No Strings Attached with GiveDirectly
No Strings Attached with GiveDirectly pulls back the curtain on the conversations shaping our work and why we believe in giving people money, no strings attached. Each episode pairs evidence with lived experience, giving you an unfiltered look at how we think about impact, program design, the people we serve, and everything in between.
Episodes
In February, Susan and Michael Dell made headlines for donating $6.25 billion to a new federal initiative creating savings accounts for children, known as Trump Accounts. It’s one of the largest charitable gifts in U.S. history and a rare example of private funding backing a public cash policy.
But will they work? And how do they compare to baby bonuses—cash given directly to parents when a child is born?
In this episode of No String...
In August, The New York Times ran the headline: A New Way to Reduce Child Deaths: Cash. The story covered new research from a large randomized study of GiveDirectly’s cash transfer program in Kenya, finding that giving money to families, no strings attached, led to a 48% drop in child deaths.
In this episode of No Strings Attached, host Tyler G. Hall speaks with Caitlin Tulloch (Head of Research) and Caroline Teti (Head of Human-Cen...
GiveDirectly’s Leith Baker and Camille Raguin take you behind the scenes of our rapid response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. They share what worked, what didn’t, and how lessons from this response can help us act faster and better in future crises, across all our programs.
You’ll also hear stories from recipients like Desilee and Ivorie, who used their funds to recover on their own terms. See more at givedirectly.org/jamaica.
Oxford Professor Dr. Dennis Egger presents economic "slack" as the reason that a large influx of cash in a rural Kenyan economy didn't cause inflation. The idea is that before cash arrived, many businesses were operating at only about 60% of their potential output (e.g., a grain miller who only runs his machine half the day because he has few customers). When cash led to more customers, they could easily grow by staying open longer...
World Bank economist Ugo Gentilini shares more about the long history of giving people money, no-strings attached, previewing his new book, Timely Cash: Lessons from 2500 Years of Giving People Money.
This was originally an internal discussion held with GiveDirectly, recorded on October 24, 2025.
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