Give Cash

The theory behind GiveDirectly.org is that people are best placed to make their own decisions. As Rutger Bregman puts it, “Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it is a lack of cash”. Unconditional Cash Transfers don’t have any criteria about who receives the money, or how it is spent. Cash gives people autonomy over their own lives. All business ideas start with identifying and articulating the problems of people with money, in a way the people with money recognise. Non-Monetary programs tend to impose the views of people with money, on what problems people without money have. The addition of a layer of bureaucracy (people who aren’t in poverty receiving salaries) and costs (of means testing and delivery) means lots of the money allocated to those struggling gets lost in translation. There is an ego cost of giving cash. It means you don’t get to use your wisdom and insight to solve the problems of others. It means you trust that they understand their worlds better than you do.