The Economic Security Project (ESP) is a left-of-center initiative that advocates for the federal government to distribute “unconditional cash for Americans” through a universal basic income program. ¹ It is housed within the Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit operated by Arabella Advisors.

The Economic Security Project was launched by Facebook co-founder and former The New Republic owner and publisher Chris Hughes, along with other left-of-center activists and Democratic Party operatives.

In 2019, the Project announced the “Anti-Monopoly Fund,” a project slated to run through March 2021 and funded by the Omidyar Network of eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar, George Soros‘s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Knight Foundation to demand further regulations on major businesses.²

Leadership

The Economic Security Project’s three co-chairs are Natalie Foster, Chris Hughes, and Dorian Warren. ³

Foster is a former Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee staffer who has also held leadership positions at the Sierra Club and MoveOn.org. ⁴ Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook who led digital organizing for the Obama campaign, owned and published the leftist New Republic magazine, and is an advisor to the left-wing Roosevelt Institute. ⁵ Warren is a former labor studies professor at the University of Chicago and Columbia University who leads the left-of-center nonprofits Center for Community Change and Community Change Action Fund. ⁶

The ESP’s steering committee includes:

• Hemant Taneja, venture capitalist and founder of environmental advocacy group Advanced Energy Economy;⁷
• Felicia Wong, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute;
• Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union;
• Former Facebook executive Serkan Piantino;
• CREDO Mobile co-founder Peter Barnes;
• Tara Roth and Ben Goldhirsh of the left-of-center Goldhirsh Foundation;⁸
• Juliana Bidadanure, faculty director of the Basic Income Lab at Stanford University;⁹
• Venture capitalist Albert Wenger;¹⁰
• CleanChoice Energy founder Tom Matzzie;¹¹ and
• Roy Bahat, head of Michael Bloomberg’s venture capital firm, Bloomberg Beta.

Funders

The Economic Security Project is not a stand-alone legal entity and does not file an IRS Form 990. Its parent organization, the left-wing Hopewell Fund, does not disclose the ESP’s revenues or expenditures, or the salaries of its staff, in its filings with the IRS.

In addition to its co-founders and steering committee members, organizations that have announced support of the ESP or been identified as its donors in media coverage include:¹²

• Omidyar Network
• Google Foundation
• Hewlett Foundation
• Future Justice Fund
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Joyce Foundation
• Goldhirsh Foundation

Policy

Basic Income

The Economic Security Project supports a federal universal basic income (UBI) program in which every working adult with an income under $50,000 per year would receive $500 per month, paid for by increased taxes. ¹³

While some right-of-center economists have proposed UBI as a replacement for the traditional government-operated welfare-state programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, public housing and more; the ESP’s position is that UBI programs should be implemented “in combination with robust social safety net programs.” ^{14 15 16}

EITC Expansion

The ESP supports a massive expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) they call the “Cost-of-Living Refund,” based in part on the work of former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich. ¹⁷ An associated advocacy organization, Economic Security Project Action, operates lobbying and organizing campaigns on behalf of these policies. ¹⁸

UBI programs similar to the ESP’s proposed policies have been promoted by candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Demonstration Projects

ESP funds the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), a UBI project that is giving $500 every month to 130 residents of Stockton, California for 18 months. The project’s website claims the “root cause of poverty” is the “lack of cash.” ¹⁹

In Magnolia, Mississippi, the ESP-funded Magnolia Mothers Trust project is giving 15 families with young children $1,000 each month for a year. ²⁰

Anti-Monopoly Fund

In October 2019, the Economic Security Project announced a new Anti-Monopoly Fund to support economic research and advocacy campaigns that focus on limiting corporate power. Donors to the $10 million dollar fund include the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Knight Foundation, George Soros‘s Open Society Foundations, and the Omidyar Network. ²¹

Grants

Economic Security Project makes grants to organizations that support its basic income policy. Organizations that the ESP has funded include: ²²

• Roosevelt Institute
• Niskanen Center
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Golden State Opportunity Foundation
• Activist Mia Birdsong ²³
• Truth Be Told Media ²⁴
• Stanford University Basic Income Lab ²⁵
• GiveDirectly ²⁶
• Leap Forward Project at the University of California, Berkeley ²⁷
• American Center
• Y Combinator Research ²⁸
• Universal Income Project ²⁹
• Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan ³⁰
• Street Art Anarchy ³¹
• Universal Technological Dividend Working Group
• Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage ³²
• Insight Center for Community Economic Development ³³
• Institute for the Future ³⁴
• Video game designer Jane McGonigal ³⁵
• Left-wing advocacy media site openDemocracy ³⁶
• New York University sociology professor Sarah Cowan ³⁷

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