Five Sticky Myths of Cash Transfers

When you do want to do something differently, the first hurdle is not the work itself – it’s fighting the classic adage: “But we have always done things this way”.

Cash transfers sit slightly off the path of traditional development aid, which has spent decades training donors, governments, and the public to believe that help counts most when it comes with conditions, training, supervision, best done with a clipboard. We feel this every time we fundraise. Plenty of people are not yet ready to fully trust someone in poverty with money with no strings attached.

The assumptions keep echoing: Poor people will waste it. They will stop working. A wave of cash will collapse local markets. Support is something you earn by putting on a performance for the donor.

None of this holds up to the evidence gathered over the last few decades. But evidence rarely beats conviction at first. Myths are sticky – precisely because they feel like common sense.

The fight against these myths started long before us and is far from over. GiveDirectly, one of the pioneers in the field, has been at this for years. Their list of five myths is the starting point for this series: 

• Sticky Myth #1: They'll just spend it on booze

• Sticky Myth #2: Free money makes people lazy (coming soon)

• Sticky Myth #3: Microloans are smarter (coming soon)

• Sticky Myth #4: Cash should come with strings (coming soon)

• Sticky Myth #5: It'll only inflate all prices (coming soon)