Yang launches activist nonprofit

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang launched a new nonprofit group Thursday that will focus on the issues he promoted in his White House campaign, including a universal basic income.

Humanity Forward is being founded to advocate for policies introduced by Yang such as providing $1,000 a month for every U.S. adult, as well as allowing Americans to “retake control of their data” and pressuring tech companies to compensate people for the use of their information. 

The movement continues – it’s time for a human-centered America. This is @HumanityForward. https://t.co/wPEsjBs74L pic.twitter.com/7mok2tr9TX

— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) March 5, 2020

The group said in a press release it will insert its policies into the mainstream by launching and supporting projects that advocate for the same ideas with grants and other tools, providing resources to political candidates who embrace similar objectives and instituting initiatives to activate new voters. 

“Our campaign grew so much because we had a clearer diagnosis of the problems that face our country and a real vision for how to solve them. We’re in the midst of the greatest technological and economic transformation in the history of the world, and we need real solutions to make the economy work for us, the people,” said Yang. 

“Those problems haven’t gone anywhere, and neither have we. The movement we have built has just begun and will now evolve.” 

The group said its creation is a direct outgrowth of Yang’s campaign, which ended weeks ago and was centered around a universal basic income and warning of the threats increased automation poses to manufacturing jobs. 

“The goal is to build a movement,” Yang said Thursday on “The View.” “And so this is going to be a grassroots campaign or organization in the months ahead.”

.@AndrewYang announces foundation on @TheView: “I am thrilled to announce that today we are launching a new nonprofit called Humanity Forward that will champion the main ideas of my campaign.”
“The goal is to build a movement,” says of #MoveHumanityFoward. https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/yVcM5SdQGK

— The View (@TheView) March 5, 2020

Yang added that the group already has $3 million in backing, including from high-profile donors like comedian Dave Chappelle, actress Teri Hatcher, actor Ken Jeong, and co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian. 

The group will give $500,000 to residents in one undetermined town in New York state as part of an initial pilot program for universal basic income. Yang himself is also vowing to give one early donor to the group $1,000 a month for an entire year. 

Though Yang dropped out of the White House race after a poor showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, the ideas he advocated for in his campaign and in Humanity Forward helped cultivate a loyal online following and propelled him beyond several other establishment presidential contenders with higher name recognition and beefier campaign accounts.