The early weeks and months with a baby can be one of the most joyous times in life. But when you’re struggling to make ends meet, it can also be rife with financial fretting.
Enter: The Baltimore Baby Fund, a new initiative aiming to give city parents of newborns an economic jumpstart. The Baltimore Baby Fund (formerly Baltimore Baby Bonus) is a proposed charter amendment created by the Maryland Child Alliance, a cohort of teachers, organizers, and advocates who believe that financial relief is essential, not just for those living in poverty to meet their needs, but to live their lives with dignity and autonomy.
To put it simply, it’s designed to make Baltimore “a place where families feel supported raising their children,” said campaign manager Emily Yu.
The initiative reached the mandatory 10,000 signatures required to be certified for the ballot in July, and on August 13, the Baltimore Baby Fund announced on social media that the measure will appear on the ballot this fall, offering renewed hope for a movement designed to support families who have recently welcomed a baby through birth or adoption.
“This November, Baltimore City voters can vote on question I, which will create a fund in the city budget dedicated to supporting the economic well-being of newborns and their families. After 3 years of hard work and unwavering commitment from our amazing volunteers, we are so proud of what our grassroots movement has accomplished,” the message reads.
The three years they refer to includes the team’s previously-launched initiative, the Baltimore Baby Bonus, which would have mandated the city create a fund to be used specifically for universal cash payments to new parents at birth or adoption, with the minimum payment being $1,000.
That measure was certified for the 2024 ballot, but the group was then sued by Mayor Brandon Scott and the City Council to block the amendment, asserting that the way the amendment was structured was unconstitutional because it didn’t aim to make a change to city government but instead took power to allocate funds away from the Mayor and City Council.
In a court ruling siding with the mayor, Justice Shirley M. Watts wrote, “Although it is a well-meant effort to combat childhood poverty, the Baby Bonus Amendment is not an amendment that relates to the form and structure of government in any fundamental sense.”
The ruling continued, “The Baby Bonus Amendment is akin to a legislative enactment in that it mandates the making of mandatory minimum payments to certain residents of the City and encroaches on the City’s discretion to address matters of public health and welfare concerning children and new parents, which… are areas reserved by the General Assembly for local legislation.”
The ruling was a blow to the Baby Bonus team, who wrote in an August 2024 social media post that they were “heartbroken for the families who were counting on the Baby Bonus payment, and who will now struggle that much more to provide for their children.”
The team didn’t stay down for long, however. They quickly regrouped, revising the amendment to address the city’s legal concerns, which meant ditching the specific language that mandated the money would have to be used for universal cash payments to parents and changed their name from Baltimore Baby Bonus to Baltimore Baby Fund.
While the initiative had to drop its $1,000 payment proposal to avoid future litigation, its aim is still to create a fund for new parents. The program’s projected cost is $15 million, or about 0.32% of Baltimore City’s 2026 budget. According to the group, the funding structure was modeled after the Children and Youth Fund, a charter amendment that passed a decade ago and awards grants to organizations providing programming for young people, with help from local economists.
This time, the city would be responsible for how the fund is distributed.
Nate Golden, president of the Maryland Child Alliance, said the language of the amendment leaves plenty of options for the city: it could be “universal, means-tested, cash, in-kind resources, paid leave,” or something else, as long as it “enhances the economic stability of parents with newborns.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Baltimore Beat, but the Baltimore Baby Fund and the mayor’s office put out a joint statement on August 14 cementing the mayor’s support for the initiative. “Mayor Scott has always been supportive of the policy ideas driving the Baltimore Baby Fund campaign, and, now with the necessary adjustments made in the 2026 version, is eager to move it forward,” the statement reads.
The Baltimore Baby Fund comes at a time when universal basic income programs are also being tested across the country. Many of those programs seemed to arrive after cities saw how stimulus checks and other financial assistance programs implemented during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic helped struggling families. Since 2019, more than 150 cities across the country have introduced UBI initiatives, with payment amounts ranging from around $200 to $1,000 a month.
One prominent program that began in 2019 in California, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, gave $500 per month to 125 residents living in low-income neighborhoods for two years. According to a report on the initiative’s impacts by a team of independent researchers, it led to major improvements in both employment and mental health. Participants were also able to pay down debt both during the program as well as after it concluded.
Baltimore City also ran its own pilot program from August 2022 to July 2024, launched by Mayor Brandon Scott, called the Baltimore Young Families Success Fund. It enrolled 18- to 24-year-olds who were either parents or guardians of young children with income at or below 300% of the poverty line. 130 qualified applicants received $1,000 guaranteed income per month, while another 156 served as the control group.
According to a September 2025 report put together by the research and consulting firm Abt Global, the program was massively successful. Not only could families afford to cover their basic needs, but they were able to pay off debt and pay for childcare, removing a major obstacle to employment. Mental health scores, measured by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, improved too, with stress levels dropping below that of the control group even after payments had concluded.
“With less financial stress, BYFSF participants demonstrated better mental health, more peaceful home environments and an increase in quality time between parents and children,” a report summary explains.
As the Maryland Child Alliance works toward a citywide resource for new parents, they’ve partnered with Cherry Hill Strong, a nonprofit aimed at revitalizing the South Baltimore neighborhood, on a pilot program that gives $1,500 payments, as well as $500 in critical care supplies like diaper bags and pack n’ plays, to parents of children born there in 2026. The program, the Cherry Hill Baby Fund, kicked off at the start of 2026 with a $20,000 private donation.
Joshua Bailey, the director of development for Cherry Hill Strong, says that along with its own general operating funds, the sum has grown through contributions from private donations like M&T Bank and Bank of America as well as support from ENOUGH (Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments, and Households), a Maryland state-backed initiative that supports local partnerships that seek to confront poverty.
In order to meet the neighborhood’s needs, the group aims to reach $200,000 “with room to grow” and is about a third of the way to the goal at present. “We hope to sustain this program as part of our overarching Barrier Mitigation Fund, which offsets challenges faced by Cherry Hill residents such as evictions, utility cutoffs, medical expenses, or funeral/burial costs,” Bailey says.
While the program is brand-new this year, the organizers say there are years of data that support the major impacts of lending financial assistance to new parents. “The studies and pilot programs and statistics make it clear that there are both short and long term benefits to providing financial support to parents of newborns at the time of birth,” Yu says.
Those likely benefits are already showing up in Michigan through Rx Kids, a program founded by pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and professor Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan that gives expectant mothers $1,500 mid-pregnancy followed by $500 a month for up to a year after birth. Rx Kids launched just two years ago, but pregnant women who used it received more prenatal care. Preterm birth and low birth weight fell, as did NICU admissions, according to a study on the organization’s impact published in The Lancet this year. The program has enrolled more than 15,704 families across the state and has provided $55.9 million in cash across at least 60 cities, counties, and townships.
Regardless of the data backing up the effectiveness of UBI programs, there’s still skepticism about implementing them nationally. Pushback to social programs isn’t new or surprising, but as the Trump administration has instituted massive cuts to funding for programs like SNAP and Medicaid and prices on necessities like gas and groceries are on the rise due to inflation and the war with Iran, financial need is growing. As for Baltimore families, around 20% currently live under the poverty line.
Golden says that as budgets become more strained, the city needs to act accordingly. “We do not believe it is in the best interest of Baltimore to sit around and wait for Donald Trump and Congress to provide critical support to our families,” he says.
As Yu explains, “most people agree that our country does not do enough for parents and kids.”
“Most people acknowledge the financial burden that comes with having a child. And most people want to see Baltimore be the first city to enact a public program like this.”
This story is published as part of the Baltimore News Collaborative, a project exploring the challenges and successes experienced by young people in Baltimore. The collaborative is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.