The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco has announced a commitment of more than $3.4 million commitment from Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey to expand a recently launched guaranteed income pilot program for artists.

Awarded through Dorsey's #startsmall LLC, the grant will support an expansion of the Guaranteed Income Pilot for the City and County of San Francisco, which in May began providing a hundred and thirty local artists with monthly payments of $1,000 for six months. The grant will enable YBCA, the implementing organization for the city's pilot, to extend those monthly payments for another twelve months, starting October 1, and provide monthly payments of $1,000 for eighteen months to another fifty artists. YBCA will collaborate with five high-impact historically underfunded San Francisco arts groups to select the additional recipients.

The expansion of the program will include a study to be produced by YBCA, in partnership with the University of Florida Center for Arts and Medicine, of the impacts over time of guaranteed income on artists' economic security, well-being, health, and productivity. The research will not only inform advocacy efforts to advance economic security via unconditional cash transfers but enable YBCA to share best practices with respect to program design and implementation.

"This investment from #startsmall reinforces YBCA's commitment to advancing new economic models that address systemic racism and inequity and historic financial instability in the arts sector," said YBCA chief executive Deborah Cullinan. "The ability to extend and expand this program means we can provide guaranteed income to more artists and we can work with leading arts and culture organizations to build our collective capacity. The learnings from this expanded pilot will ensure that we can pave the way for local, state, and national policies and models that are equitable and resilient."