Jump to overview table
The Group Income Program is a nonprofit, community-based initiative designed as a research and educational experiment under IRS 501(c)(3) rules. Its primary purpose is to study the effects of shared income, wealth redistribution, and structured financial support on participants’ economic stability, wellbeing, and social cohesion. The program combines a baseline income pooling mechanism with optional affinity groups that can share additional income internally, allowing for natural experimental variation.
The program seeks to answer key questions:
How does guaranteed group income affect financial security, stress, and perceived freedom among participants?
How do affinity group structures influence internal cohesion, sharing behavior, and participant satisfaction?
How do debt, wealth tax, and windfall treatments impact contributions, payouts, and the long-term stability of the system?
What program design elements maximize equitable outcomes while sustaining the pool for long-term participation and growth?
Hypotheses:
Participants receiving group income will experience greater economic security and reduced financial stress.
Affinity groups with higher internal sharing will show stronger intra-group cohesion without reducing fairness across the base pool.
Transparent, predictable payouts improve trust, engagement, and retention.
Debt and wealth policies influence participant behavior and pool stability in measurable ways.
Eligibility: Individuals approved through the program onboarding process, meeting participation criteria including engagement, reporting, and community standards.
Informed Consent: Participation is voluntary and part of an ongoing research/education study. Participants are informed that their personal financial data is confidential and not shared with government authorities, while aggregate program data is transparent.
Re-entry / Exit: Participants may exit voluntarily or be removed based on eligibility. Re-entry follows the standard onboarding process, with ramped contribution percentages applied. Repeat exits may affect the re-entry schedule to discourage opportunistic behavior.
Base Contributions: Each participant contributes a fixed percentage of their effective income (EI) to the program pool. EI accounts for total income minus allowable debt adjustments.
Affinity Groups: Optional subgroups may share additional income among themselves without reducing the base contribution rate.
Payouts: Annual payout estimates are announced at the start of the tax year. Monthly distributions follow the announced schedule, with actual contributions updated continuously. Bonuses may be distributed if the pool exceeds projections.
Debt Treatment: Participants’ EI is adjusted for outstanding debt using program-defined rules. High-interest debt is accounted for proportionally, while maintaining equitable payouts across participants.
Wealth / Windfall Treatment: Windfalls are treated as wealth rather than income. A wealth tax (e.g., 10%) is applied to the income-equivalent of assets, calculated using a reasonable investment assumption (e.g., 4% rule).
Buffer Fund: A small percentage of the pool (e.g., 5%) is reserved to absorb temporary imbalances, stabilize payouts, and cover emergencies.
Continuous tracking of:
Income, contributions, payouts
Debt and wealth
Engagement metrics, including community conversations and affinity group participation
Optional self-reported measures of wellbeing, financial stress, and social cohesion
Data is stored securely and anonymized for analysis
Affinity groups serve as natural experimental units to study variations in internal sharing behavior.
Optional interventions, such as bonus distributions or policy tweaks, may be introduced to evaluate participant responses.
Annual renewal of the research project defines clear yearly cohorts for longitudinal analysis.
Respect for participant autonomy and voluntary engagement.
Protection from harm: predictable payouts, minimum contribution floors, and debt adjustments minimize undue financial stress.
Transparency: all rules, contributions, and aggregate financial data are openly shared.
Equity: all participants have equal access to base program benefits; affinity groups are voluntary and supplemental.
Frequency: Annually, aligned with the tax year (January–December).
Purpose:
Review and, if needed, update the research protocol (objectives, methods, metrics).
Reassess ethical considerations, participant protections, and consent language.
Evaluate program design adjustments, including contribution rates, debt/wealth treatment, affinity group rules, and buffer fund management.
Ensure continued compliance with IRS 501(c)(3) research/education standards.
Process:
Program coordinators and research leads review outcomes from the prior year, including KPIs and operational data.
Adjustments to the protocol are documented and approved internally.
The updated protocol is communicated to all stakeholders and posted as the official document for the new research year.
Participants continue under ongoing consent agreements.
Any material changes affecting contributions, payouts, or privacy require reaffirmation of consent.
Participant renewal aligns with onboarding, re-entry, or exit schedules, ensuring that individuals are fully informed about program rules and expectations.
Financial Stability: pool solvency, distribution consistency, contribution vs. payout balance
Community Engagement: participation in monthly conversations, affinity group involvement, retention
Wellbeing Outcomes: self-reported financial security, stress, and sense of freedom
Long-Term Growth: ability to onboard new participants while maintaining equitable distributions and pool stability
Yearly analysis compares outcomes across participants and affinity groups.
Longitudinal tracking evaluates the impact of program design on financial stability, wellbeing, and social cohesion.
Aggregate program data is reported annually for transparency, educational dissemination, and research purposes.
Scalability and Platform Study
An objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy and sustainability of nested income-sharing groups within the broader program.
The platform enables participants and external communities to implement autonomous or semi-autonomous income-sharing models while maintaining core principles of transparency, equity, and economic security.
The research will track:
How nested groups interact with the base system
Financial stability and wellbeing outcomes for participants in autonomous groups
Adoption rates and ease of integration for new groups
Data from these nested groups will inform ongoing refinements of the platform, ensuring that it can scale while remaining aligned with charitable and research objectives.