Michael Faye & Olu Babalola | GiveDirectly | Talks at Google
58Michael Faye & Olu Babalola discuss GiveDirectly and how they used machine learning and partnerships to disrupt their own model and deliver cash to 650k+ recipients amidst the pandemic.
GiveDirectly is the first and largest nonprofit organization delivering unconditional cash transfers to the world’s poorest. Direct cash assistance provides the dignity of choice to recipients, empowering them to define their own needs. Since 2009, GiveDirectly has mobilized over $600M to be delivered to people living in poverty. Google.org was their first major corporate funder and to-date has supported with over $37M in donations on behalf of the company ($14M from Googlers, $7.9 from Gift Match) and a full-time Google.org Fellowship. They have been consistently recognized as one of the most cost-effective nonprofits in the world by charity evaluator GiveWell. In 2020 alone, Google.org, Google employees (including CEO Sundar Pichai), additional foundations, and the public came together to raise over $180 million for GiveDirectly’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Throughout 2020, GiveDirectly leveraged new mobile tech across Sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S. to deploy breakthrough, fully remote models of humanitarian relief in response to COVID-19. GiveDirectly also recently published research focused on how cash transfers help build assets, increase savings, and income.
Michael Faye is the co-founder and President of GiveDirectly. He is concurrently the CEO and co-founder of Taptap Send, a direct-to-consumer remittance platform focused on emerging markets, and served as the CEO of Segovia Technology, which he also co-founded, until its acquisition in 2018. Michael’s work on international development has been published in the American Economic Review, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Foreign Affairs and he’s spoken extensively on development and philanthropy. In 2020, he joined the World Economic Forum’s community of Young Global Leaders. In addition, Michael is a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations and was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 leading Global Thinkers in 2013. He holds a PPh.D.h.D in Economics from Harvard, where he also studied Math and Classics.
Olu Babalola currently serves as GiveDirectly’s Chief Operating Officer and leads operations across 10 countries to deliver cash to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people efficiently. In her role, Olu owns innovating on GiveDirectly’s targeting and payment models while ensuring that recipients' interests drive decision making top-to-bottom. Before coming to GiveDirectly, Olu led operations for Bridge International Academies. She set up Bridge’s first schools in Nigeria and launched flagship government partnerships managing over 1,200 government primary schools across two states. Prior to that, she worked in Strategy & Operations at Deloitte as a management consultant. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Art from Smith College, and an MBA from UCLA.
To learn more about GiveDirectly, please visit: https://www.givedirectly.org/.
Moderated by Jacquelline Fuller, President of Google.org.
#GiveDirectly #MichaelFaye #OluBabalola #NGO