The funder collaborative Families and Workers Fund has announced the launch of a five-year initiative to help build a more equitable economy by reimagining the systems that drive economic security, opportunity, and mobility.

Launched in April 2020 initially as a short-term, rapid-response effort to aid those disproportionately harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, FWF will work to advance jobs that sustain and uplift families and invest in the development of a more inclusive, effective public benefits system, with a focus on unemployment insurance. To be co-chaired by Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and Schmidt Futures CEO Eric Braverman, the initiative will work in partnership with federal, state, and local government and businesses to deliver catalytic examples of high-quality job growth and to support government innovation, civic tech, and advocacy to strengthen the safety net system so families are able to recover from crises and thrive. According to a Gallup study, pandemic-related layoffs fell hardest on those earning the least, with nearly half of the lowest-paid workers losing their jobs; many of those workers have been unable to access much-needed and -deserved support.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the fund awarded $10 million in immediate relief and has raised more than $51 million to date.

Launched by Schmidt Futures and the Ford, Open Society, JPB, W.K. Kellogg, Annie E. Casey, and Amalgamated foundations, FWF is backed by Abigail Disney, MacKenzie Scott, Jack Dorsey's #startsmall initiative, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Luminate, Omidyar Network, Robin Hood, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, Morgan Stanley, and the Hilton, Edna McConnell Clark, Roger I. and Ruth B. MacFarlane, Rockefeller, and Skoll foundations.

"The pandemic exposed what we've known for too long: our economy isn't working for working people," said Walker. "But from one of the most painful, tragic chapters in American history, a watershed moment for recovery has emerged. We are proud to support the Families and Workers Fund, which is positioned to reimagine an equitable, worker-centered economy, with sustainable jobs and twenty-first-century benefits as the engine."

(Photo credit: Christine McCann/San Francisco Foundation)