Two years ago, Shoniqua Kemp was unemployed, homeless and living in a broken car with her 12-year-old daughter. It would have been easy to give in to despair, but Shoniqua had a conversation that would change the trajectory of her life. A friend told her about a nonprofit that was empowering people like her to escape poverty. Shoniqua was skeptical; it didn’t sound like the other assistance programs she knew. Nonetheless, she decided to attend the next meeting of the Family Independence Initiative (FII). She wanted a better life for her daughter.

FII was founded in 2001 on the belief that low-income families can decide for themselves the best solutions to improve their lives, especially when guided by their own data. We believe in this approach, too, which is why Google.org is continuing our commitment to FII with over $2 million in new grants, and a team of full-time Google engineers who are lending their technical expertise.

The fundamental components of FII’s approach are monthly group meetings and detailed journaling. For two years, each family keeps track of their goals, financial information and what academics would call “social capital exchange,” which are behaviors like helping one another with childcare or letting a neighbor borrow a car for a job interview. Families share this information on FII’s web platform called Uptogether.

Each family sets its own economic and social mobility goals, which might be buying a home or continuing a child’s education. By filling out journals, attending group meetings to share solutions, and receiving a $100/month stipend for doing both, they create a virtuous circle, reinforcing the habits of success. Over the two year life that families participate, they can earn up to $3,200.

“I already had a circle of friends and, growing up, I kept a diary,” Shoniqua told us. “I wasn’t sure how the program was going to help.” But then she started getting the FII reports, which turned her monthly data into graphic charts, visual proof of progress. “There, in black and white, I could see all the positive things I was doing. It changed how I saw myself.”

In 2015, we helped FII in California expand from 100 to 1,000 families. After two years, the families increased their income by 22 percent, their savings quadrupled and they decreased their reliance on government subsidies, such as food stamps, by 55 percent.

We want to keep the momentum going. Last week, we announced a $2 million grant to bring FII to Chicago, and today, along with the St. David’s Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Harold Simmons Family Foundation, we’re helping expand FII to Austin, with a total commitment of $1.3 million.  

In addition, for six months full-time, a group of six Googlers will build a tool that uses natural language processing to analyze the journal entries uploaded on UpTogether, looking for trends or patterns. With this new information, FII will gain a much deeper understanding of what leads to family success.

Today, Shoniqua is no longer homeless, her income has quadrupled, and she was able to repair her car. But something else gives her the most pride. Last year, a middle-class woman told Shoniqua how she paid for college with a savings bond her parents had given her as a child. Shoniqua didn’t know savings bonds still existed. “It’s hard to talk about this without getting emotional,” she said, her voice catching. “But this year, I set aside enough money to buy a $200 savings bond in my daughter’s name.” She paused a moment, and then smiled. “My daughter is going to have generational wealth, just like that woman got from her parents.”

Shoniqua is living proof that FII's approach can not only help families escape poverty, but thrive in a new life that they create for themselves. We're grateful to be part of a community of funders helping FII to reach 2,000 more families.

In 2004, our founders wrote that we were not a conventional company and never intended to become one. In that same letter, they set a vision for philanthropy that would contribute significant resources and Googler time to help solve the largest of the world's problems. Out of that tall order, we created Google.org. With other teams at Google, we’ve donated over $1.5 billion since 2005. Also, over the past four years, our Googlers have logged more than 1 million volunteer hours.

Since then we've had the privilege to partner with hundreds of organizations and nonprofit leaders from nearly every corner of the globe. When choosing our grantees, we look for new thinking on how to tackle all sorts of challenges—like closing global education gaps, using data science to improve criminal justice and supporting communities when disaster strikes.Importantly, we also look for organizations that are testing their effectiveness and sharing results transparently with the broader sector to increase understanding of what works.

As we celebrate Google’s 20th year anniversary this month, we’re recognizing the accomplishments of one of those organizations, where the impact of an investment that we made years ago is just coming to fruition.

In 2012, I met GiveDirectly co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, who had a thought-provoking idea: what if it’s more effective to give money directly to individuals instead of through philanthropic programming? Enabling beneficiaries to have more of a voice in how to spend aid is not only more empowering, Faye and Niehaus thought, it can be more efficient.

The question sparked the beginning of a multi-year partnership. Since 2012, Google.org has provided $6 million to support unconditional direct cash transfers that benefit people in need and to research the impact of GiveDirectly’s approach. We’ve also had Googler volunteers provide services from engineering help to serving on their board of directors. In 2014, we joined USAID in funding GiveDirectly to study two methods to reduce malnutrition in Rwanda: providing cash directly to people who can choose how to spend it or using the same amount of funding on programs pertaining to water, sanitation, and hygiene and nutrition.

Last week, researchers released the findings. This study found that large cash transfers (~$530 per household) had a meaningful and significant effect on reducing malnutrition while small cash transfers or the tailored programming did not. With more cash, families could expand their children’s nutritional intake, improve the quality of their homes and pay down debt.

This research highlights the importance of evaluating different approaches to solving big problems: weighing the monetary value of cash transfers against the cost of developing other programs to tackle the issue. This evaluation framework is now being used by USAID in several studies. Along with GiveDirectly’s leadership, we hope that these types of studies will help other organizations identify the most effective ways of creating a better world, faster.

We admire GiveDirectly’s willingness to put forward big ideas and work with us to expand our understanding of how we can use capital and technology to support great leaders to improve social outcomes.

MolenGeek is a digital social project based in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels that has unfortunately been in headlines for negative reasons. Google.org supports nonprofits that seek inventive ways to address some of the world’s toughest problems. Earlier this week, the two organizations came together at MolenGeek’s Brussels HQ to celebrate a Google.org grant providing $250,000—over EUR 200,000—to MolenGeek to expand their inspirational work.

Molenbeek has had a high profile in the international media over the past year, becoming known for radicalization as terror attacks swept Europe. MolenGeek is a part of changing that narrative, a symbol of hope in an area that faces many challenges.

MolenGeek started in 2015 as a Coding School for anyone and everyone to learn digital skills, and to foster inclusion, integration into society and community development. It’s grown to become a co-working space where young people from very diverse backgrounds work, network and share their experiences. It’s already helped 177 young entrepreneurs start their own business or find a job using their newfound skills. In fact, every MolenGeek academy student to date has either created a startup or found a job as a digital worker—a success rate of 100 percent.

“No matter what your background is, everyone should have the chance to strengthen their skills,” Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation, Digital Agenda, Telecom and Postal Services said at the event this week. “MolenGeek is a good example of how we can offer young people a positive perspective in a world that is becoming faster and more digital.”

The new contribution from Google.org will expand the Coding School with more classrooms, teachers and brighter futures. Alongside the grant, Google volunteers will spend time with MolenGeek administrators to help them develop tutorials in French, Dutch and English for a new comprehensive curriculum for digital skills. Besides Google, the Belgian Federal Government and Digital Belgium were early supporters, and Samsung is another vital investor.

The incubator for 25 startups since 2015, what has been crucial for MolenGeek’s success that it’s a local initiative. MolenGeek’s co-founder Ibrahim Ouassari is the son of Moroccan immigrants and a Molenbeekois. “MolenGeek’s primary mission is to make technology, entrepreneurship and innovation accessible to everyone, regardless of their academic and religious background,” he said. “We are grateful that we can once again count on Google to lend their support and knowledge to the many potential entrepreneurs who will find aid and guidance in our project.”

MolenGeek has generated positive attention for its work to provide alternative options for young people who might otherwise feel left out of opportunities in society. In addition to its regular Coding School, MolenGeek was also a participant in another Google project, "Tackling violent radicalization together,” which included a YouTube Creators for Change workshop on the theme of “fraternity” and a Google Campus visit for 12 MolenGeekers as part of a governmental mission to the USA.

It’s vital that this work goes further. While the focus so far has been on helping young adults, in the next few months children between seven and 12 will be able to attend MolenGeek’s digital workshops, while those aged 12 to 18 can join the Supercoders program to learn more about coding.

This expansion of digital workshops will reach between 200 and 250 young people in Brussels, every year. And it could have a powerful multiplier effect: many of them will use what they learn to find a job or create their own startups. This in turn will create opportunities for others that are finding chances for their personal and professional development hard to come by, building networks for success.

“Google believes that getting young talent involved in rewarding projects, such as MolenGeek, is important to deliver more opportunities for everyone,” says Lie Junius, Google’s Director of EU Public Policy and Government Relations, who grew up in Molenbeek herself. “Digitization offers phenomenal pathways for everyone in Belgium, its businesses and citizens.”

We’re looking forward to seeing MolenGeek continue their important work.