Brownell Village

Note: this campaign page is currently for user-testing purposes only and we are unable to allocate individual donations to Brownell. If you would still like to send cash directly to someone in extreme poverty in Africa,  click the “Give Now” button for our Giving Tuesday campaign.

Lift an entire village from extreme poverty

Brownell village is located in Maryland County, the poorest region in Liberia, where over 80% of people are unable to afford basic needs like food, shelter, nutrition, and education.

Most families in Brownell subsist by farming but often struggle to afford transport to market, and the village lacks a school, health clinic, or shop. Brownell has one well for water, but it often dries up during the dry season, forcing residents to walk to the next village over.

Our goal is to lift everyone in Brownell from extreme poverty by delivering $34 per month for the next 3 years (based on the global extreme poverty line, adjusted for purchasing power parity in Liberia).

We don’t have safe drinking water in this village. The well dries up when there is sun and the water is dirty. There are also no good roads here which cuts us away from other towns. This makes it hard to get work or send children to school. Seeing these things improved will help us so much. – Alphonso, 22 years old

Sometimes, I do not have money because of my childrens’ school fees. When I’ve sold my produce in the market and paid their fees, the money that’s left is not enough to buy food that will last us for long. After two or three days, the food is finished and I have to start stressing about providing for my family all over again. – Noras, 37 years old

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is the leading global non-profit specialized in digital cash transfers. Over the past decade it has raised nearly 1B for the extreme poor and for those affected by disasters. It is top-rated by GiveWell and has consistently ranked among Fast Company’s most innovative companies. It is among the leaders in the global movement towards digital cash transfers, featuring regularly in the New York Times, This American Life, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and the Economist among others.

FAQ

Is my donation tax-deductible? 

Yes, donations are tax-deductible in the United States. GiveDirectly is a registered 501(c)(3), and our U.S. federal EIN is 27-1661997.

How much of my donation does a recipient receive?

Recipients will receive ~$34 a month for 3 years. The exact amount depends on the currency exchange rate between Liberian Dollars and US Dollars. In previous GiveDirectly programs we’ve delivered $0.85 of every dollar directly to recipients. The other costs of delivering transfers are those required to deliver the funds themselves, prevent fraud, and provide responsive service to beneficiaries.

How do I know recipients will spend cash appropriately?

Both here in the United States and internationally, extensive research shows clearly that households living in poverty generally spend transfers responsibly in ways that improve their lives. The stereotypes that recipients waste or misuse cash or become dependent on it do not hold up in the data (Evans and Popova, 2016; Banerjee et al, 2017). More information is available on our evidence page.

What if you raise more or less than the funding target?

The GiveDirectly team will do our best to get your donation to a person living in Brownell Village. If for some reason GiveDirectly can’t grant funds to recipients in the village you recommend, we reserve the right to reallocate funds to other nearby villages (for example, if fewer recipients respond to us than anticipated, if we’ve already paid all the potential recipients in the village, or if we don’t reach the fundraising target for this village). This won’t happen often. No matter what, we’ll ensure your funds end up in the hands of families living in extreme poverty in Liberia.