Our Work

The Bridge Project seeks to solve child poverty in New York. Launched in June 2021 by The Monarch Foundation, it is New York's first consistent, unconditional cash allowance program. The Bridge Project, a 501(c)3 organization, supports healthy development for babies during their first 1,000 days of life by providing their mothers with consistent, unconditional cash on a biweekly basis for three years.
The Bridge Project currently operates in New York City and serves 600 babies and their mothers across 2 boroughs, 20+ zip codes, and alongside 25+ community based partners and service organizations. Mothers in the program receive up to $1,000 a month, unconditionally, for 36 months. A portion of the program is a randomized control trial in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research. By the end of 2023, the program will expand to all 5 city boroughs and launch a presence across New York State, starting with Rochester. All together, the efforts will result in 1,100 babies receiving an unconditional cash allowance.
The program will continue to expand throughout various neighborhoods, zip codes, boroughs, and cities across New York to support babies and their mothers. The Bridge Project is on its way to solving child poverty, and we are doing it with trust, community, and cash.
The Bridge Project has been profiled in The New York Times, CBS, NY1 Spectrum News, Bloomberg, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and MarketWatch, among others. The Bridge Project was additionally one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas of 2022.
...but we want to answer a few additional questions:
How does a cash allowance for mothers improve their babies’ social, emotional, and mental development and long-term well-being?
What level of cash support provides recipients and their babies with the strongest financial, social, and developmental outcomes?
Does the addition of community-building activities alongside a cash allowance reduce the negative impacts of relational poverty, isolation, and loneliness, and create outcomes that are necessarily greater?
