# Liberty Owner Clara Wu Tsai Is Funding No-Strings Cash Payments for New Moms in One of Brooklyn's Poorest Neighborhoods > Through her Social Justice Fund, Clara Wu Tsai is bankrolling a guaranteed-income program for new mothers in Brownsville, Brooklyn — her latest bet alongside small-business lending, a startup accelerator, and the New York Liberty. - Source: Money Standard - Canonical URL: https://moneystandard.co.uk/article/clara-wu-tsai-brownsville-guaranteed-income - Author: Money Standard Newsroom - Section: Business - Published: 2026-10-14T15:55:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-14T15:55:00.000Z - Tags: Philanthropy, WNBA --- Clara Wu Tsai, vice chair of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and governor of the WNBA's New York Liberty, is putting her philanthropic arm behind a guaranteed-income program for new mothers in Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood where poverty rates run well above the citywide average. The effort, funded through her Social Justice Fund, provides targeted recipients with regular cash payments rather than the lump-sum grants or in-kind aid more typical of neighborhood giving, though the fund has not publicly detailed how many mothers are enrolled, how much each receives, or how long payments last. The guaranteed-income push builds on a fund Wu Tsai has directed since 2020, when the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation pledged $50 million over ten years to Brooklyn-focused community investment. It's the newest addition to a portfolio that already spans small-business lending, startup funding aimed at founders of color, and neighborhood infrastructure. Earlier fund initiatives include EXCELerate, which issued low- and no-interest loans to small businesses during the pandemic, and a further $5.5 million small-business loan round launched in March 2026. The fund has also put $4 million into BK-XL, an accelerator backing 17 startups led by founders of color, spent roughly $2 million renovating a dozen basketball courts across four Brooklyn parks, and funded arts and music curricula in local schools. The fund's work has drawn some outside scrutiny. Reporting by journalist Norman Oder has flagged difficulty independently verifying how money was spent, and the fund has revised some of its own impact figures, including lowering the reported student reach of one arts program from 70,000 to 12,000. In late 2024, it also shifted its public language away from references to "BIPOC communities" toward race-neutral phrasing. The guaranteed-income program is only one piece of Wu Tsai's broader portfolio. Beyond the Liberty, she co-owns the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League, produces films, and sits on boards at Stanford, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Lincoln Center. She is married to Alibaba cofounder Joe Tsai; the couple announced a divorce in July 2026, though the ownership structures behind their sports and business holdings have not changed. Her highest-profile venture, the Liberty, has become a case study in what sustained investment in women's sports can do. Since she and Joe Tsai took over, the team has moved from the Westchester County Center to Barclays Center in 2020, began chartering flights for players in 2021, and broke ground on an $80 million practice facility in Greenpoint set to open in 2027. The Liberty won its first WNBA championship in 2024, and the franchise's value has climbed to roughly $600 million, up from a purchase price in the $10 million to $14 million range. Asked how she balances a billion-dollar sports franchise with her other ventures, Wu Tsai said simply: "I'd like to do both." --- Originally published by Money Standard. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://moneystandard.co.uk/article/clara-wu-tsai-brownsville-guaranteed-income.