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home >> charity search >> givedirectly uk
Finance Score: 5
Governance Score: -10
Support Score: 9
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • Only 3 Trustees: -2
  • Very static board: -5
  • All male board: -3
  • Endorsed
  • Overall weighted support: +9
Overall GiG Score: 4 ?

GIVEDIRECTLY UK

Overview

GiveDirectly helps families living in extreme poverty by making unconditional cash transfers to them via mobile phones. These families are primarily based in the African countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda and rigorous impact assessment has confirmed that this type of intervention produces positive results. More than $300m has been donated in the past decade.

GiveDirectly was founded by a collective of students researching philanthropy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

The UK charity employs no staff and remits all donations to the US operation which historically has used them for donations to Africa.

Source: Giving is Great

Mission:

Aiding people living in poverty through unconditional cash transfers
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • This charity is endorsed by respected charity impact evaluators
  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • There have been no material income shortfalls in recent years
  • Fundraising costs are unusually low relative to funds raised

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • Why are there only 3 trustees?
  • Why is the Board completely male?
  • Why is the Board composition very static?

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k		 Spending
£k		 Surplus/
Deficit £k		 Fundraising
Cost £k		 Total
Funds £k		 Unrestricted
Funds £k		 Mths
Rsrvs		 Staff Volun-
teers
31/12/23£3,688£3,446£243£50£1,165£1,1654.100
31/12/22£2,634£2,456£178£31£923£9234.500
31/12/21£2,953£2,739£214£24£744£7443.300
31/12/20£2,078£2,176£-98£21£530£5302.900
31/12/19£2,486£2,063£423£10£629£5903.400
31/12/18£873£810£63£10£206£2063.100
31/12/17£514£393£121£9£143£1434.400
31/12/16£56£33£23n/an/an/an/an/an/a
Show more rows -->

Download accounts
Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 1.4%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 1.4%
Highest pay band: Less than £60,000
Liabilities/Assets: 0%
Liabilities/Income: 0%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 100%
Reserves/Spending: 4.1 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 4 months
Quick Ratio: 211.8
Asset Split ?
Balance Sheet History
Comment: GiveDirectly UK was founded to help UK taxpayers make donations to GiveDirectly US, either through payroll giving or enabling them to easily claim gift aid on individual donations. Before GiveDirectly UK existed, as an individual UK citizen, it was often difficult to make small donations to GiveDirectly US without a significant overhead. The total grants made by GiveDirectly UK have grown substantially higher since their founding due to substantially increased income from donations, and this trend is expected to continue moving forward.

Source: Giving is Great

Established: 8 years

http://www.givedirectly.org

uk@givedirectly.org

00000000000

Charity Commission for England and WalesFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
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How you can help
What it does
Givedirectly UK gives financial aid to households in developing countries via mobile phone-linked payment services. It targets extremely low-income households and people affected by humanitarian crises with the aim of relieve poverty by allowing beneficiaries to choose where they invest their grant.
Listed activities
  • The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
GiG Classification
  • International poverty relief
How it operates
  • Makes grants to individuals
  • Makes grants to organisations
Where it operates
  • Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda,
Who it helps
  • Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
  • The General Public/Mankind

Who supports them? ?

Endorsed by:
  • The Life You Can Save
  • Giving What We Can

How do they operate?

GiveDirectly UK Cash Transfers Programme

Objectives: To relieve poverty by providing financial assistance directly to the extremely poor and allowing them to choose where they invest

Beneficiaries: Those living in African countries that are extremely poor

Location: Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda

Description: GiveDirectly is a recognised leader in the use of modern technology to transfer funds directly to the extreme poor, and in the use of rigourous scientific methods to document its impact. The charity collects donations and makes grants to direct financial assistance to programs in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda that are implemented on the ground by its partner GiveDirectly, Inc (a US non-profit organisation). In their 'one-time lump sum' projects, poor households living in rural areas are enrolled to receive $1,000 each, receiving their unconditional payments within the following nine months or so. The charity also makes smaller grants to 'cash for refugees' projects in Uganda and Rwanda. These projects deliver large cash grants to needy people living in refugee settlements and surrounding areas as well as providing test data on the effectiveness of these newer

....more
Comment: Due to the onset of COVID-19, GiveDirectly have initiated a fund to increase aid to those struggling to get by in the African countries impacted by the virus; Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Togo.

Source: Giving is Great

How effective are they?
Outputs
Outcomes
Y/EGrants to 'one-time lump sum' cash transfer projects in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda)Grants to 'cash for refugees' projects in Uganda and Rwanda
31/12/2020£890,000£38,188££
Y/EGrants to ‘emergency cash relief for COVID-19’ projects in East Africa (Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda)
31/12/2020£1,221,358
Commentary: The charity expect that for every £1 granted to their US counterpart, £0.85 ends up directly in the hands of the beneficiaries as cash with the remainder used for transactional and other operational costs including the selection process. A number of Randomised Control Trials have been undertaken to confirm impact both in terms of increased income generation and improved mental well-being.
See what you could achieve with a donation of: £
How do we calculate this?

How is it governed?

Trustees (3)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Commentary:Governance comments relate to the UK branch of the charity only.
  • JOSHUA FREEDMAN (Chair) Appointed: 2014 Occupation: Senior Software Engineer at Slack
Joshua is a Co-founder of GiveDirectly UK
  • PAUL NIEHAUS Appointed: 2014 Occupation: Associate Professor at University of California San Diego
Paul is Co-founder of GiveDirectly. He is also a co-founder of Segovia, which builds enterprise technology for the management of social programming in the emerging markets. He holds an academic appointment in the Department of Economics at UC San Diego, where he works with governments in India to improve the implementation of social programming.....more
  • ROBIN LINACRE Appointed: 2014 Occupation: Data Scientist
Robin is a Product Manager and Data Scientist. In the past few years he has worked in different government departments to expand the use of data science techniques and enable them to be used by more analysts.
Legal constitution
  • Charity registered in England & Wales on 29/06/2016, number: 1167938
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Complaints handling
  • Financial reserves policy and procedures
  • Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
  • Risk management
  • Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
  • Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
  • Trustee expenses policy and procedures
Filing Record
8 returns made; all on time
Recent reorganisation events:
  • Asset transfer in from WOOD GREEN MENNONITE CHURCH TRUST on 29/03/2022
Main office

9 Love Lane
KINGS LANGLEY
WD4 9HW

Objectives

THE OBJECT OF THE CHARITY (THE OBJECT) IS THE PREVENTION OR RELIEF OF POVERTY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD BY PROVIDING: GRANTS, ITEMS AND SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS IN NEED AND/OR CHARITIES OR OTHER ORGANISATIONS WORKING TO PREVENT OR RELIEVE POVERTY.

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales

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