GiveDirectly does monthly in some areas and semi-annually in others [1]. They are also conducting an RCT on allowing recipients to choose their preferred transfer schedule [2].

[1] http://www.givewell.org/international/top-charities/give-dir...

[2] http://www.givewell.org/international/top-charities/give-dir...

I believe this has been tested, and lump sums are better: they allow people to make capital investments.

This is a very patronizing and disrespectful attitude, not to mention a wrong one, based probably on an assumption that those people are poor in the first place because of being "financially irresponsible". If anything, poor people are usually much better at managing money that those well-off, because they only have so little of it and are one mistake short of starving to death.

This seems to be just one of those misconceptions like drug abuse, which AFAIR studies actually found more common in well-off people than in poor ones.

Read some of these financial diaries from Kenia (which were features in Gates' Annual letter): http://www.fsdkenya.org/our-work/financial-diaries/15-public....

These people sometimes make bad decisions, but by and large they're more responsible than most people I know.