Each month, Edge Environment chooses a staff member to donate money (on Edge’s behalf) to a charity that aligns with Edge’s values as part if its ‘Make More Good‘ campaign. This June, James Thomas chose Give Directly. Here’s why…
This month, I had the privilege of donating money to an organisation and chose Give Directly, a non-government organisation (NGO) that provides families in Kenya with one year’s income in cash and allows them to spend the money however they wish.
Give Directly uses new mobile technology and an innovative business model to ensure donated money goes directly to those in need. Traditional NGOs are large and complex organisations with high operating costs associated with managing money, fundraising and implementing programs. These costs dilute the donations they receive and allow for little to no transparency in where the money ends up. Give Directly does the opposite and, as the name implies, gives money directly to the poor, eliminating the majority of costs along the way.
Give Directly operates under a simple framework: poor people know what they need to survive and, if given money, can buy what is necessary for their family. This not only allows each receiver to buy what they need most, but empowers them and allows them to use the money to improve the living situation for their family for generations to come. Significant research shows that cash transfers have the strongest evidence base of the many anti-poverty tools; long-term benefits have shown time and time again that the poor do not systematically abuse cash transfers for temptation goods such as alcohol or tobacco.
Some examples of how money has been spent include: a man purchasing a used motorcycle which he now uses as a taxi and charges his neighbors for rides, or another family buying a mill and charging others to use it to grind their corn.
Give Directly uses research, data, science, and innovation to donate money with complete transparency to those who need it most. This operating model is similar to what Edge is trying to do in sustainability: catalyse change through scientific integrity.
Please visit www.givedirectly.org to read more about the organisation and how you can help.