead to large and robust increases in well-being. However, increases in neighbors' wealth have a negative effect on an index of psychological well-being variables, as a result of a negative effect on life satisfaction. They also find suggestive evidence of a negative consumption response to increases in village mean wealth, though it is imprecisely estimated. Finally, the researchers point at the casual effect of changes in overall comparison group inequality, holding constant an individual's rank within the group. They found that such changes in inequality "have no effect on well-being or consumption".[99]
2019 October 16 Performance GiveDirectly publishes blog describing right choices and mistakes commited by the organization over the last ten years. The right things are described as follows:
  • Deciding to trust poor people.
  • Putting basic income to the test.
  • Opting to saturate entire villages instead of targeting specific households within them.
  • Scaling cash as a benchmark.
  • Building out an internal audit team.

The described wrong things are the following:

  • Not initially holding community meetings.
  • Not realizing sooner the need to invest in call center technology.
  • Waiting too long to grow the fundraising team.
  • Taking for granted how explicit GiveDirectly needed to be in explaining unconditionality to recipients.
  • Sometimes being a bit too scrappy.[100] ||
2019 November 21 Study GiveDirectly releases results of study conducted in Kenya with the purpose to evaluate how cash transfers affect local economies, including nearby non-recipients, enterprises, and markets. The authors' abstract sums up:
How large economic stimuli generate individual and aggregate responses is a central question in economics, but has not been studied experimentally. We provided one-time cash transfers of about USD 1000 to over 10,500 poor households across 653 randomized villages in rural Kenya. The implied fiscal shock was 15 percent of local GDP. We find large impacts on consumption and assets for recipients. Importantly, we document large positive spillovers on non-recipient households and firms, and minimal price inflation. We estimate a local fiscal multiplier of 2.6. We interpret welfare implications through the lens of a simple household optimization framework.[101]
||Kenya
2020 April 14 Funding GiveDirectly announces US$3 million in new funding for its COVID-19 Relief Fund from Google.org, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Flourish Ventures. This round of funding triples GiveDirectly’s emergency fund which actively provides US$1,000 in direct cash payments to families hardly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[102]
2020 April 21 Program GiveDirectly officially launches Project 100, a COVID-19 private direct payments initiative aimed to provide US$1,000 direct digital payments to 100,000 U.S. families hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.[103]
2020 September 2 Study Researchers release initial results on the effects of the universal basic income program conducted by GiveDirectly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the working paper's abstract, researchers Abhijit Banerjee, Michael Faye, Alan Krueger, Paul Niehaus, and Tavneet Suri write:
We examine some effects of Universal Basic Income (UBI) during the COVID-19 pandemic using a large-scale experiment in rural Kenya. Transfers significantly improved well-being on common measures such as hunger, sickness and depression in spite of the pandemic, but with modest effect sizes. They may have had public health benefits, as they reduced hospital visits and decreased social (but not commercial) interactions that influence contagion rates. During the pandemic (and contemporaneous agricultural lean season) recipients lost the income gains from starting new non-agricultural enterprises that they had initially obtained, but also suffered smaller increases in hunger. This pattern is consistent with the idea that UBI induced recipients to take on more income risk in part by mitigating the most harmful consequences of adverse shocks.
[104][105] || Kenya
2020 Year round Program GiveDirectly commits $26 million in cash transfers to 163,000 people in Kenya alone during the year. This represents less than 1% of the 16.4 million people living in extreme poverty in the country.[106] Kenya
2021 July 28 Study Researchers with Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) publish a study with results of a first-of-its-kind contactless direct payments program, which was led by the Government of Togo and supported by the research team and GiveDirectly. The program shows the machine learning targeting outperforming other options available to policymakers at the time, though is best used as a supplemental tool to conventional approaches, especially during times of crisis.[107]
2021 November 10 Performance GiveDirectly announces having reached 1 million households.[108]
2021 Year round Program Kenya and Rwanda in East Africa become the biggest beneficiaries of GiveDirectly’s cryptocurrency donations in the year, with Malawi expected to be a major recipient in 2022.[109] Kenya, Rwanda

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See also

External links

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 "Financial Statements" (PDF). givedirectly.org. Retrieved 8 March 2019. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Goldstein, Dana (21 December 2012). "Can 4 Economists Build the Most Economically Efficient Charity Ever?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 March 2022. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "GiveDirectly". givewell.org. Retrieved 3 May 2019. 
  4. "Opinions – GiveDirectly". givedirectly11.rssing.com. Retrieved 12 March 2022. 
  5. "GiveDirectly". GiveWell. Retrieved 12 March 2022. 
  6. Teti, Caroline; Odero, John (23 December 2021). "$241,633 was lost to fraud this year — that's about what we expect". GiveDirectly. Retrieved 22 April 2022. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "Funders and Partners". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 9 March 2019. 
  8. "GiveDirectly". Google Trends. Retrieved 23 February 2021. 
  9. "GiveDirectly". books.google.com. Retrieved 23 February 2021. 
  10. "GiveDirectly". wikipediaviews.org. Retrieved 23 February 2021. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 "blog2014". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019. 
  12. "News round-up: Digitizing cash transfers". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019. 
  13. "GiveDirectly launching in Liberia". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 3 May 2019. 
  14. "NIH evaluation grant". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  15. "A charity to watch: GiveDirectly". blog.givewell.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  16. "Give Directly". marginalrevolution.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  17. "Is Cash the Best Way to Help the Poor?". archive.boston.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  18. "A Charity That Just Gives Money To Poor People". npr.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  19. "GiveDirectly: A Charity That Just Gives Money to Poor People, So They're Not So Poor". business.time.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 "2012". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  21. Baird, Sarah; Hoop, Jacobus de; Özler, Berk (31 March 2013). "Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health". Journal of Human Resources. pp. 370–403. doi:10.3368/jhr.48.2.370. Retrieved 12 April 2022. 
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 "GiveDirectly". givewell.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
  23. "Chris Hughes joins the board". givedirectly.org. Retrieved 19 February 2019. 
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