The truism holds true: what people who don’t have money need most is a bit of money. The Neighbors Trust is about neighbors coming together to provide some money to neighbors who are in a particularly precarious moment of need right now.

The Neighbors Trust is a private fund that provides financial support to vulnerable neighbors by way of direct, no strings attached cash transfers. We provide a fixed amount of money over a fixed period of time to eligible recipients. See below for program details. This model is often called Guaranteed Income, or GI, though it goes by other names in other places, and is a well-researched and well-respected means of effectively providing direct support to those who most need it. It is “no-strings attached” because we trust recipients to make the best decisions about their household’s most urgent needs.

The Neighbors Trust was set up by Rona Buchalter as a donor-advised fund (DAF) at The Philadelphia Foundation in early 2025. Your donation comes to us through The Philadelphia Foundation, a 501(c)3, meaning that your gifts to The Neighbors Trust are always fully tax-deductible to you, and are then passed through to our receiving 501(c)3 community partner, which distributes the funds to their eligible community members.

The Neighbors Trust believes that investing in our neighbors right here in our own community is the right thing to do right now, particularly in this time of chaos when many of us feel both sickened and impotent by what we see happening around us. By doing this together, with and for our neighbors, we seek to build a stronger community for us all, young and old, those living with wealth or in poverty, now and into the future.

Direct cash transfer programs (aka guaranteed income, or “GI”) is a very well-established and well-researched method of supporting people in times of need, in the US and around the world. It is the most direct, most immediate, and most cost effective method of moving money to those who most need it. It is also the simplest and most respectful way to provide support. The truism holds true: what people who don’t have money need most is a bit of money.

Research consistently shows that well-designed GI programs reduce income volatility in the household and significantly improve the mental health and wellbeing of enrolled participants. With these no-strings-attached funds, recipients strengthen their local economies and are able to weather the moment with better household nutrition, more housing security, and more dignity. Many studies also see improvements in employment, improved ability to sustain a $400 emergency, and more ability and willingness to make choices and take risks.

If you'd like to learn more about the Guaranteed Income model, or read about pilot projects that have happened all around the country, a great starting place is at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research.

So many reasons, but let’s look at infant health and household finances.

We know that cash payments improve nutrition and we know unequivocally that better maternal nutrition during pregnancy makes for healthier moms and healthier babies too.

Research from the NIH shows that providing cash during pregnancy and infancy boosts baby’s birth weight and improves food security. We know too that the first year of life is unequivocally the most critical of a baby’s life for brain development and that improved maternal nutrition improves baby’s brain development and function at birth, as well as reducing chronic health conditions like asthma.

Beyond this, pregnancy and childbirth can be emotionally and financially difficult times. Along with the exciting dreams of a sweet baby to hold come lots of unknowns, from the health of the baby to its impact on household dynamics to, let’s be real, the impact on household finances.

An extra person is expensive. A new parent can expect to shell out at least $10,000 in the first year of a baby’s life just for the basics.

Some first-year baby expenses:

$1500 for average-cost diapers

$300 for wipes

$1500 for average priced formula + some baby food in the later months

And it certainly doesn’t end there. Add in a crib, a stroller, a car seat, baby clothing, books and toys, plus non-negotiable expenses like healthcare and at least occasional childcare and that $10,000 can quickly climb to $20,000. Play around with The First Year Baby Cost Calculator at Baby Center and see which baby care items you would want to do without. These can be impossible costs for a household already living in poverty to absorb.

In short, investing in pregnant moms has enormous returns in a healthier and stronger (and less stressed out) mom, baby, and community.

Research consistently shows that immigrants grow our communities and economies, not to mention growing our food and building our homes, becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs. They work hard to have a better and safer life for themselves and their families and deserve to have dignity, autonomy, health, and safety while they do that.

Yet we see right in front of us that immigrants are being inhumanely targeted in our communities. The sort of things we have been seeing recently are always a violation of basic human rights and dignity, it is especially galling to see in this country, given our history and tradition of building and strengthening our country by welcoming wave after wave of hard-working immigrants.

The Neighbors Trust is 100% funded with private donations, given generously to directly help others in our community. In other words, it only exists because of the generosity of our community supporters. That’s you! See below for ways you can get involved.