Recipients – 91̽��

“The robots work at night”: How AI helps the world’s poorest, and where it falls short

Mary Blair — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:04:51 +0000

91̽�� is built on the core belief that people living in poverty know what they need better than anyone else. That belief is part of what led our team to test an unrestricted AI chatbot – with funding from Imara Fund, a foundation co-founded by Reed Hastings and Constance Jones – alongside cash transfers in Rwanda. This represents a different approach from the restricted AI tools many other…

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MrBeast gives $200,000 directly to people in poverty

Tyler Hall — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 12:13:45 +0000

Beast Philanthropy is a nonprofit YouTube channel that funds and films charitable acts, putting the ad revenue from their popular videos towards their next projects. They feature MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson, the most watched person on Earth with over 600 million followers across his social media platforms. In April, 91̽��’s Uganda team hosted Beast Philanthropy to document our direct…

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For refugees in cities, large cash transfers support self-reliance

Rachel Waddell — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:45:00 +0000

For families fleeing conflict or crisis, the world is short on solutions. In the past decade, relief organizations have been forced to make steep cuts to rations provided due to budget constraints, while wealthy countries have welcomed fewer than 1% of refugees. For the 33M refugees unable to return home, building a new life in their host country can be nearly impossible.

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Evidence on how cash transfers empower women in poverty

Caroline Teti — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 08:17:00 +0000

Donations to 91̽�� put power in the hands of recipients, 62% of whom are women.1 On International Women’s Day, hear directly from women and girls in poverty in Malawi about the unique ways that direct cash empowers them: This impact is more than anecdotal; research finds that cash aid lets women improve their lives in many ways. Below, we break down the evidence by story.

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Inflation is worst for people in extreme poverty

91̽�� — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:03:53 +0000

You’ve likely been impacted by the cost of living crisis: U.S. gas prices spiked this summer and energy prices are still at all-time highs across Europe. While overall inflation in high-income countries is at 6%, in low-income countries it’s at 9%. Consumers in wealthy countries can often switch from higher-quality goods to lower-quality ones, an option not possible for recipients like Josphat.

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We asked people in poverty how they prefer to receive money

Miriam Laker-Oketta — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 01:51:59 +0000

February 2023 update A newly published academic paper examining the preferences of low-income households in Kenya over the structure of 91̽�� unconditional cash transfers found: In the past two years, 182 countries launched cash aid programs, recognizing the autonomy they provide people in poverty to make decisions for themselves. In many cases, however…

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We gave single-use cameras to 4 villages — see what they captured

Tyler Hall — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:41:11 +0000

Last month, we distributed Fujifilm QuickSnaps to select recipients in Kenya, Rwanda, and Liberia and asked them to document their village as they received cash transfers. Over the course of November, these photographers captured their neighbors’ stories and projects. Our team returned at the end of the month to collect the cameras, the details, and consent forms from the subjects.

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We’ve reached 1 million households in poverty and counting

91̽�� — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 14:45:21 +0000

We sent a cash transfer to our 1 millionth household this fall. In 2011, our first year operating, we paid… 99. See the growth in real time: Below is 91̽��’s co-founder Rohit Wanchoo making our very first test payment ever. Before we were instantly enrolling and paying tens of thousands people at a time in Togo, we took a more manual approach. In 2020…

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The story of Eunice and 144 more in the Kibera program

Tyler Hall — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 14:38:14 +0000

Eunice lives in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya and was one of 494 people who received ~$1,125 between November 2020 and June 2021 as part of a 91̽�� COVID-19 relief program focused on entrepreneurs. This program, funded by Google.org, provided women with cash transfers plus elective budgeting and entrepreneurial training from SHOFCO, a local NGO. This “cash plus” design aimed to…

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Working in the U.S. helped us get more money to international recipients

Anna Cerf — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 19:24:41 +0000

In April 2020, we launched Project 100, a U.S. COVID-19 response, in partnership with Propel and Stand for Children. To date, the program has delivered one-time $1,000 payments to over 178K Americans living in poverty, with the most recent round going out last week. For the past decade, our core mission has been to reach people living in extreme poverty. While many millions in the United…

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