GiveDirectly
Direct Cash Transfers
GiveDirectly improves the wellbeing of people living in poverty and affirms their dignity by sending cash directly to the world’s poorest households and letting them choose for themselves how best to spend it to improve their lives.
What problem is GiveDirectly working on?
Today, 690 million people have to survive on less than $2.15 per day, meaning they cannot afford their most basic needs. Cash gives families living in extreme poverty the agency and capital to meet their individual needs, rather than guessing for them. According to GiveDirectly, 500+ academic studies find that people in poverty use cash transfers to improve their health, education, income, self-reliance, and more. And there is also some evidence that these results are sustained years into the future. (See GiveDirectly's research page for an overview of some of the key studies on cash transfers.)
Yet, people living in extreme poverty rarely get to decide how aid money intended to help them gets spent. Cash transfers – which does provide this agency – make up a very small proportion of aid and charitable giving.
What does GiveDirectly do?
Since 2009, GiveDirectly has given more than $800 million in direct cash transfers to more than 1.6 million people living in poverty. Research from GiveDirectly and others shows recipients spend the money on essentials like medicine, farm animals, school fees, clean water, solar lights, tin roofs, irrigation, and more.
GiveDirectly:
- Runs several different cash transfer programmes, including their flagship cash for poverty relief programme for families in extreme poverty in rural Africa, along with more bespoke cash programs like emergency relief for survivors of international crises, basic income, targeted transfers for refugees, and cash for climate survival and resilience
- Their standard operating model includes identifying and targeting villages where most residents make less than $2.15 per day, then delivering cash transfers via SMS-based mobile money that allow households to spend funds digitally or cash-out from local mobile money agents and spend it however they wish.
- Provides call centre support, verification audits, and investigates, reports, and safeguards against fraud.
In addition, GiveDirectly measures its impact through rigorous research, conducts pilot programmes and randomized controlled trials, and reports on the evidence base for cash transfer programmes. Current GiveDirectly studies include:
- A Universal Basic Income (UBI) study in Kenya – this study compares the impact of three cash transfer models: a large one-time lump sum, a short-term UBI (two years), and a long-term UBI (12 years). Two-year results show that both the lump sum and long-term UBI led to significant economic gains, with recipients saving more, investing in businesses, and improving their overall well-being. This study is ongoing and upcoming surveys will explore longer-term effects.
- Ongoing research by Egger et al. on cash transfers provided to Kenyans in 2015 – preliminary findings show that recipients were still spending 12% more than a control group 5-7 years after receiving a one-time payment. Future surveys, expected in 2026, will further explore the long-term impacts of cash transfers on recipients and their communities.
- A follow up from the same study found a 46% reduction in child mortality rates for children under five, highlighting the transformative potential of cash transfers on public health.
- An ongoing study examining the effect of large cash payments to urban refugees in Nairobi – this study found that recipients experienced substantial improvements, including nearly doubling their income, increasing their savings by 57%, and expanding business ventures within six months. The study is now in its second phase, which will focus on evaluating long-term impacts over two years, with plans to compare outcomes between different support models. Some groups will receive cash only, while others will be offered additional support, such as job skills training or mentorship. This phase aims to uncover insights into how cash transfers can best promote economic independence and social integration for refugees.
What information does Giving What We Can have about the cost-effectiveness of GiveDirectly?1.
- GiveDirectly was previously a GiveWell top charity from 2012 to 2022. GiveWell’s decision to no longer recommend GiveDirectly was not based on any shift in thinking about GiveDirectly, but rather a change in GiveWell’s top charity criteria. After updating their criteria, GiveWell still stated, “GiveDirectly is one of the strongest programs that we’ve found in years of research and we continue to have a very high view of their work.”
- In 2024, GiveWell re-evaluated the cost-effectiveness of GiveDirectly’s Cash for Poverty Relief program and concluded that it is 3-4 times more cost-effective than they had previously thought. The update was driven by new estimates of direct cash’s positive impact on local economies, consumption, and child mortality. GiveWell still uses cash transfers as a. benchmark, which means they estimate their top charities to be at least 2x more cost-effective than GiveDirectly's Cash for Poverty Relief program. For more details, see:
- GiveDirectly has received grants from Open Philanthropy
Additionally, donors may have good reasons for choosing GiveDirectly over (or in addition to) GiveWell’s top charities – including that cash transfer recipients have greater agency than recipients of the public health programs implemented by GiveWell’s top charities. (Cash transfer recipients can use the funds however they wish.)
At Giving What We Can, we focus on the effectiveness of an organisation's work -- what the organisation is actually doing and whether their programs are making a big difference. Some others in the charity recommendation space focus instead on the ratio of admin costs to program spending, part of what we’ve termed the “overhead myth.” See why overhead isn’t the full story and learn more about our approach to charity evaluation.