Baby Bonds provides young people the foundation for a more abundant future.

GRO Fund is bringing Baby Bonds to life in Georgia through our accelerated pilot program, Freedom Futures.

This pilot provides young people with a guaranteed income and a Baby Bond, pairing income to support them today with the resources needed to build wealth tomorrow. In doing so, the pilot addresses the root cause of wealth inequality – wealth itself.

 Learn more about Freedom Futures:

  • Freedom Futures is a four year pilot program that includes three key components: an investable lump sum (“Baby Bond”), a $500/month guaranteed income, and financial advising services.

    Young people will be able to use the investable lump sum on wealth building strategies - like homeownership, small business startup, higher education and seeding retirement funds. The Baby Bond is intended to serve as “seed capital” that can reduce barriers to strategies that are proven to generate wealth while helping recipients meet basic needs. For example, a downpayment is a significant barrier to homeownership.

    The guaranteed income is unrestricted and intended to help recipients meet basic needs.

  • First and foremost, we seek to substantially improve the wealth positions and wealth trajectories for participants through cash transfers and wrap-around services.

    Second, our goal is to generate learnings for state and national Baby Bonds proposals. There is increasing momentum behind Baby Bonds. Three states have enacted legislation, ten states have introduced legislation and there is one federal bill.

    But State-level programs will not generate learnings for 18+ years, once the first cohort of children have received payments. Our program will generate learnings in six years. We will provide early outcomes, including data and narratives, that can build and sustain momentum in support of Baby Bonds.

    Lastly, this pilot program will generate evidence that lays the groundwork for an effort to pass Baby Bonds legislation in Georgia. Our progress towards this goal is detailed here.

  • We are currently fundraising to launch the program in 2025. Please check our website in late 2024 for additional program details or sign up for our e-list for regular updates.

  • To contribute to our fundraising goal for this program, click the “Donate” button on the top right of the website. On our donation page, you can specify that your donation should go to “Baby Bonds” by selecting that option under “Apply my donation to” on the donation form.

    For other ways you can help, or for larger donation amounts, please email our Director of Programs for Baby Bonds, Amit Khanduri, at Amit@thegrofund.org.

Baby Bonds is a bold policy proposal that gives every child a real chance to build wealth. It can close the racial wealth divide for young people by 50%.
Baby Bonds guarantees a birthright to capital by providing every child with a child trust account.

Here’s how it works:

  • When a child is born, the government seeds an interest-bearing account and makes annual deposits, depending on the family’s income. The funds grow over time, generating a significant sum by the time the child turns 18.

  • When the child reaches adulthood, they can begin to draw from the account. The money can only be used for wealth-building purchases like buying a house, starting a business, or pursuing higher education.

There is increasing momentum behind Baby Bonds. Several states have passed legislation, over ten states have introduced legislation, and there is federal legislation. But state-level programs won’t generate findings for 18+ years, once the first cohort of children receive payments.

READ ABOUT GRO’S BABY BONDS PILOT IN TIME MAGAZINE
Click here or below to read more.

LISTEN TO MORE ABOUT
OUR PLANS HERE
Amit Khanduri, Dir. of Programs at GRO, joins the Henry Cohen Lecture Series.

LEARN ABOUT BABY BONDS LEGISLATION HERE IN GEORGIA
Click here to read more.

GRO’s partner on Freedom Futures, Darrick Hamilton, discussed the proposal with Ezra Klein and The New York Times.

Listen to an excerpt with the video on the left, or go to The Ezra Klein Show for the full episode.

Amit Khanduri, Director of Programs, Baby Bonds,
Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund