It’s a network of people creating a more stable and secure economy. By sharing money electronically and automatically we’re able to generate a guaranteed income and combat economic insecurity on a weekly basis.
Comingle members pledge 7% of their income to the member community. All pledges are pooled together and paid out equally on a weekly basis.
The pledges and payouts are settled through a single weekly transfer so that members get money on weeks when their income is low and give money when it’s high.
Comingle is a modern, tech-driven take on the concept of Universal Basic Income and builds upon a wealth of great ideas that have been proposed over the years. It's a bit different though, in that it side-steps all the messy government politics, and the big question of "how do we pay for it?" is answered directly by the mechanics of the system. (Short answer: We pay for it by deciding to.)
If you'd like to learn more about Universal Basic Income (UBI) just click here.
No. Anonymity is a key ingredient in Comingle. While it might be nice to put names and faces to all the great people who have joined up to help each other, displaying any information about individual members could potentially put personal financial information at risk.
See our Privacy Policy for more information.
No. Unlike other assistance programs, Comingle doesn’t need to know anything about your personal background or circumstances to decide if you need help or not. Whatever troubles you’re up against, everyone here knows that a little extra money will make them easier to face.
By providing access to your banking data, Comingle can quickly determine whether you need money or not, based on the simple assumption that the less money you have, the more you need.
Your data is encrypted and protected both in-transit and at rest on our servers by the latest bank-grade security standards and protocols. We never see or store your bank account passwords. That information remains confidential between you and your bank. In addition, our networks and servers are constantly monitored for advanced persistent threats (APT’s) and other threats to your data.
Comingle uses a broad array of fraud detection and prevention techniques to protect our community from abuse. In addition to conventional first- and third- party fraud, we also check for a more recent threat called “synthetic fraud.” We are also on the lookout for money-laundering schemes on the part of nefarious organizations.
Yes—but not in the way most companies do. Comingle retains 2% of all contributions to cover operating costs and compensate the team behind the platform. That 2% is designed to be enough—no more, no less.
We’ve capped salaries and profit-sharing, and we have no outside investors pushing for growth at all costs. Our goal isn’t to maximize profits—it’s to build a system that works.
Once the basics are covered, any remaining funds will be used to improve the platform, expand member benefits, and strengthen the community.
Funding for Comingle comes through the ITSA Foundation, a non-profit that supports ambitious projects aimed at establishing unconditional universal basic income (UBI) through research, storytelling, and implementation.
Comingle began as a personal side-project by founder and designer Josh Worth, along with co-founders Paul Barros and Conrad Shaw, who sustained it for years through "sweat equity" and very limited personal funds.
As interest grew, the project received grants ranging from $3,000 to $50,000 from supporters including the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity, Income Movement, and other private donors.
A successful crowdfunding campaign in 2023 raised $78,745 from 633 people, giving the project the boost it needed to continue.
Weekly processing allows the system to adapt quickly to changes in members’ income and needs. It keeps the network dynamic and responsive.
Yes! By partnering with the ITSA Foundation, our non-profit fiscal sponsor, larger organizations can choose to subsidize the Comingle payout or establish a self-sustaining guaranteed income program by targeting aid to specific zip codes. Please get in touch for more details.
The world is changing fast. Comingle membership helps provide economic stability for yourself and others.
For those with steady incomes, it’s a convenient tool to give a little boost between paychecks and cushion the blow when there’s an unexpected setback.
If you're someone who believes in giving back by paying it forward, Comingle is an efficient and forward-thinking option that can be set up in minutes and calculates your contribution in proportion to your capacity for giving.
Even for the wealthiest members, Comingle provides a humanizing alternative to top-down charity—inviting everyone to engage in a shared system rooted in mutual dignity, not dependence.
While the spirit of mutual aid is the same, Comingle is automated, anonymous, and structured to scale, removing friction and favoritism by using real-time financial data to determine where funds go.
That would definitely shake things up. First things first, though. Let's get some food on the table we've got before we try building a new one.
That’s definitely a good question to be asking these days. But if you check your bank account after a week with little to no income, you should see a deposit from Comingle. The deposit should match the math that appears in your ledger.
We’re also happy to share our financial statements upon request.
Probably? Depends on which one you ask. We kind of got tired of waiting for them.
If the fear of going broke is the only thing that makes people productive — then yeah, we might be in trouble.
BTW — you can actually make some decent money as a gamer these days.
Not to worry. The robots are coming to the rescue. You’ll be fine.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Comingle is currently accessible to anyone 18 years of age or older in the U.S. with a bank account that's been active for at least 3 months and is registered for online banking.
We look forward to making Comingle accessible to other countries, and providing options for those without bank accounts.
Not yet.
It should take less than 5 minutes. We’ve tried to make the process as painless as possible while ensuring we maintain the integrity of the platform.
No. Members with no income at all will still pledge 7% of their income, just like everyone else. 7% of zero income is zero dollars. Math is fun like that.
Comingle uses the data from financial institutions as the basis for a ground-breaking basic income network powered by mutual trust and generosity. By analyzing the data our members have agreed to share with us, we gain an unprecedented view into who needs money and who has it to spare in any given week, along with the ability to transfer funds quickly and efficiently.
We hate the waitlist, but the system works best when there’s a balanced mix of incomes. If that balance is off, we pause new signups until things even out.
Yes. When you first connect your bank to Comingle, we’ll load up some of your past transaction data to give you an idea of how membership would impact your financial situation. No real money will actually be transferred during the preview.
We’re assuming nobody is interested in sharing money with robots, scammers or trolls; that means we need to make sure that you’re not a robot, scammer or troll. To ensure the security of our platform and comply with federal regulations, Comingle and its partners use identity verification tools to make sure each member is an actual person trying to make their way in the world like the rest of us. This process creates a "Personal Verified Customer Account" through Dwolla’s banking partners which is accessible to you through your Comingle wallet.
In most cases, identity verification is an automated process that occurs in near real-time. You’ll be guided to enter some personal information, and the system will work to verify it instantly. If there are any issues, you may be prompted to re-enter your information or provide additional documentation.
To create your Personal Verified Customer Account, you’ll be asked to provide your full name, date of birth, and the last 4 digits of your social security number. This information is used solely for the purpose of identity verification and is transmitted securely through third-party services. (See our Privacy Policy for more information.)
In some cases, the verification system may ask for some additional proof of identity. The forms of acceptable documentation include non-expired, U.S. government-issued (state or federal) photo IDs, such as:
No. Comingle uses a security feature called SSN fingerprinting. If someone attempts to create a new account using a Social Security Number that is already associated with an existing Comingle account, the new account will be automatically suspended. This ensures that that money is shared between individual people, not just bank accounts.
Comingle is designed to work smoothly for people who already share money through a joint bank account.
If there are two or more names associated with a bank account, each account holder can connect their own Comingle membership to the joint account and receive the weekly payout. Pledges made from that account are split evenly between the linked members.
You can cancel anytime with no hassle. However, we also have to protect the community from members coming and going only when it’s advantageous to their bank accounts. So, if you go, just know that in order to come back you'll either need to “buy back in” (catch up with what you would have owed to the community if you’d never left) or wait 2 years before renewing again with a clean slate.
You don’t owe this money to anyone. It’s not a loan that needs to be paid back. The hope is that you’ll soon find yourself in a position to generate enough income and give back to the community that helped you make that happen.
Because the amount you receive is offset by your income-based pledges, you'll only receive money when your income is below average. But on a week when you have no income, you can expect that an amount greater than $30 will be transferred to your bank account.
The weekly payout fluctuates depending on how many members are in the Comingle community, the amount of our combined earnings, and the size of any outside subsidies.
The payout is each member’s share of the weekly pooled funds—in other words, an equal “slice of the pie.”
The amount is the total of all pledges (minus fees and adjustments) divided by the number of members. It works out to be about the size of the average pledge.
Because the payout is applied to everyone’s ledger, regardless of how much was pledged, it is essentially guaranteed income for all members.
Try the estimator tool to get a better understanding of how the payout and pledges offset one another.
Once your account is activated, distribution payments will occur automatically on a weekly basis. Money is transferred from the Comingle member pool fund to your Comingle wallet. If you have opted for automatic wallet withdrawals, funds are then transferred via ACH to your primary linked bank account.
On weeks when your pledges are less than the amount of the payout, a payment for the difference gets sent to your wallet on Saturday night. When your wallet balance reaches the amount specified under “auto-transfer” (in your wallet settings) money will then be transferred directly to your primary bank account and it should be available by Wednesday.
You can also choose to withdraw wallet funds at any time using the “Transfer now” button. Each member is entitled to one free withdrawal per week, including auto-transfers, so a manual transfer can sometimes trigger a transaction fee.
Distributions are sent via Standard ACH Credits. Once a payment is initiated, it typically takes 1-2 business days for the funds to appear in your bank account. Bank holidays and weekends can sometimes affect the timing of when you receive your funds.
In many cases, no, but assistance programs have so many complicated and changing rules and different ways of monitoring participants that we can't make any promises. If you're worried that a weekly bank deposit from Comingle might disqualify you from other benefits, you can still safely sign up for a preview membership for as long as you like, but please make sure you have all the facts about your benefits before activating the full membership.
No. The money you receive from Comingle is a gift with no strings attached. The total amount received by you or any other member will be less than $15,000 per year, below the IRS’ current annual exclusion for gifted income.
If it’s been more than 3-5 business days since a distribution was sent and you have not received it, first, make sure your bank account is still connected to Comingle, then contact your bank to see if there are any pending deposits. If you still need assistance, contact our support team at = comingle+support @comingle.us.
Contributions are gifts you share with others through the Comingle network. While the system calculates each member’s contribution, no one receives a bill —and there’s no debt or interest if it goes unpaid. It’s not an investment, and it’s not charity. It’s money offered up to those who need it more, guided by the community’s shared banking data to determine how much is given and where it goes.
The amount you contribute varies from week to week, depending on your income. A contribution is the difference between your pledges and the payout. This generally means you won’t be giving money unless your income exceeds $500 in a week.
For a better answer, try our handy estimator tool.
When your income is above average, your contribution transfer will be initiated on Saturday night.
Just like you, Comingle defines income as your “hard-earned money.” We recognize how precious that money can be and that there are thousands of companies trying to get their hands on it every minute of the day.
Technically speaking, your bank, and also Plaid (the service you authorize to share transaction data with Comingle) both assign categories to the deposits in your account. When a deposit over $10 is categorized as “payroll” or “earnings,” our system treats it as income.
Some deposits are categorized less specifically, so Comingle’s algorithm makes a determination based on typical income patterns, usually erring on the side of “not income.”
From time to time, our system will encounter deposits that require further review and you’ll receive a notification asking for your input. Your timely responses to these notices will help us understand the particulars of your income situation and keep things running smoothly for everyone.
A pledge is the commitment you make to help support the rest of the community. Though every member has different income each week, they’ve each pledged to share 7% of it with everyone else. However, because you also receive the payout like everyone else, the actual money you contribute is always less than your pledge.
To ensure the integrity of the system, each Comingle member provides access to their online banking using a third-party service called Plaid, a secure and well-established system for linking banks to electronic financial services. If you use apps like Venmo, Acorns, or Coinbase, then you've used Plaid before.
Once a bank connection is established, Comingle is alerted when an income deposit over $10 is made in your account. 7% of the deposited amount becomes part of your weekly pledge.
Some examples:
In most cases, you'll have the option to request that a pledge is subtracted from your ledger if it's for a deposit that was mistakenly categorized as income.
Yes. When you see a pledge, either upcoming or in the past, that doesn’t look right, you can expand it for more details. You’ll see a link that says “Adjust this pledge” which will allow you to submit an adjustment. It may take some time for an adjustment to be applied to your account.
Once an adjustment is verified for a pledge that you already paid, you will receive a refund for that incorrect pledge in the next payout cycle. For adjustments on new pledges that haven’t been part of a weekly payout yet, it will simply be removed from your upcoming pledge amount.
Not to worry. We’ll work with you to categorize your income appropriately, and assume you’re going to lose 25% of any pre-tax income come tax time. That way you're onlypledging 7% of what’s left over after Uncle Sam takes his cut.
Yes. 7% of bank deposits from cash programs like TANF and SSI will be considered part of a pledge. Recipients will still benefit from Comingle, just not quite as much as those who could use government help but don't receive it.
Pledges based on government benefits might, at first, seem counter-productive to our mission of getting money to where it's needed, but it's just a way of accounting for the fact that the American safety net is often more holes than string.
Not directly. Contributions are pooled and distributed anonymously, so you won’t see the names or personal details of individual recipients. That’s by design—Comingle is built to protect privacy, ensure fairness, and amplify our collective generosity.
We share regular reports showing how many members received support each week and how funds moved through the network. You may not see the smiles of every recipient, but hopefully you’ll imagine them when you see the scale of the impact you’re part of.
Yes! If you would like to support the effort to generate a guaranteed income program, but you'd prefer not to become a full member, visit our "Just Give" page to learn about tax-deductible contribution options.
Comingle is not a 501c3 charitable organization, so member contributions are not tax deductible. If tax exemption is a concern, please explore our “Just Give” options, made possible by Income to Support All (ITSA) Foundation, Comingle’s non-profit partner.
Once your account is activated, any contribution payments will occur automatically on a weekly basis. Money is transferred from your Comingle wallet and/or your primary bank account to the Comingle pool fund.
Transfers from your wallet to the Comingle pool are instantaneous. Contributions from your linked banks account are sent via Standard ACH, which typically takes a total of 3-4 business days to process. The funds will be debited from your bank account and transferred to Comingle.
When you sign up, you’ll be asked to set a minimum bank balance. A transfer to Comingle will never cause your balance to dip below this amount. Any unpaid or partially-paid pledges are carried over to subsequent weeks and deducted from your future payouts.
The maximum amount per transaction is $1,000. In cases where pledges exceed this amount (when income in a single week exceeds ~$14,000) multiple transactions will be initiated to cover the contribution.
Yes. You will receive standard operational email notifications confirming that your transaction has been initiated and when it has been successfully processed.
Transaction fees are deducted from the community pooled funds before calculating the week’s payout prior to distribution.
If you received an email telling you a payment has failed, it probably means you need to reconnect your bank to Comingle by entering your login credentials. Check your alerts or bank account settings from the profile menu in the upper right of the app.
Failed transfers are factored into the following week's pledge to make up for the shortfall to the community fund.
When you activate your membership, Dwolla, our payments partner, will assign you a “verified customer account,” which is a virtual bank account that allows money to move freely and quickly between you and Comingle’s community fund. Your Comingle wallet is your view of the balance in this account.
A primary account is the bank account that’s linked to your Comingle wallet. Your contributions and distribution payments go in and out of that account.
In your profile settings, select “Bank accounts.” Look for the name of the account you want to switch to and select the link that says “Set as primary account.”
This can happen if your bank changes its security settings or login expires. Reconnect through the app to resume service.
