A new Massachusetts-based non-profit, called GiveDirectly, transfers donations to poor Kenyans with no conditions attached whatsoever. According to GiveDirectly, their model of giving is based on a simple, four step process: “1. You donate through our webpage. 2. We locate poor households in Kenya. 3. We transfer your donation electronically to a recipient’s cell phone. 4. The recipient uses the transfer to pursue his or her own goals.” No conditions or restrictions are imposed on the recipient. The nonprofit was founded in 2008 by four people who were then graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Paul Niehaus, Michael Faye, Rohit Wanchoo, and Jeremy Shapiro. GiveDriectly went public in 2012, and it has recently received a grant to expand beyond Kenya.
According to a recent story in the Atlantic Monthly, initial results of the transfers appear extremely positive. Although the popular stereotype of the poor is that they will spend money they receive on vices such as alcohol and prostitution, “recipients are spending their payments mostly on food and home improvements that can vastly improve quality of life, such as installing a weatherproof tin roof. Some families have invested in profit-bearing businesses, such as chicken-rearing, agriculture, or the vending of clothes, shoes, or charcoal.”
Although the GiveDirectly website makes no mention of basic income, the organizers are inspired by, “a wealth of evidence on the positive impacts of cash transfers,” and their values are similar to those usually behind support of basic income. For example, their website compares their values to what they call “industry standard” values (i.e. values of most charities working in Africa; under the value of “respect,” the website reads, “Industry standard: Empower experts to decide what is best for the poor based on an assessment of needs or on personal ideology. Our standard: Empower the poor to set their own priorities.”
GiveDirectly’s website is online at:
https://www.givedirectly.org/
The two following news stories have additional info on GiveDirectly:
Goldstein, Dana, “Can 4 Economists Build the Most Economically Efficient Charity Ever?” the Atlantic Monthly, Dec 21 2012, 9:51 AM ET 4
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/can-4-economists-build-the-most-economically-efficient-charity-ever/266510/
Yglesias, Matthew, “Fighting Poverty By Giving Poor People Money” Slate Magazine, Dec. 25, 2012, writes, “I’ve come to think that directly transfering [sic] cash money to people in need is the most underrated tool around for fighting poverty.”
https://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/12/25/give_directly_the_new_charity_that_fights_money_by_giving_poor_people_money.html
