The Power of Strategic Cash Grants: The True Given Experience

Mon 07 Jun 2021

For most of 2019 and 2020, I served as an Innovation Strategist at a leading non-profit organization that focuses on building financial security for the most financially vulnerable Americans. Until now, most of my work has involved listening to individuals' stories about the financial challenges they face, learning more about the mental aspect of managing finances, brainstorming ways to build wealth for families and communities, and generating solutions from the insights gathered. All this exposure has given me a chance to understand the importance of strategic cash grants and their potential to improve economic opportunity, mobility, and resilience for a lot of individuals and communities.

Although the idea of strategic cash grants has already been gaining interest with people like Former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang pushing for Universal Basic Income for all Americans, the pandemic, however, has accelerated the need for such initiatives and has forced us to explore how strategic cash grants can revitalize communities. This motivated me to go further, setting up a partnership with a non-profit organization to advance this idea. We are in a moment of incredible economic dislocation for millions of families. We can’t just wait it out. We need new solutions.

For the next year, my job will be working on a startup called True Given. The True Given platform would connect charitable organizations to people in need of relief funds. We will explore how small these strategic cash grant payments can improve the financial outcomes of individuals, families, and communities — and to work to make them more broadly available. From quantitative and qualitative research, we know that too many honest, hardworking American families struggle to make ends meet through no fault of their own, and a lot of times, they find themselves in serious financial trouble. However, research has shown that relief from a relatively modest pressing need can make a world of difference to a person. There are moments when a small amount of cash, given in the right way, can go a long way to helping someone to be more resilient or take advantage of economic opportunities.

I hope you’ll join me on the journey. I’m looking for partners who want to provide much-needed relief to families and communities — and understanding how we can use small strategic cash grants to increase economic opportunity and resilience for these communities.

For more information, you can contact me at admin@truegiven.com.