64334Getting money directly into the hands of those who need itClosedResponsive Strategy and PlanningInnovate UKThe rise in poverty due to the coronavirus have left a lot of people concerned about how they will put food on the table. The short term damage to the economy also puts into question the future stability of many jobs. We need a way to get money directly into the hands of those who need it. We believe that corporates have immense potential to help in this crisis situation. With ESTHER a corporate donor and their staff can donate money directly to someone within their own community. The recipient receives their donation on a pre-paid Mastercard that limits spend on things like alcohol, gambling, cash withdrawals, to ensure the donation is spent on something helpful. We identify and verify recipients through trusted charity partners. A corporate donor will receive regular updates through an impact dashboard, that will let them know the impact they are making on their community, including anonymised bios and updates on recipients, as well as key figures, such as number of engaged staff. This will help with staff engagement, and will be easily shareable. We will focus specifically on recipients who have visited food banks in the past month, as well as homeless people, who are particularly vulnerable given they no longer have people passing to give them donations in the street. Our key objectives are to raise £500,000 from corporates and distribute the funds amongst 500 UK families, topping up their card on a weekly basis, to provide them with enough money for their weekly food shop over the next 6 months. This will not only reduce food insecurity, domestic abuse and improve mental health and parenting for the recipients, but behavioural research shows that taking away the immediate concern of how to put food on the table, it takes recipients out of the crisis mindset and enables long term thinking. This will mean that recipients can refocus on getting back into work or even re-skilling. This is an extremely direct, effective and transparent way of donating, which also provides recipients with the dignity to buy what they really need, while providing donors the peace of mind that their donation will be spent on something helpful.