German entrepreneur Martin Bohmeyer founded Mein Grundeinkommen in 2014, after he quit working as a web developer to live on his shares of two companies he had helped to found. The latter provided him with a “no-strings-attached” salary of about €12,000 a year. Drawing inspiration from his own experience, Bohmeyer began crowdsourcing money to be distributed to individuals in the form of year-long “basic incomes” of €1000 per month.

Mein Grundeinkommen’s first crowdfunded “basic incomes” were awarded just under two years ago, on September 18, 2014. Since this time, the initiative has continued to be immensely successfully–having now raised enough money to fund over 40 individuals for a year.

On August 23, Mein Grundeinkommen will be giving away at least seven of its basic incomes, including its 50th.

For more information about Mein Grundeinkommen and the upcoming drawing, see its website (in German). In honor of the upcoming drawing, a recent post (also in German) reflects upon 50 things that Mein Grundeinkommen learned since its founding.

Background about Mein Grundeinkommen from Basic Income News:

Josh Martin, “Michael Bohmeyer Starts Crowdfunding Organization to Finance Individual Basic Incomes” (August 10, 2014).

Karl Widerquist, “Someone will win a basic income for a year” (August 23, 2014).

Jonny West, “Mein Grundeinkommen June 2016 update” (June 1, 2016).

Image: Mein Grundeinkommen‘s official banner for the upcoming give-away.

Post reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan.

This basic income news made possible in part by Kate’s patrons on Patreon.