Directly transferring money to poor individuals allows them to purchase that which they believe will help them most. Strong evidence indicates that cash transfers lead recipients to spend more on their basic needs (such as food) and may allow recipients to make investments with high returns, with evidence showing no impact, or a negative impact, of transfers on alcohol or tobacco expenditure. We believe that GiveDirectly effectively distributes cash to extremely low-income individuals.

For information on the effectiveness of GiveDirectly's cash tranfer program, see here:
https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/cash-transfers

For more information about the GiveDirectly, the partner charity that implements this program (among other programs), please refer to their website:
https://www.givedirectly.org