The Abide Fund
Dignity-first direct assistance for Hampton Roads.
The Abide Fund provides direct, unconditional financial assistance to neighbors in Hampton Roads facing hardship. No conditions. No case management. No hoops. We believe that people in crisis know what they need, and our job is to get resources into their hands with speed, dignity, and trust.
Most help comes with homework.
Prove your poverty. Relive your worst day for a caseworker. Wait in line, fill out the form, hope.
We're building something different. Help that trusts you. Help that moves at the speed of the crisis, not the speed of the paperwork. Help that treats you like what you are: a neighbor.
We don't ask why someone is struggling. We ask one question: how can we help right now?
It works. The research says so.
This isn't wishful thinking. Unconditional cash assistance is one of the most studied ideas in modern poverty relief, with over 300 independent studies and more than 160 pilot programs across 38 states behind it.
Full-time employment among participants in Stockton, California's SEED demonstration.
On-time bill payment in Jackson, Mississippi's Magnolia Mother's Trust.
Of unhoused participants in Denver secured their own housing within a year.
Of funds went to alcohol or tobacco, across every major study.
When you trust people, they make good decisions. The evidence is no longer the question. The question is why Hampton Roads doesn't have this yet.
Want to dig into the research yourself? We'd love that, actually.
- SEED: Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration · the nation's first mayor-led guaranteed income demonstration, with full evaluation findings.
- The Magnolia Mother's Trust evaluation reports · the longest-running guaranteed income program in the country, cohort by cohort.
- Denver Basic Income Project research · a randomized controlled trial with people experiencing homelessness, run with the University of Denver.
- Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard · data from 30+ pilots nationwide, from the Stanford Basic Income Lab, Penn's Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
Hampton Roads is the only major metro in Virginia without a guaranteed income pilot. Richmond launched its Resilience Initiative in 2020. Our neighbors deserve the same chance.
That's the gap we exist to close.
In formation. On purpose.
The Abide Fund is securing its fiscal sponsorship, building its operational foundation, and doing this the right way: slowly, carefully, and fully funded before a single promise is made to a single neighbor.
We'd rather build it right than build it fast.
Want to follow the journey or start a conversation? Get in touch.
Why we abide.
The Abide Fund grew out of a simple, half-joking, entirely sincere idea: that the world's most laid-back philosophy might hold the answer to one of its heaviest problems. That taking it easy isn't laziness. It's resistance to a world that insists on your panic.
Abiding is active presence. It's finding stillness in the swirl. It's the belief that a person in crisis doesn't need to be fixed, managed, or saved. They need time. Time to breathe. Time to stabilize. Time to remember they matter.
The truths we hold
Help is holy when it comes without strings. Support offered with conditions isn't support. It's a transaction. We offer compassion without expectation. We don't rescue or fix. We flow beside.
Labels are traps. Nobody should have to carry a trauma resume to receive care. Nobody should have to prove their suffering to a stranger with a clipboard. Being human is enough.
Trust is the whole model. We believe people's stories without turning their pain into paperwork. Every study of unconditional cash backs this up, but honestly, we'd believe it anyway. It's how neighbors treat each other.
What this looks like in practice
- Trust over bureaucracy
- People are not cases to be managed. They are neighbors to be served.
- Presence over performance
- We measure impact by lives steadied, not metrics inflated.
- Compassion without conditions
- Aid is given freely. No strings. No surveillance. No judgment.
- Sacred chill
- We honor the slow, the quiet, the gentle. The world rewards urgency. We reward abiding.
- Simplicity over complexity
- If a process adds complexity without serving the neighbor, it gets cut.
"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners."
The Stranger, The Big Lebowski
Okay, so here's the part most nonprofits would bury on page nine of a PDF nobody reads: The Abide Fund is also a ministry. A Dudeist one. Ordained and everything. We'll wait while you read that sentence again.
Dudeism is the world's slowest-growing religion, and that's by design, man. It borrows from Taoism, Zen, and one profoundly rewatchable film, and its whole theology fits on a bumper sticker: take it easy. That's it. That's the sermon. But sit with it a minute and something old and true starts humming underneath. Change is the only constant. Panic doesn't stop the river. Force doesn't stop the river. The only move that's ever worked is learning to abide: grounded, open-hearted, unshaken, maybe holding a beverage.
Now, before anybody gets nervous: this is a ministry of provision, not preaching. Nobody who ever receives help from this Fund will hear a sermon, sit through a pitch, or need to believe one single thing we believe. New shit does not have to come to light. The theology is the giving. That's the whole liturgy, and services let out early.
We're restoring names, not enforcing labels.
We're abiding with people, not saving anyone. Saving is for bowling.
Sit with the unhappy and the unlucky.
A whole shelf of the world's success literature says to guard your energy and steer clear of people in hard seasons. That's a real bummer of a shelf. Compassion isn't a battery that drains. It's a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it, and it never once asked to see anybody's resume.
Share the lunch freely.
The cynic says nothing's free, so every gift must be a trap. Man, what an exhausting way to live. A gift with no strings is one of the most sacred things one human being can hand another. The trick is that there is no trick. There was never a trick. Enjoy the sandwich.
Help people become gloriously independent.
Real help doesn't create clients. It creates elbow room. You offer the stability, then you get out of the way, because the person always knew where they were headed. They just needed the world to quit yelling at them long enough to remember.
Let the credit flow wherever it wants.
We're not doing this for applause, and honestly the applause would harsh the whole thing. The most beautiful sight in this line of work isn't a gala or a billboard. It's somebody finally sleeping, deeply, in a safe bed, after years of one eye open.
And the final, unwritten law that holds all the others: just abide, man. Everything else is, like, noise.
Go deeper, if the spirit moves you
- Dudeism: The Church of the Latter-Day Dude · the mothership. Home of 800,000 ordained priests worldwide. Ordination is free, if you're curious. No obligations. Obviously.
- What is Dudeism? · the church's own explanation, tracing the lineage from Lao Tzu to the bowling alley.
- The Tao of the Dude and The Abide Guide, by Dudeism founder Oliver Benjamin (the latter with Dwayne Eutsey) · the closest things the tradition has to scripture, and the two books that shaped this Fund most.
- The Founder's Manifesto · our own contribution to the canon: a chapter-by-chapter walk through abiding in liberty, leisure, simplicity, friendship, and the whole beautiful mess. Written late at night, meant to be read slow.
The journey to abiding.
The Abide Fund started the way a lot of true things start: as a joke that refused to stay one.
The founder, a veteran, a father, and an ordained Dudeist priest, kept circling one stubborn question: why does help hurt so much to receive? Why does a person at their lowest have to run a gauntlet of forms, interviews, and proof-of-suffering just to get what any neighbor would hand them freely?
The answer, it turned out, wasn't a better gauntlet. It was no gauntlet at all.
What began as a personal practice of direct kindness grew into research, and the research became conviction. Unconditional cash assistance isn't a fringe idea anymore. It's a movement with hundreds of studies behind it, real programs proving it in cities across the country, and one glaring absence on the map: here.
How we're structured
The Abide Fund operates under fiscal sponsorship, which means a partner 501(c)(3) organization provides our legal home, compliance infrastructure, and financial oversight. This is a deliberate, permanent choice, not a stepping stone. It keeps our operations lean, our accountability high, and the maximum share of every future dollar pointed where it belongs: at neighbors.
How we're building
Slowly. On purpose. A few commitments shape everything:
Funded before promised.
We will never enroll a neighbor until their full support is already secured. No one's stability will ever depend on our fundraising luck.
Do no harm.
Cash assistance can affect public benefits if handled carelessly. Every neighbor we serve will be screened by a qualified benefits counselor before any support begins, so that our help never accidentally takes more than it gives.
Prove each step.
No shortcuts, no scaling before the foundation holds. One neighbor served well matters more than a hundred served carelessly.
Meet the founder
At 25, I joined the Navy. For six years I was never rooted, never home. I stood at the bow of an aircraft carrier where sky and ocean bleed into each other. I heard a church bell chime in a tower a thousand years older than my country. One night I watched the sea itself light up, bioluminescence stretching horizon to horizon like the world-serpent of the old myths, and felt how small and lucky I was.
But the season I think about most was quieter. Waiting for my training slot at NPTU Ballston Spa, I was held on full pay with no duties. For a few months I was simply provided for, no proving, no earning, no fear. I felt safe. I abided. And I never forgot what that kind of security does for a human being.
The Abide Fund exists to give my neighbors that same season. I'm not guessing it works. I lived it.
Veteran. Father. Dudeist. This is the way.
Help that exists right now.
The Abide Fund is still in formation, but need doesn't wait for launch dates. If you or someone you love is facing a crisis in Hampton Roads today, these organizations are doing real work right now.
Housing Crisis Hotline · Greater Hampton Roads
The regional starting point for anyone facing a housing crisis. Operated by ForKids, the hotline connects callers to shelter, case management, and community resources. From James City County, Williamsburg, or outside the area: 1 (866) 750-4431.
Virginia 211
Referrals to food, housing, healthcare, and human services of every kind. When you don't know where to start, start here.
LINK of Hampton Roads · Newport News
Housing solutions for individuals, families, and veterans, plus emergency services, a food pantry, and the PORT winter shelter program.
H.E.L.P. Inc. · Hampton
Winter shelter (A Night's Welcome), family shelter, transitional housing, food pantry, and free medical and dental clinics for the uninsured.
Union Mission Ministries · Norfolk
Emergency shelter for men, women, and children, meals, clothing, and recovery programs. Serving Hampton Roads since 1892.
Four Oaks Day Service Center · Newport News
A one-stop day center: showers, laundry, meals, mail, computer access, and help with housing and employment applications.
Chesapeake Cares Resource Center · Chesapeake
Showers, laundry, breakfast and lunch, mail, lockers, application assistance, and winter shelter intake for the CAST program.
This list is offered as a neighborly pointer, not an endorsement or guarantee of services. Hours and offerings change; contact each organization directly to confirm.
Start a conversation.
The Abide Fund is in its formation season, and formation seasons run on conversations. We'd love to hear from you if you are:
- A community organization serving Hampton Roads neighbors and curious about how our work might complement yours.
- A researcher or evaluator interested in the guaranteed income evidence base or a future evaluation partnership.
- A fellow traveler in the unconditional cash movement with wisdom to share.
- Or just a neighbor who read all this and wants to say hey.
Email: hello@theabidefund.org (placeholder)
Location: Hampton Roads, Virginia
A note on timing: because the Fund is pre-launch, we are not yet able to accept requests for assistance or financial contributions. If you're facing a crisis today, please see our Community Resources. Real help exists right now, and we'd be honored to point you toward it.