Progress on Purpose, Together
We're building a better way to move money — not through guilt, and not through bureaucracy, but through trust, automation, and alignment.
We’re starting from two directions:
1. For Those Who Want to Help — But Aren’t Sure How
Many generous people hesitate. They want to help, but fear enabling harm, being gamed, or simply making things worse. At the same time, they know the current system isn't working — it's too slow, too wasteful, too uncertain.
We offer a new way:
Transparency to build trust
Anonymity to preserve dignity
Community to lock in progress
We connect:
People who could thrive with a little more income — a new resident, a recent grad, a family with a newborn, a neighbor displaced by automation
Donors who want to do good, and do it well
Communities that are ready to support, once they’re freed from scrambling over basics
Many of these connections already exist — they just need one more ingredient to flourish. That’s what we provide.
2. For the Long Game — UBI for All
Our ultimate goal is to make Almost Basic obsolete.
We want Universal Basic Income implemented at scale, so communities and nonprofits can stop worrying about survival-level support and turn their full attention to building connection, growth, and purpose.
To speed that day, we’ll use every tool we’ve got:
Education. Partnership. Advocacy.
A Different Kind of Operation
Our model won’t fit neatly in a nonprofit box — and that’s by design.
We’re fundamentally opposed to means-testing before cash transfers. It’s wasteful. It’s degrading. And it’s unnecessary.
That said, we’re realists. A nonprofit arm could emerge over time to help unlock tax-deductible giving for certain use cases — but without compromising our principles.
We’ll support no-strings cash movements and champion UBI across the political spectrum. That means getting political, but not partisan.
UBI will take time. In the meantime, we act — building resilient, income-generating tools and infrastructure that free up both money and time.
To do that well, we’ll:
Attract idle capital
Pay top talent
Deliver modest, capped returns
Profits should be deployed with purpose.
What We’re Solving For
We want to scale generosity — without strings, shame, or paternalism.
We all have something to offer. But some of us are blocked by money. Our challenge is simple: can we unlock participation by covering the basics?
What’s the Investment Opportunity?
This isn’t charity. It’s infrastructure — and like good infrastructure, it delivers returns:
Poverty is expensive. Late fees, payday loans, and overdrafts extract billions. Donor-backed “resiliency products” could disrupt that, reducing leakages and restoring value.
Potential is unlocked. When we stabilize young people, we protect their momentum — turning them into contributors, leaders, and maybe someday, donors to the system that once helped them.
Time is worth money. As someone working in community every day, I’d gladly pay to have someone else handle the basics — so I can focus on what only I can do: invest time in people.
Social risk pooling. When people know they’ll be caught, they’re more likely to extend their own hand to catch someone else. Generosity scales when it feels safe.
Almost Basic is a bet.
A bet that we can move money in a better way.
A bet that generosity, if scaled right, can outcompete poverty.
A bet that we can build the rails — together.
Let’s build a generosity engine that works for everyone.
It looks complicated, but you can start now:
If you are a service provider that has a piece of this already built, please reach out. We don’t want to reinvent anything.
If you are a community organization that wants to help people, get accredited. (This sounds more formal than it actually is … we just want to make sure you align with our values: dignity, freedom, community … all the good stuff.)
If you are an individual with some money and want our help deploying it more effectively, reach out.
If something on here looks interesting, let’s talk about building it. Reach out.
Why will this work?
There is a lot of money currently being wasted or sitting idle. A lot of caring and talented people are spending too much time helping people survive when they could be helping them thrive. If you work or volunteer in the nonprofit space, you know all this firsthand.
Remember, markets can handle the basic stuff.
Everything is in place. Ultimately, we just need a simple hack. Does UBI solve all of our problems? No, but it handles a lot of them and frees us up for the ones that really do require a human touch.
You can do something right now. We think we can help, just let us know.
Here are a few tasks that need to get done, and some thoughts for how to get started:
We can end poverty, together.