About Inclusive Abundance Initiative
Inclusive Abundance Initiative is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization anchoring a movement to foster a more vibrant economy with widespread flourishing. We envision a unified, prosperous America where economic and human potential are unleashed and self-imposed scarcity is no longer a primary concern.
Read more about us here.
About the Abundance Agenda
The Abundance Agenda is the first comprehensive federal policy menu built on the abundance framework. The Agenda will be an educational package of at least 16 bold policy proposals, each illustrating a solution to a major economic or governance bottleneck that holds back opportunities for Americans. While abundance is a capacious concept, the Agenda will advance a specific vision of abundance that prioritizes affordability, economic results at the lower rungs of the income spectrum, robust public systems, and decarbonization. We seek an abundance of:
- Housing, jobs, and paths to economic thriving for all Americans
- Energy for households, businesses, and innovators, particularly from advanced and renewable sources
- Dynamic institutions delivering accelerated progress in science and society — or enabling community and meaning
- Connected, prosperous families and places
Why you should participate
Contributors to the Abundance Agenda will benefit from a high-visibility showcase to a national and highly influential audience for their ideas, as we use it to educate leaders in business, philanthropy, policy and other fields. Proposals will also be reviewed by a range of subject matter experts who will help test, refine, and ultimately broadcast its ideas.
An honorarium will be provided to every qualified contributor whose proposal is selected, with a premium offered for novel quantitative analysis. Additional compensation is selectively available where it is necessary to make a contribution possible.
How to submit
Prospective contributors should submit a proposal at this link that covers the problem-solution basics, discussed below. Further details on what makes a strong proposal are also included below — see “Other Information.”
The basics of a proposal
To be considered complete, a submission should summarize:
- A clear area of harmful scarcity and the case for why unlocking supply addresses primary national objectives (growth, affordability, resiliency, state capacity, etc.).
- A man-made barrier(s) creating that scarcity — whether a regulatory burden that serves narrow interests, procedural requirements that limit creativity, rigid funding categories that prevent multi-pronged approaches, misaligned incentives, or something similar
- The best policy intervention that would overcome that barrier and the features that make it preferable to alternatives
- The recent, high-quality research and/or data that supports the proposal
- If applicable, gaps in knowledge or the details of intervention that would be addressed through the drafting process
Note that the final published piece may be up to 2,000 words.
Projected Project Timeline
- Opening of RFP: April 30, 2026
- Submission Deadline: June 5, 2026
- Selections finalized: ~July
- First drafts: ~August-October
- Final drafts: ~November
Selection decisions will be made by Inclusive Abundance Initiative in consultation with advisors.
Inquiries About the Project
Questions from potential contributors should be directed to Joshua Seawell, Head of Policy [joshua@inclusiveabundance.org]
Press inquiries should be directed to Brianna Johnson [brianna@inclusiveabundance.org].
Other Information
What Makes a Strong Proposal
After confirming the basic elements articulated in “the basics of a proposal,” we will evaluate proposals against the following criteria:
→ Abundance-aligned. Proposals should be consistent with abundance principles (as relevant):
- that increasing the supply of a scarce or expensive good or service is preferable to rationing it or only subsidizing demand for it
- that poorly designed regulation and lack of empowered decision-makers has put the American dream out of reach for many without delivering promised benefits, especially with regard to public sector action and the built environment
- that economic growth is desirable and can be compatible with sustainability and widely shared gains across region, class, race, sex, etc.
- that economic success of one individual or group generally enables the success of others rather than taking away from others
- that targeted, competent government action can dramatically improve markets and lives
- that the measure of policy is its outcomes rather than its process or intentions — and complexity of regulation or program eligibility often creates distance between the two
- that greater technology and innovation are critical to solve many of today’s most challenging problems
→ Appealing. The proposal is broadly compatible with the current landscape of public opinion (and its ebbs and flows) and / or provides a meaningful solution to a high-profile, widely felt problem.
→ Impactful. The problem (e.g., housing costs) is of high importance. According to the best evidence on the topic, and if executed perfectly, the proposed policy would solve or meaningfully ameliorate the problem it seeks to address without causing equal problems in another domain.
→ Actionable. The proposal considers cost and the demands of implementation, including staff capacity, data availability, and realistic timelines.
→ Novel, semi-novel, or rooted in practice. The proposal offers an idea not already dominating the policy discourse. A new application, framing, or synthesis of existing thinking is welcome — as is a wholly new idea or a reform quietly succeeding at the state or local level.
Priority topic areas
We are actively seeking proposals across the eight issue areas below, each listed with a brief and non-comprehensive overview of questions and subtopics we find compelling.
We also encourage submissions that do not fall neatly into one or any category listed below.
→ Workforce
How can we scale opportunities for skill-building and more empowered workers? What new or reformed visa programs could serve as the basis for 5x skilled immigration levels? Some areas of interest: apprenticeships; right-sizing professional licensing processes; H-1B reform and high-skilled immigration streamlining; unemployment insurance reform; facilitating full employment (and sustaining worker thriving in periods without full employment).
→ Opportunity and Place
Which targeted interventions and program design choices can address the persistent, self-perpetuating scarcity of opportunity in key neighborhoods and regions? Some areas of interest: an abundance agenda for black neighborhoods; evaluating, refining, and harmonizing existing place-based development policy programs; building catalytic regional jobs programs.
→ Innovation
How can we align artificial intelligence with human flourishing? How can we accelerate scientific breakthroughs? Some areas of interest: R&D investments in basic science, agriculture, and AI that serves the public interest; reforming grantmaking at the science agencies; the democratization of compute.
→ Housing
How can America close our national shortage of housing so that homelessness and housing cost-burdens plummet in 5-10 years? Some areas of interest: simplifying and improving the public capital stack; encouraging more dynamic building codes.
→ Health Care
How can we use supply to spur national overperformance in health — with falling costs and rising quality-of-life — rather than underperformance? Some areas of interest: practitioner competition through scope of practice; expansion of residency; over-the-counter and prescription drug access reform, including GLP access; clinical trial reform; certificate of need reform.
→ Government Effectiveness
How can the executive branch create and sustain a paradigm shift in the culture of government to prioritize results over process? Some areas of interest: potential executive actions on the culture of government; reforming the APA; conditioning intergovernmental grants on cost-effective execution; public sector applications of AI; penalizing poor performance.
→ Family Policy
How can the nation reduce the cost and burden of child-rearing by a third in 5-10 years? How can we build modern systems for public benefits? Some areas of interest: expanding the most successful child care models; R&D for fertility technology; a unified data platform for federal benefit eligibility; building win-win systems for localities hosting new, regionally or nationally important infrastructure.
→ Energy
How can the U.S. catalyze a wave of new low-carbon power, storage, and distribution that helps reduce energy bills by a third in 5-10 years? How can we scale energy innovation and grid management techniques that vastly enhance efficiency? Some areas of interest: grid management and FERC priorities; public R&D for energy innovation; industrial policy for supply chains (minerals, transformers).