Better Taxes for a Better America (BTBA) is an advocacy group dedicated to achieving left-of-center tax policies, primarily increasing taxes on high-income earners. BTBA describes itself as a “hub” or “funder table” for “individual donors, institutional philanthropies, and labor unions to scale impact by pooling and strategically deploying resources.” ^{1 2}

BTBA is led by Sarah Pray, formerly of the Open Society Foundations. Pray is the only personnel listed on BTBA’s website and has represented the organization during all its public interactions with other groups. BTBA is a project of the Hopewell Fund, a funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by left-of-center philanthropic consultancy Arabella Advisors. ³

BTBA’s sister group is the Better Taxes Action Fund, a lobbying and electoral advocacy group fiscally sponsored by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is also managed by Arabella Advisors. ⁴

Goals

Better Taxes for a Better America asserts that the current American tax code benefits “the interests of a powerful and wealthy few at the expense of everyone else.” It argues the tax code is set up to “deliberately [starve] the public of the resources needed to properly invest in our communities,” which, among other problems, causes “deepening racial disparities.” ¹

BTBA aims to increase tax revenue to combat climate change, fund government-provided child care, increase education spending, provide health care, and maintain infrastructure. ¹

BTBA supports establishing a billionaire minimum income tax and a permanent child tax credit. ⁵

BTBA’s 2024 and 2026 priorities include increasing taxation on high net-worth individuals, increasing taxes on corporations, and increasing tax credits for low-income earners. ¹

Activity

As of June 2024, Better Taxes for a Better America aimed to raise $15 million for its 2024 to 2026 campaigns. Its priorities for these years are general tax policy changes, the 2024 election (primarily through the Better Taxes Action Fund, its 501(c)(4) affiliate), the expiration of the individual tax cuts of the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and judicial advocacy. ¹

As a representative of BTBA, executive director Sarah Pray has attended events hosted by the Florida Philanthropic Network, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, and the Economic Opportunity Funders (OFF). Pray hosted an OFF panel on how tax donors are trying to “build long-term power and achieve a racially and economically just tax system.” ^{6 7 8 9}

Leadership

Sarah Pray has been the executive director of Better Taxes for a Better America since July 2023. She sits on the boards of Global Financial Integrity, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the Fund for Constitutional Government, and EG Justice, a human rights group focused on the African nation of Equatorial Guinea. Pray has also been a lecturer at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs since 2010. ^{10 11}

Pray previously worked at Americans for Financial Reform from 2022 to 2023 as a managing director of policy. From 2009 to 2021, Pray worked at the Open Society Foundations, first as a senior policy analyst for Africa for nine years, and then as director of advocacy in the organization’s economic justice program. Earlier, Pray was the U.S. director of Push What You Pay, an organization that advocates for more legally mandated transparency for resource extraction companies. Pray also worked as a program officer at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. ^{10 11}

BTBA’s website does not list any other personnel, though it states that it has a Leadership Council. ¹⁰

Funding

In 2024, Better Taxes for a Better America received a $250,000 donation through the Hopewell Fund from the Omidyar Network, the left-of-center philanthropic fund of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. ¹²

1. “A Funder Table for Smart Tax Reform.” Better Taxes for a Better America. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BTBA-BTAF-Strategy-1-pager-3.pdf.
2. “What We Do.” Better Taxes for a Better America. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxes.org/what-we-do/.
3. “Privacy Policy.” Better Taxes for a Better America. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxes.org/privacy-policy/.
4. “Privacy Policy.” Better Taxes Action Fund. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxesaction.org/privacy-policy/.
5. “Homepage.” Better Taxes for a Better America. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxes.org/
6. “Federal Budget and Tax Outlook & Preparing for the 2025 Tax Debates.” Florida Philanthropic Network. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://www.fpnetwork.org/event-5575254.
7. “2024 VIRTUAL BUDGET AND TAX BRIEFING SERIES, PART 1: FEDERAL BUDGET AND TAX OUTLOOK & PREPARING FOR THE 2025 TAX DEBATES.” Council of New Jersey Grantmakers. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://www.cnjg.org/events/2024-virtual-budget-and-tax-briefing-series-part-1-federal-budget-and-tax-outlook-preparing.
8. “2024 BUDGET AND TAX BRIEFING: What’s at Stake and in Play at the Federal and State Level.” Economic Opportunity Funders. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://eofnetwork.org/2024-annual-budget-and-tax-briefing/.
9. “2024 Federal Budget and Tax Outlook.” Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://gwpa.org/events/2024-federal-budget-and-tax-outlook.
10. “About.” Better Taxes for a Better America. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://bettertaxes.org/about/.
11. “Sarah Pray.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-pray/.
12. “Partners.” Omidyar Network. Accessed June 1, 2024. https://omidyar.com/our-partners/.