Leveraging Technology to Power Historic Guaranteed Income Pilot in Georgia

Colorado social impact startup AidKit partners with GiveDirectly and Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund to power application for In Her Hands Guaranteed Income Pilot

AidKit is proud to announce a powerful new partnership with GiveDirectly and the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity (GRO) Fund to support In Her Hands, the largest long-term guaranteed income program focused on Black women and centering their voices in program design.

The program will provide unconditional cash transfers averaging $850 per month for 2 years to 650 Black women living near the poverty line in Georgia, serving areas with some of the largest racial wealth gaps in the U.S. A subset of recipients will also receive a lump-sum payment in addition to recurring transfers.

Ensuring that funds reach the target population will be a critical success factor for this historic program. In Her Hands seeks to help Black women who face more economic insecurity as a result of systemic barriers like pay inequality and fewer economic buffers than nearly any other demographic in Georgia. Eligible applicants must be 18 years of age or older, identify as a woman, live within the program’s defined geographic area, and live at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. AidKit’s platform will leverage advanced technology to ensure that the guaranteed income payments are reaching the target population.

“There’s been an amazing resurgence of direct cash and basic income pilots in the US since the pandemic. Sadly: these funds can get mired in complicated operational hurdles and fail to reach their intended recipients. We built AidKit from the ground up to deliver assistance at scale using modern, configurable technology that respects the dignity of the populations we serve.” - Ben Newhouse, Co-Founder, CTO of AidKit and former head of Sync at Dropbox.

The application for In Her Hands features a simple and accessible questionnaire that is designed to be completed quickly and easily. AidKit integrates automations and leverages technology to make eligibility determinations and reduce the burden of proof required for applicants. The application is multilingual and it can be completed on any device.

“GiveDirectly has been the leader in the direct cash movement internationally and we are thrilled to be working with their team to power In Her Hands. We founded AidKit to accelerate programs designed to put cash in the hands of the people who need it most, and this partnership is a great example of that.” - Katrina Van Gasse, Co-Founder, CEO of AidKit, and former Fulbright Scholar.

AidKit grew out of a pandemic relief program that delivered millions in direct aid to workers without documentation in Colorado. The founding team built AidKit designed a series of features and automations to accelerate impact and efficiency for Colorado’s Left Behind Workers Fund and soon began receiving inquiries from other organizations looking to overcome the many challenges programs face when trying to deliver cash assistance. In 2021, AidKit launched to enable emerging direct cash and guaranteed income programs at scale. To date, AidKit has partnered with more than 60 community based organizations and 7 governments within the U.S. to deliver $30 million in direct cash grants.

For more information, or to donate, visit https://www.thegrofund.org/ihh-application. 

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About The Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund

The Georgia Resilience & Opportunity (GRO) Fund is exploring bold solutions to racial justice — and engaging community members and policy decision makers to do it.

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the world’s poorest, no strings attached. In the last decade, GiveDirectly has delivered $550M+ to over 1.2 million people across eleven countries. We currently have operations in DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Morocco, Rwanda, Uganda, USA, & Yemen.

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