Let’s GO DMV! is a guaranteed income pilot program that provides unconditional direct cash to hospitality workers in the DC region who were and are still impacted by the desperate economic effects of COVID-19.
The pilot is powered by our community of partners who work together to achieve the following goals:
$1000 per month-no strings attached- to hospitality workers in the Greater Washington area who lost their jobs due to COVID.
Make the case for government supported programs and policies that will advance economic justice.
Rally foundations, corporations, and individual donors to raise and deploy capital for donations, grants and impact investments to generate residual income needed to sustain GI payments to workers.
Our Story:
Where We’re GOing
Let’s GO DMV! was sparked by an idea from Veronica “Vee” Tucker, a ROC-DC worker leader and iF, A Foundation for Radical Possibility community member. Vee was raising money for a mutual aid fund for COVID-displaced hospitality workers and asked iF to invest a portion of that money to generate residual income to support the well being of the workers and their families.
Vee’s idea was a catalyst to forming the pilot and our efforts to fundraise $1M each year through grants, donations and impact investments in order to fund unconditional cash payments over the intended 5-years of the pilot. After three years of active fundraising, and testing innovative financing models like impact investing, the Let’s GO DMV! table of partners, including worker leaders, made the difficult decision to shorten the duration of the cash payments from five to three years. Although we were able to secure grant support at the beginning of our fundraising effort, it has become difficult to secure additional funding as years pass from the initial global shut down caused by the pandemic. As a result, related funding opportunities have begun to dissolve. In addition, the time to garner investment pledges and for investments to generate a return outpaced the immediate 5-year timeline of the pilot.
However, the fight for guaranteed income and economic justice is not over for us!
This shift refuels our commitment to changing the systems that have made financing the pilot challenging and the economic injustice that makes the pilot necessary in the first place. In 2024 and beyond we are ramping up our worker power building work to advocate for government supported guaranteed income and other policies that advance economic justice!
We’re proud of what we’ve done along the way!
JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR GUARANTEED INCOME AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE!
To cover the first year of GI payments to the workers, Let’s GO DMV! raised $1M in grants and donations from local and national funders, and cash payments started in March 2022. The table is now developing a strategy to sustain subsequent years of GI payments through interest generated from impact investments that will benefit the region, as well as additional grants and donations.
CONTRIBUTE
Make a grant or donation to help us close our fundraising gap to successfully fund the final year of direct cash payments and ongoing worker-led power building efforts for Let’s GO DMV! Reach out to partnerships@iffdn.org for gift transmission options or donate online.
INVEST
Join us in leveraging impact investing to advance and sustain community-centered efforts beyond Let’s GO DMV! for the long haul.
ADVOCATE
Learn about and take part in efforts to advance guaranteed income and other economic justice policies across the greater Washington region. Check out our resources.
For more information reach out to partnerships@iffdn.org
Our Community of Partners
Workers
Let’s GO DMV! participants are 69 hospitality workers from diverse lived experiences in the greater Washington region who are still navigating the long-term economic, health and racial injustices exacerbated by COVID.Through the pandemic and beyond they remain united and engaged in the fight for economic justice through collective care, organizing and advocacy to rest, dream and build a future where everyone has enough.
Table Partners
Funding partners
The Lindenberg
Family Fund
