JANUARY 15, 2026

Goodman Philanthropies Awards $250,000 Grant to Aspen Institute to make Trump Accounts work for low-income households

Washington, DC — Goodman Philanthropies today announced a $250,000 grant to the Aspen Institute to support the Financial Security Program’s Early Wealth-Building policy work. The grant will help guide the evolution of Trump Accounts—$1,000 investment accounts established at birth—from initial implementation into a durable, scalable, and bipartisan national asset-building platform that meaningfully advances economic mobility for the nation’s lowest-income households. Separately, this grant provides an additional $100,000 in general operating support to the Aspen Institute.

Why Goodman Philanthropies Invested

If designed and implemented well, Trump Accounts could represent one of the most significant federal investments in child asset-building in decades. The idea is powerful: provide every child with an early financial stake, harness the power of compounding, and normalize long-term saving and investing from birth.

But policy design matters. Without careful attention to enrollment processes, contribution structures, tax treatment, and administration, Trump Accounts risk widening wealth gaps rather than narrowing them. Goodman Philanthropies is investing in this work to help ensure the policy delivers on its promise for families with the fewest resources.

Scope of the Grant

Over the next two years, the Aspen Institute will engage in a number of activities aimed at supporting effective implementation and long-term success of Trump Accounts. The goal is to identify and push for Trump Accounts to be implemented in ways that expand access, drive participation, and reduce, not reinforce, existing wealth disparities. In the near-term, this means encouraging automatic enrollment (not conditional on tax filing), setting strong standards for the financial institutions to ensure strong consumer protections, and enabling progressive supplemental contributions at scale. Examples of specific activities may include:

• Convening cross-sector working groups to identify and document best practices, implementation challenges, and policy solutions.

• Developing tools to track participation, usage patterns, and emerging trends, helping inform continuous improvement.

• Hosting a national Early Wealth-Building Leadership Forum that brings together leaders from government, philanthropy, finance, and community organizations.

• Advancing a national communications strategy—including publications, events, and multimedia content—to build broad, bipartisan understanding and support for early wealth-building policies.

• Actionable recommendations that strengthen uptake, usability, and equity.

About the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program

Achieving transformational change—making financial security for all a top national priority—requires innovation, trust, and leadership across sectors. The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program builds relationships, advances evidence-based research, and facilitates deep dialogue among public, private, nonprofit, and community leaders to address the most pressing financial challenges facing American households today.

About Goodman Philanthropies

Goodman Philanthropies supports innovative, evidence-based solutions that expand economic mobility across the United States. We prioritize approaches that combine rigor, innovation, and scale to move the needle on poverty and opportunity. Our work is generously funded by Bennett & Meg Goodman, who are committed to dismantling barriers to upward mobility through strategic, impact-driven philanthropy. This grant is part of our broader wealth-building strategy, which aims to fund new and innovative tools, policies, and ideas that enable more low to moderate-income Americans to participate in asset-building as a mechanism for sustained, intergenerational economic mobility. Early wealth-building policies and programs, such as Trump Accounts, represent one such innovation that we believe, if designed well, have high potential to drive U.S. economic mobility at scale.

To learn more about our work and our portfolio of grants, visit www.goodmanphilanthropies.org.