Volunteer for BIEN

We need your effort and ideas to help spread the word about Basic Income.

BIEN is an all-volunteer organization. We have no paid labor and hardly any budget. And so we have created several volunteer taskforces to work on projects over the coming year or more. Some of these taskforces have been around for years, but most of them are just getting started, and a few of them are just ideas at this point. We invite volunteers to take part in any and all of these taskforces, to help shape them, and to decide what needs to be done. Most of these taskforces have an open structure chosen by the taskforce members themselves.

We also ask volunteers to join existing taskforces, and they can also suggest additional task forces. What taskforces BIEN ultimately has will be driven largely by what goals our volunteers choose to pursue.

To get more info about any single taskforce contact the point-person listed for the task force.

To volunteer, please contact the point person(s) (listed below) for the taskforce(s) that most interests you. If you’re not sure which suits you best, or if you have an idea for a new taskforce, contact Louise Haagh <louise.haagh@york.ac.uk> (BIEN chair).

Existing and proposed taskforces:



BIEN’s Basic Income News: This is BIEN’s news service and the only news service in the world dedicated entirely to the issue of Basic Income. It is BIEN’s most active and visible taskforce. The work and structure of Basic Income News is described in BIEN’s EC functions. Three members of the EC and many volunteers are in this task force. (See Volunteer for Basic Income News for more information or to apply to volunteer.)

Point person: André Coelho <ascmenow@gmail.com>



Affiliate Outreach: This taskforce is very active and energetic. It’s job is to coordinate BIEN’s interaction with its dozens of affiliates around the world to plan joint strategy for research and educational activities to advance public knowledge and understanding of basic income and of public policy developments and debates linked to basic income. It helps the Local Organizing Committee plan BIEN’s yearly academic congress, such as by organizing a session in which affiliates report on their efforts to educate the public about basic income.

Point Person: Jenna van Draanen <jennavandraanen@gmail.com>.

Public Outreach: This committee is currently being spun off the affiliates outreach taskforce. It will aid in furthering joint events among relevant organisations and the wider public around the world to help educate citizens, and offer research-based engagement with local public officials and citizens, and support informed public debate and increase understanding of Basic Income. This taskforce will also investigate how to expand BIEN’s representation at relevant policy-making bodies and think tanks. This committee does not yet have an point person. In the meantime, contact Louise Haagh <louise.haagh@york.ac.uk> (chair of BIEN), Pablo E. Yanes Rizo <pyanes2007@gmail.com>, and Ana Klincic Andrews <anaklincicandrews@gmail.com>.

Social media: This taskforce is a subcommittee of BIEN’s public outreach committee. It consolidate all BIEN’s social media activities on Facebook and other platforms. It’s a very visible taskforce with tens of thousands of followers on Facebook alone. It is in need of more volunteers so that we can do more things.

Point person: Jason Burke Murphy <jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com>.

Crowdfunding/fundraising taskforce: This taskforce will find ways to use our website, NewsFlash, social media presence, and other avenues to raise funds. It is working on a strategy to promote donations to BIEN online and elsewhere.

It has no point person yet, but the current members of the taskforce are:

Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com)>

Louise Haagh <louise.haagh@york.ac.uk>

Aoife Hegarty <aoife.hegarty@gmail.com>

Ana Klincic Andrews <anaklincicandrews@gmail.com>

Website taskforce: The role of this taskforce is improve the functioning and content of BIEN’s website. This taskforce needs a webmaster(s) and anyone with web-skills to maintain the website. It also needs people to decide how to create on BIEN’s website a depository of research and expertise: to consolidate BIEN’s web-page as a place interested parties can locate relevant experts and find information on policy studies, experiments, and published research on basic income and related topics.

It currently does not have a Point Person. To get involved contact Louise Haagh <louise.haagh@york.ac.uk>.

Research Taskforce: This taskforce is working on creating a online database of research on basic income, and to improve research on basic income in any way it can.

Point person: Kate McFarland <faceless.watcher@gmail.com>

Point person: Toru Yamamori <toruyamamori@googlemail.com>

Wikipedia Taskforce: This taskforce is a subcommittee of the research committee. It’s goal is to improve the breadth, depth, and accuracy about Basic Income on Wikipedia.

Point person: Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com>

We hope you will get involved.

-Karl Widerquist, Vice-Chair <Karl@Widerquist.com>

-Louise Haagh, Chair <louise.haagh@york.ac.uk>