UBI Programs

United States

The Richmond Resilience Initiative (RRI) was Richmond, Virginia's first guaranteed income pilot, launched in October/November 2020 by the City of Richmond's Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB) in partnership with the Robins Foundation, UpTogether, and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. This first cohort gave $500 in unconditional monthly cash payments for 24 months to working parents already connected to OCWB who earned too much to qualify for federal benefits (the 'cliff effect') but still did not earn a living wage. Starting with 18 households, the cohort expanded through additional grant funding to a total of 94 participants by the time it concluded in December 2022. Payments were funded by CARES Act/ARPA dollars plus private philanthropic support, and participants also had access to financial coaching through the Richmond City Treasurer's Office of Financial Empowerment. An independent evaluation by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) found increased savings, better employment outcomes, and more time for parenting among recipients.

United States

se Up Alameda, a City of Alameda guaranteed income pilot program provided $1,000 per month to 150 low-income Alameda households over a two-year period from 2023 to 2025. The Alameda City Council directed the use of $4.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for Rise Up Alameda and successfully launched the program in Fall of 2023. The goals of Rise Up Alameda were to reduce economic instability for program participants, help to change local narratives and perceptions surrounding poverty and the provision of public benefits, and help to support and inform the larger discussion regarding public benefits and anti-poverty policies.

United States

Rise Up Cambridge was a $22 million, citywide direct cash assistance program run by the City of Cambridge, in partnership with the Office of the Mayor, the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee (CEOC), and the Cambridge Community Foundation. Funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, it gave every eligible low-income Cambridge household with a child 21 or under, earning at or below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, $500 per month for 18 months. Roughly 1,923 households (about 6,400 people, including 3,200 children) enrolled after a registration period from June 1 to July 31, 2023. It was a scaled-up, non-lottery successor to the smaller, philanthropically funded Cambridge RISE pilot. MDRC, an independent research organization, evaluated the program's effects on financial stability, stress, and employment.

United States

Rising UpTogether San Antonio is a second-phase pilot in which UpTogether invests unconditional monthly cash in 25 members drawn from its original 1,000-person, 25-month San Antonio guaranteed income cohort (2020–2023). Selected members have strong community-involvement backgrounds and an interest in policy work. In addition to receiving $500 a month for 18 months, participants engage in advocacy and storytelling with local partners (including the H. E. Butt Foundation's Know Your Neighbor initiative) to inform city policy and public narratives about poverty. The goal is to demonstrate the need for deeper, sustained cash investment beyond a short-term pilot.

Poland

Rodzina 800+ (formerly 500+) is Poland's flagship universal child benefit, providing a tax-free monthly cash payment of PLN 800 (raised from PLN 500 in January 2024) for every child up to age 18, regardless of family income. Launched in April 2016 by the national government under the Law and Justice party, it was expanded to full universality (removing the income test) in July 2019. It is funded entirely by the Polish state budget and administered by ZUS, with the primary goals of reducing child poverty and boosting fertility.

Nauru

NPRT is a Nauru government statutory trust (established 1968, building on royalty arrangements dating to the 1920s) that channels a share of state phosphate mining revenue into several sub-funds, including a Land Owners' Royalty Trust Fund that pays cash royalties directly to individual Nauruan citizens who hold customary title to phosphate-bearing land. After the fund was nearly bankrupted by mismanagement in the 1990s-2000s, the 2013 RONWAN Distribution Act restarted payouts, and in June 2014 the government began disbursing roughly A$60 million of accumulated "Ronwan" capital directly to landowner beneficiaries, part of an eventual ~A$115 million distribution. NPRT continues to pay ongoing phosphate royalties to landholders as of 2023-24. It is funded entirely by government/state-enterprise phosphate mining revenue and is not a universal per-citizen dividend, but a resource-royalty payment to registered landowning citizens and their families.

Suriname

Royalties for Everyone (Dutch: 'Royalty voor Iedereen', RVI) is a Surinamese government program giving every citizen a personal savings certificate funded by future oil royalties from the offshore Block 58 project. Citizens born before January 1, 2025 could register online for a US$750 certificate that grows at 7% annual interest, with elderly (80+) and disabled citizens given early access to funds via a special payment card ahead of expected oil production in 2028. It is funded entirely by the Government of Suriname from anticipated Block 58 royalty income, with technical assistance from advisors including the investment bank Lazard. Launched by President Chan Santokhi in May 2025 just before that month's elections, the program was frozen for legal and financial review under the incoming government of President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and remained suspended as of early 2026.

South Korea

A national pilot administered by South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) that pays every registered resident of designated depopulating rural counties a flat monthly stipend. The program began with 10 counties (selected late 2025, first payments starting Dec 2025-Feb 2026, including Okcheon in North Chungcheong) and expanded in June 2026 to 17 counties nationwide. Each resident receives 150,000 KRW (~$102 USD) per month for up to 24 months (2026-2027), paid as local-currency gift vouchers redeemable within the county, with no income, employment, or means test. Early results show sharp jumps in new resident registrations and local commerce in pilot counties.

United States

The Safety Fund is FreeFrom's flexible, no-strings-attached cash assistance program for survivors of intimate partner and gender-based violence, launched in April 2020 as a rapid COVID-19 response. FreeFrom is a national, survivor-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Los Angeles that works to end gender-based violence by building survivors' economic freedom. The Fund is financed almost entirely by philanthropic donations (foundations, corporations, and individual donors, including an initial GoFundMe campaign). Since 2020 it has disbursed more than $2.2 million across over 8,800 one-time emergency cash grants to survivors in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It is one of several FreeFrom programs, alongside a Savings Matching Program and the Compensation Compass tool.

United States

San Diego for Every Child (SDEC), a nonprofit coalition housed under Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS), ran a guaranteed income pilot giving $500 unconditional monthly cash payments for 24 months to 150 families with a child age 12 or under, living in four San Diego-area ZIP codes with high child poverty and COVID-19 impact. The pilot ran from March 2022 to February 2024 and was funded by a $1.4 million California state budget appropriation plus institutional and private philanthropic fundraising. It was carried out in partnership with Mayors for Guaranteed Income and studied by the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the University of Pennsylvania.

United States

The San Francisco Guaranteed Income Pilot for Artists (SF-GIPA) provided $1,000 monthly cash payments to 130 San Francisco artists disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, administered by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in partnership with the City and County of San Francisco. Launched in May 2021 with initial city funding for a planned 6-month run, it was extended to 18 months (through October 2022) after YBCA secured roughly $3.4-3.5 million from Jack Dorsey's #StartSmall Foundation and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The 130 recipients were selected via an online application, an income cap, and a 13-zip-code eligibility filter, narrowed through a partially randomized/lottery process. Payments were unconditional with no restrictions on use, though YBCA conducted optional surveys to study impacts. YBCA separately ran a related second guaranteed-income initiative for 60 additional artists (the Creative Communities Coalition for Guaranteed Income), which is a distinct program from SF-GIPA.

United States

The Santa Clara County Basic Income Program, officially the Transition-Age Youth Basic Income Pilot, is a county-run guaranteed income program for young adults aging out of the foster care system. This is the program's second cohort, providing 50 former foster youth with $1,200 per month for two years via prepaid debit cards distributed by Community Financial Resources. It builds on a first-in-the-nation 2020 pilot (Cohort 1) that served 72 youth and showed measurable improvements in housing stability, employment, and financial well-being. The program is funded through a mix of American Rescue Plan Act funds, County general funds, state funding secured by then-Supervisor/now State Senator Dave Cortese, and AB 109 funds, with in-kind financial mentoring from Excite Credit Union and MyPath. Enrollment occurs only through referral by the County's Social Services Agency, not open application.

United States

Santa Fe LEAP is a guaranteed income pilot administered by the City of Santa Fe in partnership with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), Santa Fe Community College (SFCC), the Santa Fe Community Foundation, and UpTogether. Launched in October 2021 with a $500,000 grant from MGI (underwritten by Jack Dorsey/the Economic Security Project), it gives low-income, young parents enrolled at SFCC $400 a month, no strings attached, to help them stay in school. The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) designed and evaluated the original cohort. The City has since funded additional annual cohorts, including with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, continuing the program through at least the 2025-2026 school year.

United States

See No Stranger is a housing-transition and case-management initiative that Multnomah County's Department of County Human Services (DCHS) launched in fall 2023 for asylum seekers and refugees leaving Oregon's ODHS-run Welcome Center in Portland. It was funded by a $9.75 million appropriation from Oregon's 2023 end-of-session Senate Bill 5506 (the 'Humanitarian Transition Project') and delivered through three contracted community-based organizations: Afghan Support Network, Oregon/Southwest Washington African Community Development Center, and Portland Refugee Support Group. Official Oregon state reporting confirms that 'basic income enrollment' was part of the wraparound case management all roughly 300 referred households received by January 2024, but public government documents do not name UpTogether or specify cash amounts. Seed data attributes the cash-transfer component and its household-size-tiered payments specifically to UpTogether; this could not be independently corroborated and should be treated as unconfirmed.

Grenada

The SEED Programme is Grenada's national conditional cash transfer scheme, run by the Ministry of Social and Community Development, Housing and Gender Affairs, that provides monthly cash assistance to the country's poorest and most vulnerable households, including families with school-aged children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and the chronically ill. It was created around 2012-2014 by consolidating three older safety-net schemes (the Public Assistance Programme, Necessitous Funds, and the School Transportation Allowance Scheme) with technical and financial support from the World Bank's Safety Net Advancement Project. The programme is government-funded and conditions payments on behaviors such as school attendance, health clinic visits, and attendance at parenting/awareness sessions. As of late 2024 it supported roughly 7,700-7,900 beneficiaries and remains under periodic recertification and reform by the government.

South Korea

Seoul Stepping Stone Income is a three-phase, randomized-controlled-trial guaranteed income pilot launched by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in July 2022 to test a negative-income-tax-style welfare model. Eligible low-income households received monthly cash payments equal to 50% of the gap between their household income and a set threshold (50% or 85% of Korea's standard median income), distributed via debit card, with amounts recalculated monthly based on income/asset means-testing. The pilot recruited households in three waves (2022, 2023, 2024), enrolling roughly 2,076 treatment households and 3,527 comparison households, with benefit payments ending between March and June 2025. Final three-year results (released December 2025) showed higher welfare-exit rates, increased earned income for many households, higher spending on food/health/education, and improved mental health relative to South Korea's existing means-tested welfare system.

United States

The Shreveport Guaranteed Income Program (SGIP) was a 12-month guaranteed income pilot administered by the City of Shreveport and United Way of Northwest Louisiana through the Shreveport Financial Empowerment Center. It provided $660 per month to 110 single-parent/guardian families with incomes at or below 120% of the Federal Poverty Level, selected by lottery from Shreveport/Caddo Parish residents. The pilot was funded by a Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) grant/private donations for the first six months and matching funds from the Caddo Parish Commission for the remaining six months. Abt Global (formerly Abt Associates) conducted a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the program. The program ran March 2022 through February 2023 and has since concluded.

United States

The Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project (SVGIP) is a two-year guaranteed income pilot for Santa Clara County families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, providing $1,000 a month in unconditional cash for 24 months to 150 families with at least one dependent child. It is co-led by the nonprofit Destination: Home and the ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective, with the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative running a randomized controlled trial comparing 150 recipients to a 150-family control group. Half of participants were referred through Santa Clara County's Coordinated Entry System and half through ¡Sí Se Puede!'s East San Jose service network, prioritizing people of color, undocumented/mixed-status households, and women-led families. The program is funded entirely by private philanthropic and corporate donors, including Google.org, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Sobrato Philanthropies, and Stanford Health Care. Enrollment began in December 2022 and is now closed to new referrals, with final study results expected around the trial's estimated December 2026 completion.

Venezuela

Sistema Patria is the Venezuelan national government's digital registration platform and 'Monedero Patria' e-wallet, used to distribute a rotating menu of state cash bonuses — including Bono Amor Mayor, Hogares de la Patria, Bono José Gregorio Hernández, Bono Único Familiar, and dozens of other named bonuses — to more than 22 million registered users. It targets low-income households, pensioners, people with disabilities, pregnant/nursing mothers, students, and public workers, helping them cope with hyperinflation and economic crisis via bolívar-denominated deposits accessible through the linked Carnet de la Patria QR card. The program is entirely funded and operated by the Venezuelan national government under the executive branch, drawing on state oil revenue and monetary issuance rather than nonprofit or international funding. Eligibility for specific bonuses is largely determined by self-reported socioeconomic and household data entered into the platform, and human rights bodies including the UN have documented the system's use as a tool of political and social control tied to voting behavior and affiliation with government 'misiones.'

United States

A small guaranteed basic income pilot launched by King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay's office in 2021, using community service operating grant allocations and repurposed office funds. The pilot provided $1,000/month for 12 months to 10 extremely low-income households in South King County (King County Council District 2). Two Black-led community-based organizations, Rainier Beach Action Coalition and Urban Family, each selected and served five participating households, with RBAC distributing funds via direct deposit and Urban Family via checks. Both CBOs also provided monthly financial-literacy materials and feedback forms alongside the stipends. A University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy & Governance graduate student consulting team conducted the program evaluation and policy analysis, publishing a final report in spring 2022.

United States

The South San Francisco Guaranteed Income Pilot Program (GIPP) provided $500/month for 12 months to 160 low-income South San Francisco residents, beginning October 2021. Funded primarily through the City's ARPA allocation, with additional grants from San Mateo County and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Administered by the YMCA Community Resource Center (CRC), which handled outreach, selection, case management, and survey-based research. Priority given to extremely low-income households (at/below 30% AMI), single heads of household with minor children, residents of the city's lowest-income census tracts, and former foster youth. Concluded in 2022 with a final report to City Council in 2023.

Japan

The Special Cash Payment was a one-time, unconditional cash transfer of ¥100,000 (about $930 at the time) to every person registered in Japan's Basic Resident Register as of April 27, 2020, in response to the economic impact of COVID-19. It was a national government program administered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC/Soumu-sho) with payments processed and disbursed by each of Japan's roughly 1,700 municipalities. The program was funded entirely by the national government through a supplementary budget of approximately ¥12.88 trillion. Payments went to household heads on behalf of every household member, including children, elderly, incarcerated people, and eligible foreign residents, with no income, asset, or employment conditions.

United States

STAY SAFE (Supporting Transitional-Aged Youth and Survivors in Achieving Financial Empowerment) is a $2 million guaranteed income pilot run by the City of Los Angeles's Community Investment for Families Department (CIFD) for survivors of intimate partner violence and transitional-aged current/former foster youth. It provides roughly 83 participants with $1,000 a month (or an alternate $6,000 lump sum plus 18 monthly payments) for 24 months, totaling $24,000 per participant. It is funded by City Council discretionary funds from Council Districts 9 and 13 plus a Mayor's Fund grant, and builds directly on findings from the City's earlier BIG:LEAP pilot.

United States

Steady Steps is a reportedly small, self-administered guaranteed income pilot said to be run by BANANAS, Inc., a longstanding Oakland-based child care resource and referral nonprofit, providing $1,000 monthly cash payments to about 30 low-income working families in the Oakland metro area for up to 12 months. Seed materials describe it as targeting pre-natal, post-partum, and families with young children, including those on child care voucher waiting lists, to help maintain housing, pay off debt, build savings, and reduce reliance on a second job. Funding is described as public. BANANAS, Inc. itself is a verified, real 501(c)(3) organization serving Northern Alameda County since 1973, but no independent source could confirm a program called "Steady Steps" or a BANANAS-run cash/guaranteed income initiative.

United States

The STL Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program was a joint initiative of the City of St. Louis Office of the Treasurer and the Office of the Mayor, funded primarily by $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds plus $1 million from Jack Dorsey's #startsmall initiative (with Deaconess Foundation support) and later a $1 million grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. It provided 540 low-income St. Louis families with a school-age child $500 per month for 18 months, disbursed via reloadable debit cards issued by MoCaFi, with FORWARD administering applications. Washington University in St. Louis' Brown School (Center for Social Development and Evaluation Center), with Appalachian State University, conducted an independent evaluation. The program launched in late 2023 and concluded in 2025, with no current plans for extension.