Foreign Exchanges and GiveDirectly
Our Giving Tuesday campaign!
Today is Giving Tuesday, and I’m very pleased this year to be a part of a Substack-wide campaign to raise money for GiveDirectly. For those of you who aren’t familiar with
, they take a fairly simple and proven approach to charity: give people cash and let them provide for their own needs. They’ve got a 4-star, 97% rating with Charity Navigator, which means they’re considered highly effective and accountable to their donors and to the communities they serve.This year, the folks at GiveDirectly are hoping to raise $1 million across this site. If they reach their goal they’ll be able to send $1100 to each of more than 800 families in three villages in Rwanda’s Bikara region. That may not seem like all that much money, but for these people, who live on $1 to $2 per day and struggle for basic necessities like clean water, it can be life-changing. Here’s a breakdown of what that money could buy via GiveDirectly’s local staff:
There’s been so much research into the efficacy of direct cash transfers that I don’t think I need to sell you too hard on this, but if you’re skeptical please give some of these studies a look.
Now to get to the point: there are two ways the Foreign Exchanges community can help GiveDirectly reach its fundraising goal this year. First and foremost, anyone can go to this link and donate to the effort, and they’ll know you got there via FX. As you’ll see at the link they’re offering a 1.5x match while funds last so the sooner you can contribute the more effective it will be:
Second, for those who are not already FX subscribers I’ve got a special offer for you: if you sign up for an annual subscription at this link you can save 20% on your first year and I’ll donate 50% of your subscription payment to GiveDirectly! You have to use a specific link to subscribe so that I can track the donations, so please be sure to click up there or hit this button:
(Donations to GiveDirectly are tax deductible while subscriptions to FX are, sadly, not. I just wanted to be clear about that.)
If you have any questions please feel free to email me. Thanks for reading and for donating, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!