How It Works

As a rule, we do not accept inbound applications or referrals for our programs.

To ensure fairness, Rainy distributes funds in pre-assessed areas and selects recipients based on systems and criteria that vary by country. 

We use criteria that is simple, fair, cost-effective, and difficult to scam. We identify low income workers from national labor data and then enroll workers who earn minimum or near minimum wage earnings. 

Our first project will be in Bangkok, Thailand where we are based. We will announce and share details of project participants in coming months.

First, participants must be considered low-income earners in their respective communities. This means participants must make minimum or near minimum legal wages.

For example, in Thailand, the minimum legal wage is 337 to 400 baht ($10.28 to $12.21 USD) per day. In the United States, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Second, participants must commit to save money every month. The amount they save is up to them.

Third, participants must invest what they save and what we give them in large cap publicly-traded companies every month. They can freely invest in any company included in the S&P indexes.

Empowering low-income earners to make their own savings and investment decisions aligns with our core belief of respect.

Each worker typically receives a monthly match of up to 10% of their salary.

For example, if a worker saves $30 per month, then we will match with $30 per month. The amounts vary depending on if workers are full or part-time and how much they can afford to save every month.

Our goal is help workers save the equivilant of at least one month of living expenses, ensuring that they can meet their most basic needs and any short term emergencies like job loss or other unforseen expenses.

The amounts given will vary widely depending on the context and goal. For example, minimum wage workers in the United States earn sigificantly more than minimum wage workers in Thailand.

We make ongoing, monthly cash transfers and we inform recipients exactly how much they will receive and when during the enrollment process. 

In some cases like projects that include randomized controlled trials (RCT), we may give onetime to one group to compare results to another group that receives monthly.

Participants are eligible to receive monthly cash transfers for 15 months.

For example, if a worker saves 10% of their monthly income, then they should have enough to cover one month of living expenses in 10 months. However, with a monthly savings match from us, workers should be able to save in half that time.

Our goal is to help workers create a financial cushion of 3 months living expenses and to establish an enduring savings habit.

Recipients are supposed to invest, not spend their cash transfers. If cash transfers are not invested, then recipients are no longer eligible to participate in our program. We allow some flexibility in participants are unable to save for one or two months.

Potentially. “Sustainable” interventions are ones that will continue to benefit the recipient in the long-term without needing ongoing support.

It takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit, with a range of 18 to 254 days depending on the complexity of the behavior and the individual. Our 12 month program provides a solid timeframe to form a good savings and investment habit.

We know that saving money consistently over time isn’t easy even for high income earners because people like to spend as much as they earn. Saving for a rainy day almost seems like an old fashioned idea, which is indicative of global spendthrift culture.

Besides long-term savings, participants use their cash transfers to invest in large cap companies like Apple, Google, and McDonald’s. This allows savings to grow over time and introduces participants to long-term asset ownership and appreciation.

We will study the outcomes of our projects, looking for the best possible ways to enable low income workers to save money and establish financial stability.

Our first project will be in Thailand with group of low-income workers working together in a single store location like a restaurant.

In the future, we want to work with low income and minimum wage workers around the world including the United States where we are headquartered.

We don’t answer offers or solicitations to work in specific communities.

We recognize that the need is immense, and we believe cash relief can play an important role in helping vulnerable workers worldwide. Operationally, the complex challenges we face to do this well (e.g., connecting people to a payment grid, working with brokerage partners that specialize in fractional shares, establishing local connections, understanding local payment systems) vary from place to place. 

Rainy will assess new regions and communities that we can expand to, though we can’t guarantee when or whether we will be able to work in a given community or country.

We send recipients cash transfers directly to their bank or brokerage accounts.

Rainy manages the program and the direct transfer of donations to recipients.

We work with three types of partners.

• Employers who employ the workers participating in our program.

• Online trading platforms where participants purchase assets. We ask trading platforms to show workers how to use their platforms and to teach financial and investment literacy.

• Generous donors that make our work possible.

The main corruption/fraud risks to our programs are:

• Manipulation of the list of eligible recipients

• Diversion of transfers sent to eligible recipients

To address the first risk, we implement a comprehensive audit process with multiple independent checks to ensure enrolled recipients are eligible. These checks include:

• In-person site visits to workplace

• In-person visits to meet, qualify, and teach recipients.

• Audits by senior management

To address the second risk, we use identity-matching between our records and those of our payment providers, and follow-up communication to ensure money reaches the intended recipients.

Consider a program giving food aid to people in poverty – the procurement process of finding a food producer is open to corruption, and the long journey the food takes from manufacturer to recipient is open to diversion at every step.

In a Rainy program, money is digitally transferred from our bank account directly to the recipient.

We still must carefully safeguard this process as risks remain. However, there are far fewer variables to monitor compared to other forms of aid.

Yes, besides giving money, we also teach people about the financial markets, dollar-cost-averaging, and budgeting. We show workers how to purchase shares of publicly-traded companies and we fund ther first stock market purchase.

Participants can buy direct shares of any large-cap company in the S&P indexes like Apple, Google, McDonalds, Ford, and more.

To encourage minimum portfolio diversification, participants should invest in at least 3 different companies.

We will work with modern trading platforms that offer fractional share purchases like Dime in Thailand and Robinhood in USA.

For example, if Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is trading at $255.63 USD per share and a participant only has $40 to invest, then they could purchase a 0.1564 (40/255.63) fraction of one share.

Managed funds provide quick and easy portfolio diversification.

However, we want participants to experience buying companies directly themselves, not indirectly thru funds.

We believe there is a deeper pyschological attachment to assets that are directly owned. We want participants to accumulate and hold, not sell.

No, Rainy isn’t a retirement fund. Retirement funds are a terrific way to save money and we encourage workers to take advantage of them.

Rainy is different than retirement funds for a few reasons:

• Our match doesn’t have a vesting period; the money we give participants is theirs immediately.

• Our funds are liquid. We don’t have retirement age requirements for fund distribution. Participants can access their money whenever they like. Consequently, our program has no special tax breaks or tax deferment.

• Participants manage their own funds and trades. Investments in retirement accounts are managed by third party manages, not participants.

• Our matching period is 15 months.