Bootstraps Goes to Market + Comingle is Alive!
From Conrad Shaw and Deia Schlosberg of the Bootstraps Basic Income Project
The Rundown: 4 Refreshers, Updates & Ways to Get Involved
1. Bootstraps goes to market
In June, we start pitching the Bootstraps docuseries to streaming networks and distributors to find the show a home.
We followed 11 households receiving $1,000/adult + $333/child each month for 2.5 years, and the results were pretty astounding. It's a monster of a project that we started working on in 2016, and we'll be going out to pitch the major streaming networks and distributors starting next month to finally find out where the show is going to live.
2. The National Tour
We’re currently raising the funds to bring the show on the road, putting together a plan for 100+ nationwide screenings and events, a podcast, educational materials, social media campaigns, and a powerful call to action for those interested to join the Comingle web platform and see how big and fast we can build UBI from the ground up.
3. Comingle is live
Our partner project, Comingle, is a tool for us all to build and test out basic income together without waiting for government or philanthropy, using a voluntary mutual aid model and the power financial technology and the internet to facilitate what would arguably be the world’s first, permanent, scalable, universal basic income, capable of serving millions. After over 5 years of dogged development by Conrad and the Comingle team, the platform is now up and running in its beta testing phase, moving real money to real people, and in planning to open up to the broader public for its first big pilot program and scaling push starting in the next few months.
If this sucker works and grows the way they designed it to, it’s a gamechanger. Their quite ambitious short term goal is to grow to 100,000 members and be moving $100M/yr in mutual aid dollars by the end of 2027.
We are personally already members on the platform, and we’ve gotta say, it really feels good to know we’re automatically helping support the thriving of our growing community, and that that community automatically has our back if and when we struggle with financial hardship. We’re excited to see it grow so much bigger.
4. AI Pledge for Humanity (ITSA Foundation)
Income to Support All (ITSA) Foundation is the nonprofit org (501c3) that was launched in 2023 to help support increasingly ambitious UBI projects like Bootstraps and Comingle. Without the support of ITSA Foundation, these projects would not be on the verge of wide release. We are incredibly grateful for ITSA's continuing support. Also, not for nothing, it still has the cleverest name of any foundation we've ever seen.
Sign and share ITSA's brand new and very cool AI Pledge for Humanity that's calling on those profiting from AI to do more than just talk about solutions like UBI by committing real resources to efforts to build them now. Seriously, it launched only about a week ago, and it's picking up steam fast and collecting some very noteworthy names. We won't try to describe it any more; just read it.
Wrapping Up
So that’s what we’re working to make happen later this year. Who knows exactly how things will unfold, but that’s the timeline we’re shooting for, and we’ll be excited to have you with us in this grassroots endeavor.
Ok that’s it for this update! To every one of you: stay strong, stay kind, stay loud about UBI and other human rights movements you care about, and stay tuned!
In love and solidarity,
Conrad Shaw & Deia Schlosberg